Anyone with experience of dogs who have had surgery for anterior cruciate ligament rupture?

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Ddog2, a lab-pointer cross (we think that is what she is - she is a rescue dog, listed as a lab cross by the Dogs Trust, but various people can see pointer in her too).

Recently, following a long run on the beach, she started limping - she got onto the train with no problems, but was limping when she got off. She's seen the vet, and had a couple of weeks of rest and anti-inflammatories, which didn't really help, so she had an x-ray on Monday, and this showed that she has ruptured not one, but both anterior cruciate ligaments in her back legs. She is only limping on one, because the other is, in the vet's words, not clinical - but both will need to be dealt with.

His advice is that we go to the Vet Hospital in Glasgow - the nearest place that does the surgery she needs - where she will probably either have Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) or Tibial Tuberosity Advance (TTA). I have done a bit of reading online, and it looks like the recovery period from surgery is about 3 months, and since they won't be able to do both at once (as she does need a minimum three functioning legs, imo), we are looking at 6 months.

Luckily we have the highest level of pet insurance for her, so all the costs (apart from the excess) will be covered - but I was wondering if anyone had any experience of this surgery with their dogs, and if you could tell me how hard it was to look after the dog afterwards, what it involved (especially the rehab), and how well the dog recovered? Many thanks!

Ddog2 loves running, and I am hoping and praying that she will, in the fullness of time, be back to the happy, athletic dog she was before this happened.

One of my sibes had a TTA op in spring 2012 following a partial rupture (very odd injury - the ligament was mostly intact but completely lax - she'd previously dislocated her hip on the same side so some funky long term stuff happening in that leg).

She returned to agility training 12 weeks later, winning quickly from G1 to G3, and completed a full season of sled dog racing Sept-April the same year including some placings and a qualifying run at the national championship. She remains completely sound, having just finished another full agility season and her first two runs of this year's racing calendar. :)

She was toe-touching from day one after the op and had to be gently persuaded to take a few days crate rest with lots of chews and stuffed kongs. We used a towel slung under her to take her out for wees for the first few days but she was weight bearing very quickly, just ducking the leg up when attempting to move faster than a walk.

We were cleared for physio as soon as the wound had healed - massage and gentle stretching exercises from about week two, hydrotherapy on a treadmill from week four. Hydro continued twice a week for 12 weeks and is now down to once a week purely for fitness and conditioning. Walking on a lead recommenced in week two, by week six she was having 20 minutes three or four times a day.

At week 12 you wouldn't know she'd had anything done, she'd regained the 1cm loss of muscle mass and was doing supervised off-lead work at a faster pace (agility gridwork over low jumps, recalls, obedience type stuff) and 1hr walks on harness and long line.

Equally, and it must be said, I work in a veterinary practice and have seen poorer outcomes. There can be latent meniscal injury which may require further surgery. Dogs which injure just one leg tend to be back within 12-24 months for the second leg. Overweight dogs and dogs not receiving the same level of post-operative input can take longer to recover and may not regain full athleticism. I've even seen a dog which managed to break its titanium implant, having been allowed to loon about weeks after the op!

For us it was the best choice but I'm lucky to have an orthopaedic surgeon as my boss - take your vet's, and the referral centre's, advice and do plenty of reasearch before you commit either way. Best of luck to you both

Thank you for all that information, toboldlygo - I know ddog2 isn't going to enjoy having her activity restricted, but far better that she has six months of a certain amount of frustration, than that we risk her not recovering as well as she can. Luckily, because she is such an active dog normally, she is a very healthy weight - she has put on a bit, since she has been less active, but we have cut down on her intake, and put her onto one of the weight control foods, and, just going by eye, her weight looks fine - though the vet has recommended that it would be helpful if she were on the skinny side when she has the surgery, so we are going to keep her on the light food for the foreseeable future - until she is fully recovered, I guess.

In some ways, it may be better that she has had both go now - at least this way we will get both knees sorted out, and we won't be worrying about the second one going at some point in the future.

It is lovely to hear that your dog has recovered so well.

Our GSD has had a TTA done, and despite following post op instructions rigorously, he went a bit stir crazy at week 4, had a mad moment in the house, and managed to break his leg across the large bone. Cue return to vet for plate.

Recovery this time seems to be a lot slower and he is very reluctant to weight bear some 4 weeks after second op. It could be him having learned from experience, but I doubt it. We are currently concerned about bone infection, and waiting on Xray next week.

Ohh - I am so sorry to hear that - I hope he is OK.

We are planning to use a DAP collar - and maybe a diffuser too - I hope that that will help keep ddog2 calm.

She is going to be very pissed off at not being able to come upstairs for 6 months - they don't sleep in our room, but they do come upstairs most nights for a cuddle, before being taken back downstairs to their own beds (though ddog2 honestly believes that our bed IS her bed, and thinks we are really mean for not letting her stay there all night - we would, but ddog1 has a slightly dicky bladder and occasionally leaks wee, and we don't think that would make for a pleasant night's sleep ).