our dog tore her hind ACL and needs surgery. has anyone had experience with that? she has arthritis in her hips so that will make recovery hard but hoping they think it’s still worthwhile. we are going to an orthopedic specialist monday.
[QUOTE=wizard;8744274]
our dog tore her hind ACL and needs surgery. has anyone had experience with that? she has arthritis in her hips so that will make recovery hard but hoping they think it’s still worthwhile. we are going to an orthopedic specialist monday.[/QUOTE]
How old? Our dog had the surgery but she was young (2 or 3). She was restricted post surgery, hand walked- no yard. She healed but was never 100% on it and had slight muscle wasting on that side. She lived to be 13 years old and besides being slightly “off” never affected her getting around.
Type of surgery??
TPLO? TTA? Something else?
she is 9. I don’t know which procedure yet but all those are possibilities. I think some have better recuperation but will have to see which they recommend on monday.
How big is she? I have always heard that bigger dogs are more likely to reinjure the leg after surgery. I am not sure I would put a 9 year old dog through surgery. It is sometimes better to let it heal as much as it can on its own.
Yes, my parents have had 4 ACLs done on 2 westies. One with arthritis already in the joint. The one with the arthritis aged fairly quickly once he got stiff and sore, but the surgeries themselves were successful. Recovery, especially for a larger dog, can be difficult.
My friend had a lab mix done at around 10 years old, recovered really well, blew the other one in 2 years, and recovered ok (he had access to swimming for both recoveries). But, he’s really aged since the second surgery - hard to tell if it’s the ACL repair/arthritis or just general old age.
We have had a total nightmare experience.
My dog has torn both cruciates. She had an old cruciate tear when we got her, and tore the other one shortly afterwards. She had surgery on both knees (TTA), by a specialized surgeon that also trains other vets, mind you. She was never really much better afterwards, has been examined and her x-rays have been seen by at least half a dozen vets, two of them board certified orthopedic specialists, plus the surgeon. We have been told it’s arthritis and this is normal, but we were not satisfied with that answer. Something seemed wrong.
Now, three years later, we have finally found a trustworthy vet that could give us answers. We basically found out that the surgeon did a really substandard job, and were recommended to remove the implants and re-do the surgery by TPLO. So we are now back to square -1, have spent thousands of $, and my dog had three years of chronic pain in the meantime :(. Luckily, she has an amazingly positive personality and has always kept a good attitude. She is also quite pain tolerant and if you’ve never seen her x-rays, you would never think her knees are such a mess.
So I guess my advice would be whatever you do, be very careful with your choice of vet. Don’t let yourself get rushed into any decision, and make sure the surgeon is able to explain properly what he is doing.
TTA only works up to a certain knee angulation, so make sure the surgeon takes proper x-rays, with the condyles of the femur aligned, and SHOWS you how he measures the angle. Let him explain what implant and what size he will be using, and how this will change the anatomy of the knee. Ask where and how the surgeon has trained. If anything is unclear, ask, ask, ask, and if anything is fishy, RUN and at least get another opinion.
I am aware that not everyone’s experience is as bad as ours. The problem is that ACL tears are really common, and there are lots of vets out there that do TPLOs and TTA - some do it well, others, not so well. In the end it is a pretty complicated surgery, so better be safe than sorry.
My aussie tore hers at 11. The vet suggested surgery, but she doesn’t handle confinement well, emotionally, and had some medical issues that made me really want to avoid surgery. We did limited exercise (only outside on a leash, then increased to supervised in small area, then loose in the yard, but no dogs or horses out). She recovered amazingly well - back to near normal (remember, she was already old!) in about 4-5 months. Sh is 14 1/2 now and tears around like a maniac still. I would have handled it differently with a young dog, but this worked well for mine.
Our bull mastiff mix had a complete tear in one and a partial tear in the other at 3 years old. Due to his size, the (board-certified) surgeon was not comfortable performing surgery (TPLO) on both legs at once as is sometimes done. We did the complete tear first and the partial tear a few months later. For our guy, the recovery was very smooth and he has had no further issues since (knock on wood). He is 8 now. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, I have very detailed notes on the whole thing.
Our rescue bully mix tore both of his within 18 months of each other. He was quite young for the first, under 2, and a bit older for second. He is a big dog 90 lbs +, we did the fishing line which is usually not recommended for a big dog but he has done extremely well with both his stifles and is 11.5 yrs old now. His elbow is worse than his stifles. Still moves freely and strong enough to do steps no trouble. He is on dasaquin and meloxicam for his arthritis and we pulled a bit of weight off of him. The fishing line has held up just fine.
