Does anyone have experience of cruciate ligament damage in dogs?

[Untery]

I am just considering what might be the options. