Cruciate Ligament Surgery

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My gorgeous 8 year old girl has to have surgery in a couple of weeks. If anyone has advice or tips how best to look after her in the convalescent period I would be so grateful.
Can she be left alone for any period or do we have to try and get time off work for the whole 6 weeks? We have been told she needs to be crated for the first two weeks, should we get a playpen for the remaining time?
All tips needed.

Ddog had never been crated so he had a playpen from the start and if I had to leave him he stayed in there. Eventually he pottered around the house while I was at home but the playpen meant he didn’t try to go upstairs or jump up at the window while I wasn’t there to stop him. We are a multiple dog household which was also a challenge..

My biggest fear was that he would slip on our hard floors ( and re-break his leg) so we had loads of non slip vet bed mats for him to walk on.

He’s a big dog so I also raised his food bowl to avoid him straining to bend over.

Ddog is a year post surgery now and the recovery was slow. He was a tremendously fit dog and had huge muscle wastage from being confined to the house ( he had both legs operated on - second cruciate ruptured six weeks after the first :( ).
He’s had a lot of hydrotherapy which made a huge difference and he is still going every few weeks - I would highly recommend it.
He now looks completely fine and to see him you would have no idea he ever had dodgy knees!

Our 8 year old lab cross is 2 weeks post ligament surgery. Fortunately our house is rarely empty as DH is retired and I only work part time. We’ve been told no furniture, no stairs and only 2-3 five minute walks a day.

We have to watch him like a hawk! We couldn’t see how a crate would work while wearing a collar so we effectively turned a very small sitting room into a big ‘play pen’. We put a safety gate in the doorway so we can put him in there but leave the door open and he can’t get out. We’ve removed the chairs and put cheap rugs down to prevent slipping, and a dog bed. He sleeps in there on a night and goes in there through the day when necessary. If we’re sitting in the living room he’s in there with us for company and so he doesn’t need to wear his collar as we can check him if he pays his wound too much attention. We have bean bags, stools etc on the furniture to stop him climbing up. Yesterday, to my horror, he managed to get upstairs and had to be carefully helped down so now I’ve put a barricade across the bottom of the stairs.

In many ways, it might be easier if we weren’t around so much through the day as then he’d have to be in his little room and he’d probably just sleep. We’ve had 2 dcs home from uni this week so we’ve fallen into the trap of thinking there are plenty people to keep an eye on him, but then people assume someone else is! (hence him getting upstairs).

I believe it’s 3 month recovery period so we’ll have to keep this a up for a while yet!

I had heard that when one cruciate goes the other one often does. He’s not insured so mega expensive!

stonecircle yes we were also told that if one cruciate goes, the other side inevitably will as well, though I was gutted when ddog had to go for his second op just six weeks after the first. Also not insured, and he now has the title of Most Expensive Dog I will Ever Own.

Bubble - I’m absolutely kicking myself. We have 3 dogs and 2 cats. All were insured until last year when the premiums were set to rise to almost £300 pcm. I’ve always deliberated over insurance and wished that, had I known how much premiums could rise, I’d just opened a savings account.

I was going to cancel all the insurance in June last year, but couldn’t quite bring myself to do it for our 10 year old lab. Her premiums have risen to £112 pcm now but we’ve claimed £3-4K back this year. I was also persuaded by our Vet to take insurance out for at least a year for our youngest rescue as apparently that is a key time for serious problems to manifest themselves. But middle dog and both cats were removed (saving £150 pcm). Middle dog’s cruciate op has so far cost £3.5k and we have another £450 to pay at his next hospital appointment so let’s call it £4K . Plus another £4K when knee 2 goes.... He’s an Irish rescue black Lab crossed with goodness knows what. Appalling manners and common as muck. He’s lost one of his front teeth and has a very strange shaped body. He’s no looker. We’ve just been on a 5 minute walk and he’s spent the whole time rummaging in the hedges for tasty cat and fox poo. But he’s worth every penny!

Thanks for the tips, I did ask the vet about the other leg and he said we will just have to wait and see. We currently pay £200 per month for insurance as she has been plagued with problems since about 12 months old. At least we are covered for this.

stonecircle hope your boy is on the road to recovery.