Dog version of ACL tear

InigoMontoya
Sat, 09 Jul 2016 19:44:37 +0000

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.