Advice needed about Cruciate ligament surgery

[stormsurfer]

DDog is going for an XRay tomorrow to determine if she needs surgery on her Cruciate Ligament. I'm trying to work out what I will need to do if she does have the surgery. Will she need me around a lot for the first part of the recovery period? On the days I go to work, a dog walker comes in at lunchtime, but I'm not sure if that will be enough or if I should take some days off to be with her. If so, I can take 2 weeks off but not until the end of next week and I don't know if it will be OK for her to wait that long to get it done. We have another DDog and I was imagining they will need to be kept apart at the start? I hope some of you with experience of this will be able to tell me more.

My JRT has both legs operated on, one year apart - unfortunately it is common for both to go within 2 years of each other.

After the surgery he had 6 weeks strict crate rest. He could walk on lead as far as the garden for toileting and that was it. To make his life more interesting I carried him round walks in a rucksack, but obviously that is not an option for larger dogs. I work from home so I did carry him around and settle him next to me in different rooms but I was very careful not to allow him to walk too much, or jump on sofas or climb stairs.

Then he had another six weeks of progressively more exercise. We started with short walks on the lead, then longer then eventually short walks off the lead.

It is a long process but he has made a full recovery so it was worth it.

Thank you. That's great to hear he recovered well. So I guess if the operation has to be done urgently and I can't be off work, I would have to leave her in the crate and then the dog walker would take her out on the lead for toileting only at lunch. It's hard to think of her in the crate for so long, but if I was at home she would be in there too, just that she would have my presence for comfort. I hope they say it can wait until I can be off.

I’m not a vet but I would think that such a short delay would be fine. For example my DDog’s operation was delayed by a month because the local vet misdiagnosed him so it was a while before he saw the orthopedic specialist.

If you have a look online there are environment enrichment ideas for crate rest that might help her pass the time. When I was with DDog I did take him out of the crate, but carried him to another room and kept him on leash by my legs.

That's good to know. I will ask about timings today. Just wanted to be prepared for what it might involve.

When my dog had his done there was a 7 weeks wait for an appointment for his first leg and about 5 weeks wait when he got his 2nd leg done.

Gosh that's a long wait! I've heard back that she definitely needs the surgery and the vet has emailed the surgeons- just waiting to see what the availability is.