Talk to me about cruciate ligament repair....

[Maladicta]

So our gorgeous 8/9 yo rescue dog has had a number of health issues. We've had the heart murmur checked, rotten teeth removed and what a difference that's made!

Next on the list is dealing with a partial cruciate rupture on his left hind leg. When he was out for the teeth extraction, the vet x-rayed his leg and it's very definite plus there's fluid in the knee. Although he doesn't yelp, he hops to avoid walking on it at times.

The vet said we had to leave a couple of weeks after having such major dental work. Can anyone give me an idea of what sort of surgery and recovery time we might be looking at?

The cost doesn't matter, it would just be helpful to know people's experiences and the options we might have, thanks!

Here he is :)

I would be guided by your vet and also get a specialist referral if at all possible.
Options are basically rest and anti -inflammatories or surgery. There are various different types of surgery which may be influenced by size and activity level of your ddog.
I have known dogs to recover without surgery, but it did involve very strict crate rest, and both were smallish, light dogs.
Ddog4 has had a procedure called a TTA on both sides. He ruptured a cruciate in October last year, and then another one six weeks later :(
It is drastic surgery and recovery was painfully slow but miraculous, and most of the time he shows no signs at all of having had surgery.
I still take him for hydrotherapy every few weeks, just to try and prevent any problems. The muscle wastage he had from spending basically three months in the house, was shocking.
He was ( is ) a very lean, fit 30kg retriever x and is out running like a loon exactly as before :)

Cakedog is a 6.5 yr old rescue springer who we've had for 6 years of lots of very long walks.

He had a TPLO last year on a ruptured cruciate ligament, and at the time the specialist vet said we'd be back this year to have the other side done. Although there was no sign of damage yet on the other knee's x-rays, it was his judgement based on experience. He was, of course, right. I took Cakedog back to him as soon as I recognised the signs of reluctance to sometimes weight-bear on the leg, and he operated straight away before it got very bad.

Each operation cost about £4000 including all the pre- and post- op appointments. (Insurance paid up.) The recovery was frustrating for us all at times, due to the long period of strict rest; about 3 months in all, with a gradual build-up to short walks. We thought that such an active dog would go crazy being crated for so long, but he accepted it and took to the new routine like a superstar. I've been so proud of him.

We're now at the stage of just getting back to normal-ish walks (not mega ones yet though) and Cakedog is pretty much good as new. We give him a very small dose of Metacam each morning, as he has got a small amount of arthritis in the affected knees, but this seems enough to keep him from showing signs of pain.

I highly recommend surgery as we've got our old dog back now.

Cakeupwall has he developed arthritis since the op or was it always there?
Our vet said this was inevitable, though possibly in a few years. Ddog also takes Yumove and extra fish oil and I am hoping the hydro will keep him moving. He's only 4.5 though.

Good question Bubble. I think that the arthritis is not as a result of the op, as it was evident on the pre-op x-rays.

Fair enough, cake, that makes sense. Great that he's done so well. I don't take ddog on mega walks either, keep it less than a couple of hours now always, but really couldn't have believed we would get to this point. He got quite depressed at being confined, and went really grey on his muzzle :(

Thanks all, I'll take on board what you've said, particularly getting an expert opinion.

There are multiple different surgeries for cruciate ligament rupture there is no evidence that anyone surgery has a better outcome than another, hence why there are still so many. Large and giant breeds do weight bear quicker after the TPLO than the other surgeries.
Arthritis is a consequence of the cruciate ligament rupture.
The key thing is that the surgeon is familiar with the surgery. Many, many small and medium breed dogs have cruciate ligaments successfully repaired in general practice and referral is not necessarily required.
I am in general practice and do around 20 cruciate repairs a year, my business partner does similar. I do do large breed dogs where they are uninsured and referral is not an option with good success. I use the lateral fabella tie technique.

Just an alternative view - our 9yr old Labrador ruptured her cruciate ligament. She was on three legs. On xraying her, our vet said she had lots of arthiritis and would need to massively slow down, whether he operated or not. He suggested resting her for two weeks, giving pain relief, and reassessing. Anyway, long story short, but we never operated. We got as much weight off her as possible and rested her, then very gradually built up her exercise. She's now 11 and happily bouncing around with our other dogs. She walks, trots and canters on the leg. We've semi retired her, so we don't do big walks with her. But she's a very happy, healthy dog. I think a lot of vets rush to operate nowadays.

That's interesting Honeyroar, thanks. I think we're going into this with eyes more open :)