TTA surgery - talk to me about your experiences

[DawgLady]

My 50 lb, 9 year old pittie mix has torn her ACL. The vet is recommending TTA by a nearby vet who performs the procedure regularly (and has even performed the procedure on both my vet’s own personal dogs). I am a bit nervous about the recovery, which was explained as a gradual 6 month plan. Can anyone tell me about their experiences with TTA recovery?

FWIW, I work from home and I’m generally home a lot. My office – where I am for 8+ hours a day – is on the main floor and I can gate it. This will keep her confined to one small room (which has visibility to the kitchen and living room, so she won’t ever really feel isolated). At night, we’ll close up our bedroom so she can still sleep with us on her dog bed.

[S1969]

My (now deceased) dog had one many years ago. He had previously suffered another injury to that leg (medial collateral ligament repair) which made TPLO impossible, so he had a TTA.

Have to say - he jumped out of the car after surgery and felt so great we had to ask if we could reduce pain meds to try to make him more careful. He was about the same age as your guy - was otherwise in great shape. The recovery was uneventful; if he’s calm and you don’t have slippery floors, you may be able to let him walk around in the house without much concern. The main thing I did to support the recovery was to sleep on a mattress on the floor, because he would have otherwise wanted to jump up onto the bed.

He ran hard on that leg until 13, when he had cardiac issues that ultimately was the reason he died. The leg held up until the end.