Our dog was running up the porch stairs a few days ago and did something to her back leg and would not put any weight on it. We took her to the vet the next day and she told us that our dog had an issue with her CCL which is the dog version of the ACL. Her advice was rest, give her doggie anti inflammatories and bring her back in 10 days. Then we would discuss if she needs surgery.
Of course, I went home and looked it up on the internets and the advice about the issue is all over the map. Surgery, no surgery, different types of surgery, etc. Our dog is 7 years old, in good shape and weighs about 40 pounds. We can afford surgery but would rather spend $1500 to $2000 elsewhere.
It’s been about 5 days since the injury. Our dog is slightly better but still avoiding putting weight on her leg. Just posting to see if any CC parents have experience with the issue.
We have an Australian Shephard who sustained a complete tear of her right CCL and had a previous partial tear of her left CCL in the Spring of 2015. She fell down 15 steps chasing my neighbor’s cat that was on our porch. I was devastated to have a healthy, agile but aging dog become a completely dependent , painful pet in the course of minutes . We were faced with some terrible decisions.
You are correct that surgery is extremely expensive. Our primary vet at the time gave us quite a bit of inaccurate info and pressed hard to surgery on both legs. We knew that while we love our dog very much, that was a financial stretch that we couldn’t afford with a rising senior and college looming . My friend recommended her vet who is the vet for our local PD’s canine unit. He re xrayed both legs , recommended surgery for the complete tear and leave the partial tear alone. We elected to follow through with the surgery. Our dog had restrictions for approx 2 months and was allowed to ease back into activity . She has occasional flare ups with pain and decreased mobility, but they are easily managed with medications for a day or two. She is not quite her old self, but still a very functional, lovable dog.
My questions to the vet would be 1. How serious is the tear? 2. What happens if we elect not to have the surgery? You may also want to seek a second opinion.
Good luck to you and your dog.
In a strange coincidence we had the exact thing happen to our dog just a few days ago… (was it July 4?). She is a 17 year old Westie, in great shape for her age but was already having issues going up/down stairs so we had been sometimes carrying her. She attempted going up the steps from the backyard to the deck and came up lame (rear right leg). We took her to the vet the next morning and same diagnosis - torn ACL. Due to her age, surgery really isn’t an option. In less than a week she is getting around pretty well, which is a tremendous relief for us. The prospect of needing to carry her around continuously was daunting. She still limps of course and puts little weight on her rear-right leg, but is doing pretty well. We got toe grips for her to help her get around on our wood and tile floors better. ( Dr Buzby’s toegrips) If we had known about these things we could have used them a few years ago to make it easier for the dog to get around on the wood and tile floors. In the past year or 2 her legs have gotten weaker so her legs will splay out on a slippery surface. We put floor mats in strategic spots to give her traction.
So I can’t help you with the surgery decision. If our dog was younger we might consider it. Also, for us, a major concern is to prevent her from tearing the other ACL. That would be a huge problem. So she gets carried up/down all steps now.
Only thing to add, through the entire process - even immediately after the injury - our dog showed no signs of pain or distress. Of course when we took her to the vet she started shaking and panting, but that is how she gets when you take her to the vet and had nothing to do with her injury.
We are also going through this with one of our dogs at the moment. She is an old dog and she isn’t a good candidate for surgery. We discussed it thoroughly with our vet, and decided against surgery given the stringent restrictions post-op, in addition to some minor heart issues she has. Money was never the issue, given what we have spent on another very sick dog over four years! Instead, she referred us to a woman who makes orthotics and prosthesis for animals. We had a brace made and she is doing well with it.
The chances of the same thing happening on the other leg are high, apparently, once one is torn. We are hoping that that doesn’t happen and are being very careful about her activity, stairs, jumping onto furniture, etc.
My elderly lab had the surgery a couple of years ago. She ended up getting seriously ill with something else before making a full recovery and I had to have her euthanized, but she was mending. One thing I did was get additional area rugs for our slippery floors to make her recovery easier. I would do it for a younger dog I was attached to. There was no way my dog could have gone on without the surgery – she could not put weight on the leg at all.
Our 12-year old Chow/Rot mix tore her ACL. We agonized over whether the surgery would be the right choice given her age. We also heard so many stories from people who had one leg repaired only to have the other need surgery within 6 months.
She was still very active (or wanted to be) and in great health otherwise so she had the surgery. Our vet didn’t do it - it was a traveling surgeon who specialized in these types of surgeries. We followed the PT advice to the letter afterwards (no jumping, no stairs, ROM exercises and so on). She never had another problem with her legs and lived for 3 active years following the surgery. Most of the people who told us their dogs tore the other ACL admitted to not necessarily restricting activity enough after surgery, so some of those second-leg issues could be from compensating for not fully healing from the first surgery.
It was a nuisance having to keep the stairs blocked off and leash walk her for weeks, but I’m glad we did it.
I know about two dozen dogs that have had this surgery. Most of them had the TPLO surgery. It is very important to follow PT instructions. Some vet schools will keep the dog through the PT phase if you cannot do it yourself.
Is your dog crate trained? It will make the recovery easier.
It is common for the other CCL to fail, just like ACL tears in humans usually occur on the other leg as well. The structure of the dog may make him predisposed to failure of the CCL.
A friend of mine went through this surgery six times with 3 dogs.
My DD’s dog just saw the vet this morning, cannot put weight on the back leg. Two years old, extremely active and healthy. We are hoping it’s just a strain. How odd that so many of us have this same thing going on this week
Our lab had the lateral suture surgery for a partial tear. The original injury was 3 years ago, and he recovered from it, though not completely. The vet warned us that he would probably continue to injure it over time and would likely need surgery eventually. In late winter he started limping much more and had a lot of trouble getting up stairs. He had the surgery 3 months ago. Even though he had a lot of arthritis in the knee (which would have required a knee replacement to fix) he is doing much, much better than he was before surgery, and stairs are no longer an obstacle for him. (He used to stand in front of them for a while trying to work up the will to go up them.) He just turned 10, and I really hope we don’t ever have to decide whether to invest the same amount in the other knee!
The worry with the surgery is that post-op they lose a lot of muscle mass in the affected leg, so if they do anything strenuous too soon, the muscles aren’t there to support the joint and they can ruin the surgery. It takes a long time and a lot of work for them to recover.
Our 12.5 year old golden doodle has had 2 TPLO surgeries; summer of 2014 and 2015. Had a torn meniscus with the second leg which was repaired at the time of the TPLO. This past winter, she started limping again, so back to the surgeon we went; a torn meniscus in the first knee! We decided not to go ahead with surgery again as she was back to almost her full activity by the time we saw the surgeon. My husband wanted to go ahead with the surgery, by I wasn’t sure it was the right thing at her age. We had a long talk with our regular vet who knows us and our dogs well; her feeling was the same as mine, if the dog was still running and playing with no indication of pain, leave her alone.
This is the same knee that is referred to as “crunchy” due to the amount of arthritis. I just could not put all of us through another surgery again. So far, other than not wanting to do her long hikes anymore, she still runs and plays at home. My husband is the one missing the hikes the most!!
Our dog had this at age 7. We did the surgery, and glad we did. She did not have the TPLO but the other one where they put in nylon reinforcement. The recovery was a little difficult but not too bad. I am glad we did it, because if we didn’t, and anything happened to her other hind leg, she would not have been able to walk.