ACL tear and conservative management for Jackson....need help deciding!

I talked to my vet today. He spoke with the surgeon, and his view is that surgery is always better, that in his clinical experience the dogs always do better.

My vet isn't sure that a $2000 surgery is going to give results that we can't get with conservative management this far out from the original injury.

We've decided to wait a month, and restrict his activity and then see how he's doing. As you guys know, he already has horrible arthritis that has formed, so preventing that with surgery really isn't an issue. It would keep it from getting any worse though.

So my question is, I know some of you have done conservative management only. How are your dogs doing? Jackson is perfect weight, and not an overall active dog. He likes to run a little and go on walks, but he's not going to be running an agility course. He's going to end up on pain meds for the rest of his life either way for the arthritis pain. I just want to do what is best for him.

And I'm still looking into the prolotherapy for him. My vet is doing research also in the hope that that therapy is an option. Anybody have experience with that?

The money isn't an issue....I just want what is best for him in the long run.

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Permalink Reply by Wendt Worth Corgi's on January 5, 2011 at 7:49pm

Join the yahoo group called conservative management...these people deal with this stuff with success and no surgery.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ConservativeManagement/

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on January 6, 2011 at 1:05pm

Awesome...thanks! This has helped a ton.

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Permalink Reply by Cheryl Lyons on January 5, 2011 at 8:27pm

My Izzie is 4, had muscle wasting in the hind end due to long term prednisone use, and tore one ACL and partially torn the other; surgery was NOT an option for us. Doc said he would be afraid to make things worse in her case. We just let nature take its course and let Izzie decide what she can/can not do. She will run, go upstairs slowly and we just keep an eye on her. It was hard to restrict her completely; she is fine, happy and is not in any pain.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on January 5, 2011 at 8:43pm

As I mentioned before Sparty went through this about 5 years ago. After several months on Rimadyl he seemed much better. We discontinued the medication to see how he would be and he was fine. He does have arthritis (had it by the time we had it diagnosed) and occasionally he will be less active and/or limp a little. We take very regular walks of any where from a half mile to 3 or 4 miles. We did eliminate a couple of his favorite activities such as herding the soccer ball and fetching the ball. Now we toss the ball to him so he can catch it instead of him running after it. Usually he is his old self even at 12 but occasionally I notice that he asks to be picked up instead of jumping on the couch. When he does I just cut back on the length of our walks. I considered surgery the as a last resort because Sparty would make a terrible patient and am glad we did not rush into it. Good luck with Jackson, I am sure whatever you decide will be good.