3 year old lab - bilateral cruciate rupture, WWYD?

[KinkyAfro]

I have a 3 year old lab, she has elbow dysplasia but luckily not showing any symptoms at the moment. To cut a long story short she's been in and out of our own vets/emergency vets over the last couple of days and they are 99.9% sure she has bilateral cruciate rupture in both back legs. The vet is doing some more xrays today to confirm (already ruled out back/hip problems) and if it is the case she will be referred to an orthapaedic vet. She can't be managed medically and I've got to think about the impact of surgery especially with the front leg problems. I know it hasn't been confirmed yet but I need to think about what needs to happen if it is.

Up until Tuesday evening she was her happy normal self, no showing any symptoms at all but within half hour of me picking her up she was obviously in pain hence the vet visits.

WWYD?

Cruciates can just suddenly go btw, she may not have been showing symptoms because there weren't any before :)

It's sometimes hard to spot where pain is coming from if there are already issues, for an owner I mean...my dog had elbow dysplasia in one elbow and he has a spinal problem, I didn't notice when the second elbow went, I knew something was sorer, but it didn't click it was the ok elbow going because he didn't limp...well he wouldn't would he, with one bad front leg and a dodgy back end, he's nowhere left to limp from

Our German Shepherd had a bi lateral TPLO 6 weeks ago and although we agonised for ages over whether to get them done, we are so pleased we did. He was walking on them with no signs of pain the day after the op and he has been fine ever since. We have had to keep him very confined with restricted lead only walks but it has been completely worth it (even though we aren't insured!!). If you are in the North then I can highly recommend a fantastic orthopaedic veterinary surgery. I would have thought the op would alleviate the pressure on your dogs front elbows.

Kinky have they actually diagnosed bilateral cruciate rupture?
Its unusual for both to go at once and you usually see signs, which should certainly be diagnoseable on xray and examination (joint effusions, joint laxity etc). She should also have difficulty rising, on stairs etc

For example Acute bilateral CCL ruptures can present a diagnostic challenge, since they may appear to be a neurologic condition, such as degenerative myelopathy or herniation of an intervertebral disc. These dogs have great difficulty rising and may appear to have hind limb paresis.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC339306/

It is possible that she had one rupture that was undiagnosed and then a second occurred several weeks later which would lead to more adaptive signs but its not clear from what you describe that she's definitely been diagnosed with cruciate rupture.
What were her presenting signs?
Could she have spinal pain? Did they do any lumbar xrays?

I'd be tempted to wiat for the orthopod for a specialist examination before committing to any more investigations locally

Hi all.

So we took doggers to the specialists on Monday and it's been confirmed she has bilateral cruciate rupture in her left left. She's going to be having an operation after Christmas, we're leaving it until so we can get as much weight off her before then prior to the op. She's currently 39 kg and the surgeon would be happier if she's around 32kg so a bit of work to do. He explained that there's 4 types of ops they could do and they'll know the full extent of the damage when they've opened her up. Luckily other leg is showing very little sign of problems so that's all good news.

Hi Kinky
Just wondered how your sweet dog is?

Hi Juicy dog is doing great on her back legs, it seems it was the anti inflams that were causing the issues. She's totally off the NSAIDs and has been since December and now is on Synoquin only. Op was a total success, fully healed after 12 weeks, but she's developed a limp in her front leg now which we'll be getting checked out tho weekend

Excellent news