When we found Fiona, her vet could not find any sign that she was spayed, so we scheduled her for surgery. To everyone's surprise, the surgery revealed that she was, indeed, already spayed. Her vet suspects that it was done very early in her life. At the time of the surgery, he also discovered that her hips aren't quite up to par: there is too much laxity in the joints. He explained that the early spay may be the cause of the hip problem as early spaying affects bone growth plates.

In September of 2010, Fiona injured her left knee while standing on her hind legs and barking at thunder, which she considers an intruder onto her territory. An exam revealed that both knee joints are unstable - probably related to the early spay or to the fact that her bad hips put more strain on her knees.

We waited for her knee to heal, but every time it started to get better she'd re-injure it so we decided to have it surgically repaired in June of 2011. After the surgery her activity had to be restricted so she could heal, so she became in indoor dog. As of this writing, she is going into her second month of being indoors and the knee is healing well but she's starting to get bored. Her vet says that it will probably take a good six months to heal all the way, though she won't have to be indoors the whole time.

Odds are good that we'll eventually have to do surgery on the right knee, also. Hopefully that won't be necessary for some time.