Need input...ACL surgery 6 months ago...limping

Seanna had ACL surgery in March. I am pretty sure her sutures ruptured a couple of weeks ago after our dog jumped on her and her left rear leg went out at a funny angle. She wouldn't put any weight on it for about 20 minutes, progressed to toe touching, and then back to normal as the night went on.

Yesterday we had her running hard chasing balls with our other dog. When she started limping, we stopped and came home. As the night wore on, she began limping more and more. I iced her leg, and gave her a tramadol, and we went to bed. This AM she is back to only toe-touching, and limping quite alot. I've iced her, gave her a previcoxx, and a tramadol.

My question is, up until a couple of weeks ago, (when I think her sutures ruptured) she didn't limp at all after running. I was under the impression that other than arthritis later in life, she shouldn't be limping any more. I knew the sutures would rupture, but I thought that the scar tissue would be built up enough that the leg would essentially be as sound as it was before surgery. Should I be worried?

Jen

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on October 15, 2010 at 12:39pm

How was the ACL repaired? They have a few methods, they have a TPLO where they actually go in and cut the bone and put plates and screws in, and they also have the one where they just tie the ligament back in place with fishing line (yea it really is fishing line). The second repair is not as stable and much easier to re-injure. I would give her another day or two and if she is still limping take her back in because she likely re-injured it. If she did re-injure it, I'd ask for a orthopedic surgeon who can do the TPLO repair. Its a VERY long recovery (about 4 months total) but its also a VERY solid repair, after the 3 to 4 month rest/limited activity period it is almost impossible to re-injure the leg because they have a metal plate with 6 to 9 screws (depending on size of the dog) and that's not going anywhere once the bone has healed. My 150 pound mutt had the TPLO and walked out of the vet on all four legs the next day, but my smaller dog (also a mutt) had the quick ACL repair and ended up not only blowing the ligament on the other leg, but re-injuring the original knee and we had to put her down (she was 15 and vet didn't think she'd be able to recover from a double knee surgery).

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Permalink Reply by Judi, Dawn, Soffie & Griffyn on October 15, 2010 at 1:46pm

I guess even us humans have moments of soreness, after an injury, surgery and recovery. And maybe that's all it is with Seanna. But if it was me I'd want to check with my vet. After all, better to be safe than sorry.

Soffie had a partial tear in her left ACL a year ago July. She did not have the surgery, so I can't speak for that. Rather we opted for Conservative Management and major weight loss. (10 pounds) At 6 months we were still keeping her on very limited activity. And only after a year did we allow her off leash again for hard running and playing with Griffyn.

Obviously, since we didn't have the surgery the recovery time was longer. But I wonder if maybe you should scale back a bit on Seanna's activity. And probably your vet would be the best one to answer that.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on October 15, 2010 at 1:56pm

I can't offer adviice other than to check with your vet! Hope your doing better Seanna (and Jen)!

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on October 15, 2010 at 8:43pm

I took her to the vet. He said he is fairly certain she just sprained it, and at the worst tore some scar tissue. We are back on no activity, prevacoxx, and icing for the next 10 days. Then we are to stress her as we normally would, and if she starts limping, we have to go back to the surgeon and see what he thinks. The good news is that I guess the chance of re-rupturing it is very small, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen to us!

Seanna is back in the puppy pen...poor thing. She looks so sad this time around. Before she knew she felt crappy and was happy to go in it, but now she is still acting fairly normal, and keeps trying to do normal things.

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Permalink Reply by Judi, Dawn, Soffie & Griffyn on October 15, 2010 at 8:51pm

Sorry, Seanna..... but be a good girl and you'll be right as rain real soon!!

Good decision, Jennifer, to have her checked out!! : ) And if it helps you any..... they live in the moment so as soon as she's out of the pen again, it will be a distant memory!!