Knee surgery - what to expect after

[WeAllHaveWings]

Our lab's knee cap keeps popping out and he goes for his orthopedic referral in 3 weeks. After his consultation he will be kept in for knee surgery, don't know exactly what they are doing until they see him.

Can anyone who's dog has had knee surgery before tell me what happened after? Do they have a cone after or is it just bandaged up, or both to stop them chewing the bandage?

Will he need a sling to take weight off his leg or will he be able to walk on it immediately?

Do I need to buy a better cone, bandages, or anything else in preparation?

My lab had a crucifer ligament replacement when she was 5. Vet provided bandages and cone, which she wore for a couple of weeks. We had to keep her very quiet and work up walks from 5 mins per day adding 5 mins every few days. Walks little and often. She recovered well although clearly felt vulnerable out on walks as became aggressive to other dogs while in early stages of recovery. It took 6 weeks to be back to normal and 3 months until she was allowed off the lead again. Good luck!

Thanks polo. He is restricted to onlead 10-15 minute walks a couple of times a day already and bored stiff. He hated his cone when he was neutered, banging into things scared him and he never got the hang of it, we bought him a comfy cone, but after a couple of days he managed to bend it and chew it off.

I have found some anti chew bandages on amazon which have a bitter taste to stop chewing, has anyone tried them? Or another alternative to the plastic cone? Not sure about the buster collars for a leg, think he might still be able to get to it.

Mine had an elbow done, no bandage... I don't think they ever do bandages? So yeah it'll likely be stitches and a cone.

He could walk on it, but, he wasn't supposed to, he had 3 weeks of crate rest with onlead toilet trips only. I think that's the same for the luxating patella ops I know about.

Then 3 weeks of 10 minutes on lead, that might be different.

Poor thing. Mine had bandages and during the day if I was there I left off the cone and just told her no if she chewed, but natural for them to want to lick if they are in pain. It's really tough, I felt so sorry for mine but just gave lots of cuddles and just had to remind myself this would be good in the long term

2 weeks until surgery and I just watched a huge mastiff in Supervet who had surgery and the outcome wasn't great , but now really worried about recovery 😟.

Do I need a support harness for his back legs for after surgery?

I'm going to order a comfy cone, but hoping we only need to use it at night as we will take it in turns and take 2-3 weeks off work and watch him closely during the day.