Question for dog-owners - cruciate ligament sugery?

[divingbiker]

My cocker, Remy, had the first type of surgery on one of his rear legs about 6 years ago now. He's fine now, and the leg is as strong as the uninjured one. He's 13 and has terrible arthritis in his hips, for which he has regular acupuncture treatments, but the knee is good.

One thing about the recovery--for several weeks, the dog can not walk up/down steps or walk much at all, and must be crated most of the time. That's fine when your dog is like Remy, about 35 pounds, but I know people with larger dogs who had a very difficult time carrying the dog down the steps to go outside. I built a ramp on my front steps but it was too steep and Remy wouldn't use it. Also, Remy would sneak around and jump up on the couch when I wasn't watching and his recovery went slowly, so we went to a dog swimming pool (one of the advantages of living in a city--we've got access to EVERYTHING) a couple times a week for a month or so and that strengthened his leg.

Good luck!

[Bad JuJu]

Poor Simon! He's such a good-lookin' guy!

My black lab/chow mix, Solita, had the less expensive surgery for her ACL injury. She was smallish for a lab--a little over 50 pounds, but extremely active. We live on a bayshore, and she spent most days running and swimming. We had the surgery done by a vet from the Auburn University vet school, and it was successful. She continued to limp just a bit for the remaining 5 years of her life, but she remained active and never had to have another surgery.

The hardest part was the recovery, as divingbiker mentioned, which involved lots of carrying and keeping her restrained. That was miserable, mostly for poor Solita, but totally worth it.

[Xrayted]

Simon really is a great looking dog. Such a kissable little face there.
Yeah, like divingbiker said, the recovery is long and hard on both of you. I carried my dog around for quite a while and would stand out there with her and hold the leg up so she could do her thing. The pityful looks I used to get from her would break my heart. (don't let the other dogs see me like this kinda looks ) I also built a ramp for her off the deck next to the steps and she actually liked to use it. I left it there so that she didn't rip those knees out again. I put grip strips on it too so she had better traction when it was wet out.
It was much harder on her than it was on me but she recovered very well and could run and jump almost as well as before the surgeries.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

[anakiwa]

I have a 65 lb 5 year old lab who had both knees fixed in October.

Her trouble started last spring. I really wanted to try conservative measures first- we tried aspirin, glucosamine, rimadyl (a great pain med by the way, but it still wasn't enough). It started with just her left, then the other one was bothering her as well. She's normally a really active dog (runs, cross-country skis, hikes with me). By the end of the summer she was clearly really uncomfortable most of the time. By the time I wound up seeing the the orthopedic surgeon I knew it was the right thing to do to have it operated on.

My operative report says 'fibular head transposition secured with a screw and spiked washer'. I suspect that it's the first surgery that you're talking about. Total cost to do both knees was $2200 (this was the low end of the estimate they gave me, everything went smoothly and she only needed one night at the vet).

We're now at the 3-4 month point and I'm really happy with the results. She's not normal yet (not sure if she'll get there or not), but she continues to get better all the time. She was really uncomfortable the first night I brought her home, but after that she did fine. I had her doing short runs 2 months later, and she's able to cross-country ski with me now. The biggest difference is that she's clearly not in the pain that she was in before having surgery. She's a pretty active dog (and not overweight) and that probably helped with the recovery. There's no doubt that it was the right thing for my dog (and again it took me a while to admit to myself that she needed surgery).

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[maillotpois]

Nothing helpful to say except - I LOVE SIMON!! What a great face!!

[bikerz]

Thank you everyone for all your stories and advice. Yes, my little buddy is a great dog, and such a trooper!

Simon weighs about 55 pounds, and I can pick him up and carry him moderate distances (I've done that a few times over the last week when he seems like he's having trouble with stairs). I am a little concerned about the recovery, but my roommate's dog (who has since passed away) had very poor mobility, and we had ramps for her off the deck into the "elimination area", so luckily those are still around and can be pressed into service for Simon.

I'm going to call a few other places tomorrow for estimates on the non-TPLO, since so many of you have had (or know of) good results with it, and then get the procedure scheduled as soon as possible. I don't want to leave it too long, but I have to be back east for a week in 2 weeks, so I may have to schedule it for after that if I can't line up some good puppycare for him when I'm gone. Luckily, Simon has a huge fan club!

And because I can't resist, if you thought that other photo of him was kissable, how about this one? (For those of you who can't read pitbull lips, he's saying "wooo wooo")

[chickwhorips]

good luck with everything. i have no advice to offer, but that face just gets me!

peanut says she would like to be his friend.