Our dog (corgi mix) tore his when he was 8. Surgery was somewhat risky because he had IMHA several years ago, but we did it anyway and it was a total success. He was completely sound within a couple of weeks of the surgery, and knock on wood he hasn’t had any trouble since. Thankfully he is no longer chasing bunnies…
My rottie tore one when they were still doing the fishing line repair. He was about 120lbs. The ortho who did the repair warned us that he usually sees the bigger ones back with the other torn in 18 months. We were almost 18 months to the day with the second tear. Fishing line repair again, and he never had any issues with either of them again.
My lab had TPLO surgery on both legs at 4 years , and she lived until this January to the ripe old age of 14.5 years. The surgery was the best decision and her legs never bothered her. She wasn’t a big dog, about 60lbs and very very high energy.
What kind of dog? Age, activity level? A TPLO costs more, but you will have a dog that fully recovers, whereas with a lateral suture, there is a chance at rupturing the suture in the future. So it really depends on the dog, your finances, etc.
If it were my dog (4 y/o, very active), I would definitely do a TPLO. However, if it is an older dog or a less active dog, it may do just fine with a lateral suture.
Let us know what you hear from the specialist!
My 90 lb lab tore his two years ago and had the TTA surgery. We followed the surgeon’s post op instructions to a T and you would never know he ever had a problem.
He was 9 when it happened. He is 11 now. The surgeon was willing to do it because he was not overweight and in very good shape.
He is not limping at all.
One of the farm dogs had the same thing 6 months later, same surgeon, same procedure… again followed the post op instructions to a T and the dog is totally fine now. He was 6 I think.
One of my corgis went through this and we did a lot of swimming in his recovery. He came through perfectly and is just fine now. Not even stiff! It cost $1800
I also had a large dog that had one cruciate ligament rupture. Surgeon recommended the fishing line repair over the TPLO procedure. He was an orthopedics specialist, and told us that the outcomes are similar when performed by an experienced surgeon. I was not keen on the TPLO, and the dog did great with the older procedure.
About four years later, the same dog ruptured the other side, not as badly. We tried conservative measures, but eventually returned to the same surgeon for the fishing line repair. In my breed (Rottweilers), cruciate ruptures are a known issue. My dog’s conformation (tall, straight angles, and narrow) probably were a factor for the injuries.
Careful recovery and rehab are essential. We have a clinic near us that specializes in “PT” and rehab work. My dog worked in a swim tank with a specialist to regain her muscle tone and strength in her hind end. It helped quite a bit, and she actually liked it.
My dog tore one at the age of 10
One large LabXdog (45kg at the time) with both ACLs repaired - about a year apart.
1st was when he was 7 years - and was replaced with titanium inserts and wire. 2nd was when he was 8 years and same replacement surgery completed at the same vet hospital. They gave him a 60% chance of needing the 2nd one done … well, they said that was the average and, with larger dogs, it was generally around 90%. Interestingly, they said that there is an upper limit for this operation - due to recovery issues. A friend’s very large newfie had a hind leg removed. (He was >80kg tho’.)
Rest and rehab 8 weeks each. Gentle build-up back to normal took another 4 months. No swimming, just gentle short controlled walks building up to resistance training in the creek. The stupid idiot snapped the 2nd one going after a hare - snapped on the sharp turn.
Of course, when he was 10 years, he did another racing sharp turn and broke his outside front left toe which is probably want actually makes him look lame.
However, he recovered and is now 13 years old. Does have arthritis around the insert points. He gets a lot of swimming in summer and is still very powerful so it hasn’t stopped him. Going blind and deaf, on the other hand …
[QUOTE=katyb;8744427]
My aussie tore hers at 11. The vet suggested surgery, but she doesn’t handle confinement well, emotionally, and had some medical issues that made me really want to avoid surgery. We did limited exercise (only outside on a leash, then increased to supervised in small area, then loose in the yard, but no dogs or horses out). She recovered amazingly well - back to near normal (remember, she was already old!) in about 4-5 months. Sh is 14 1/2 now and tears around like a maniac still. I would have handled it differently with a young dog, but this worked well for mine.[/QUOTE]
I had an 85-lb Husky who tore hers at 9 or 10. Almost the same experience as katyb - she also didn’t handle confinement well and had major issues that made the surgery option very unappealing. We did the same thing (limited exercise and initially supervised) for a while and she was almost completely back to normal within 3-4 months. She tore the other ACL a couple of years later and we took the same approach. She lived until she was 14 or 15 and ran around like a maniac for all of her years. Ultimately her spontaneously collapsing lungs were what killed her.
I’m not sure how I’d handle it with a dog that was okay with a kennel and could handle the surgery okay, but I never regretted not taking any of the surgical options for my husky.
