Question for dog-owners - cruciate ligament sugery?

[xeney]

If you are not one hundred percent sure which way to go, since you are in the Bay Area, my advice is to set up a consult at UC Davis (you might need a referral for orthopedics) and find out which surgery they recommend. I love UC Davis. We have a regular local vet, but we have been referred to them three times, once for each of our dogs, and every time their advice has been reasonable and conservative, and we have felt entirely comfortable following their suggestions.

Our oldest dog has hip dysplasia, and our vet referred us to UCD for a hip replacement. UCD talked us out of it because they didn't think it was necessary in his case. It is now seven years later, and nobody who hadn't seen his x-rays would know he had anything wrong with him. It was $250 for the consult and all the testing.

More recently (like, yesterday) our little dog, the one in my avatar, went to UC Davis for an MRI after a very expensive neurologist told us he probably had brain cancer. She spent a thousand bucks of our money getting us to that point, but UC Davis took a more conservative approach, redid a lot of the testing, and suggested that his problems might just be side effects due to a recent change in his epilepsy meds. (He's been epileptic all his life.) We still don't know if that was the right choice, but we feel pretty good about taking their advice; they were upfront about the risks of every option and the prognosis for every outcome, and instead of rushing us into an expensive and unpleasant MRI and a spinal tap, they charged us $100 for a thorough exam and a frank opinion.

I am a big fan of UC Davis. I always feel like they tell it to you straight and do not try to sell you on procedures just to make a buck, and they always keep the best interest of the animal in mind, and they are honest even when you don't want to hear it.

Incidentally, that dog is about 40 pounds and seven years old, and he blew out his ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) on one of his rear legs when he was a year old. Our vet said that because he was a relatively small dog, he wouldn't advise putting him through either surgery, because the leg muscles would probably be able to compensate for the ligament. The leg healed quite well, and while he occasionally runs on three legs when it's wet or cold out, he doesn't even limp and I have never seen that leg slow him down. 50 pounds was our vet's cut-off, though; if he'd been heavier we'd have had the surgery. And we have always made a point of keeping him lean to keep the stress off that knee. (My husband had had ACL surgery two years before and he really didn't want to put a dog through that.)

Good luck to you and your dog.