Cruciate ligament - TPLO surgery - tips

[FreakinFrankNFurter]

My dog has ruptured his cruciate ligament and is due to have TPLO surgery on wednesday.

Anyone with exoerience of this and any tips/suggestions?

We've put cheap temporary carpet down on the laminate dining room floor this weekend so he doesn't slip

Not personal experience but a family member has a dog who's had two - one after the other! I do remember that it needed to be crated for quite a while after the op, to stop it running about and jumping on the furniture, which it found frustrating. She also spent a lot of time doing hydrotherapy afterwards, which really seemed to help.

Our dogs went before she was a year (rottweiler x bullmastiff). The second went while recovering from the op to fix the first. Healing was tedious, as she was on limited exercise and going stir crazy. Once healed she's done great, you'd barely know by the way she runs around. Insurance pays for regular on-going Hydrotherapy. She's just gone 6 and starting to struggle with bit of arthritis, we notice her getting stiff if she's had a long lie down though loosens up quite quickly with a bit of movement. We have started with a glucosamine supplement which appears to be helping.

Yup, my dog had one four years ago. I never crated mine, but they sometimes advise it if you have a particularly bonkers dog.
We also laid temporary carpet, but also got oversized rugs in the end as mine still slid about for a long time afterwards.
Our specialist told us that once one leg has gone, the other will surely follow and insurance is unlikely to cover it.
I used a peanut butter kong to ease boredom.
We also bought a (can’t recall the name - lead but with support for the back end, so we could take some weight of his back legs when he walked.

Where does your dog go to the loo? We had to fence off a small part of the garden to stop ours running around. It’s crucial they do not play/run etc. Exercise is built up over ten weeks, five min walks, then ten min walks and so on. NO STEPS!
It felt like forever…. but it is worth it.
We reduced the dog food, they need less as they are moving less.
We also bought an orthopaedic dog bed, DDog has arthritis though.

@Treecreature
what glucosamine supplement do you use please?

Ddog is nearly 13 so the op, recovery and potential for the other one going is a worry

I hope we can avoid having to keep him in a sectioned off area. He's a pretty chilled dog. He's been having a kong/snake to relieve boredom this last 2 weeks.

Will have to be careful in the garden as he does sometimes bounce and bark if he sees a cat or something spooks him.

Our insurance policy only pays £2k per year so it's going to be an expensive few days (and months with the hydrotherapy as well).

Perhaps keep him on a lead in the garden or check with the vet, it was really drummed into me that DDog was not allowed to do anything to damage the leg. Whilst at the vet someone came in with a lab who had damaged the leg after the op and had to go through it all over again. The consequences can be very serious.
The specialist had not done that op though, was a smaller dog and so the practice vet had performed the surgery. The surgery cost £6.5k four years ago, insurance paid £4k toward it. It’s a very difficult op on a larger dog and arthritis can quickly set on to the joint. Your vet can tell you if they see arthritis on X-rays, these are done before and after the op.

As my DDog is now too old for an op the other option is a cast, they don’t make them in the U.K. The consultant vet takes measurements and the cast is made elsewhere (Europe or U.S) costs £2/2.5k for a larger dog. Keeps the leg in a better place to heal, can fail though if anything remains inside the ligament (they clean it out when they operate). Cast can be used as a brace if it fails… but you can buy similar braces for around £100 from Orthopets.

Or you can just let the leg rest for 6/8 weeks and keep the dog crated/extremely quiet. The leg will fix back into place, painkillers and sedatives needed. Not the best option, but sometimes the only one.

If you claim certain benefits the PDSA will perform the surgery for a donation (for anyone who may be reading in future).

Good luck OP hope all goes well and your dog gets a good outcome.

We went through this as well with our Rottie/Boxer. Are they using titanium plates? After four years our dog had an issue with hers and they had to be removed, but the ligaments stayed attached and she had no more problems. I hope everything goes smoothly for you and your DDog. Keeping them calm and not bouncing during recovery was the hardest part!

We use yumove

@Suzi888 we use yumove. Sorry for double post, figuring out how to tag people.

@Treecreature fab- thank you very much

Ddog is home today after surgery on the second torn cruciate ligament. The first was march last year. It's scary but the first recovery was long although simple. He didn't have the titanium plate due to thin tibia.
Follow the recovery plan religiously. Watch their weight once they can't move much. Yumove is the supplement our vet recommended, looks expensive but not bad on subscription.
Good luck.