Cruciate Ligament
Sky seems to have torn his cruciate ligament on the left hind leg today. Nothing is official because he needed to be under sedation to tell for certain, and we didn't do that today. Probably in the next couple of days. I was curious is anyone else has had this happen to a dog and what your experiences were. Did you do surgery or no? How much did it cost?
Last month's Whole Dog Journal talked about alternatives to surgery, but it seems they are not any cheaper than surgery (which the vet today said could range from $1500-2000 and up). I am concerned about the effectiveness of such surgery and about how long I'm going to have to PBJ to pay for it! My mom is not encouraging. Her words were "it's a dog, if it's going to be that expensive you need to just put him down." =(
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Alice on
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John,
My father in law's Corgi tore the ACL in both back legs about a year apart. The first time he had been playing tug of war and jumping about and the second time he was running through the house with crazy eyes (as Corgis love to do) and all of a sudden there was a loud snap and he stopped and lifted the leg. When they had the first surgery done the vet did say that often time when one leg goes, the other will eventually go too and sure enough it did. So after two surgeries he's good as new. I don't know that it is genetic. They say it has more to do with exercise. And working dogs they would be in great shape but as house pets many of them aren't as toned as they should be and when they run around and become very active without building up their endurance they are at higher risk for injury, same as with people. I went from being very inactive to jogging every day and after a week or two I was down with severe tendinitis and Achilles tendon tears. The Dr said it was because I was not conditioned for it and I probably didn't warm up or cool down properly either. He was right, I did not. I just felt ambitious and went for it. Wrong move!
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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Yes, I think in many cases it's the "weekend warrior" mentality, translated to our dogs. A working dog would be putting in miles every day, and so the sudden sprints and turns would be something they were conditioned for. And not too long ago at all, the typical person with a "house pet" dog really never did much with them except take them for a walk around the block.
But in the past couple decades, I've seen a definite change in how people interact with their pet dogs, and in many cases the dogs are fairly inactive 5 days out of 7, where they have leash walks and that's it, and then once or twice a week they go to the dog park, or to agility, or out chasing tennis balls. And the exercise and mental stimulation is wonderful for them, but it would be the equivalent of you or I going out mountain biking or for a 5k run and only doing it once a week. Which, in fact, many people do....but many of those people, as you note, end up with stress injuries too.
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Permalink Reply by Judith Andre on
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My last Corgi, Zac tore his playing frisbee. He was a very active, fit, athletic dog and we went to the dog park about 5 days a week for anywhere from one to two and a half hours at a time. It was a complete tear and he had the surgery at my vet who isn't an orthopedic surgeon, but does a lot of them (he also does a lot of surgeries on birds so I figure if he can do that how hard can a dog be?) He was one very sad sore dog for the first few days, but recovered fully. Then 9 months later he tore the other one playing ball ( I was warned this could happen and it was almost a relief to get it over with). This time there was some question as to whether it was bad enough to warrant surgery so we tried a more conservative approach. That didn't seem to help so I took him to K State to get a second opinion. The orthopedic doctor there said yes he did need surgery and said they could do the same (filament) surgery there, but that my vet did a good job. I opted to take him back home and have my vet do it. They both charged about the same price which was $600-650. That was about 8 years ago. The second surgery was easier on us both. He died of DM at ten. Poor dog couldn't get a brake. When I was in the market for another puppy, I found out the mother of the litter I was looking at had had a torn ACL. There was also another minor issue so I ran it by my vet and he advised me to take a pass on the puppy as he said there can be a genetic element in it.
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Permalink Reply by Sky and Lyla on
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UPDATE: Sky is doing well. He's had two Physical Therapy session now and is just ready to go take on the world. He has been taken off crate rest as long as he doesn't "go crazy." Yeah, okay. Have you ever put an Aussie on crate rest for a week and a half and then let him out Ms. Rehab lady?! Stay calm my behind!! All in all everything is great though. The rehab vet thinks he actually hurt his hip something or other and not his knee since he only shows discomfort when she rotates his hip.
She said he's been recovering beautifully though and faster than even she expected. I can't say for certain, but I like to think it's because he's been on a half raw/half Evo diet and has been getting a homeothpathic remedy to help speed healing. =) It's certainly not hurting!
The other good news is I think we may have found out new vet. I like this lady a lot and we had a long talk yesterday about how I choose to care for my pets (diet, vaccines, etc) and how I needed a vet who would accept that regardless or whether or not she agreed. I think she is that vet! Hopefully this is a match made in heaven and we can see her for many years and puppies to come!
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on
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Seanna has surgery tomorrow. I think I'm going to cry when I leave her! She's getting used to being penned up, but I'm going to hate to see her in so much pain.....
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Good luck! We'll be thinking about you and keeping our fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.
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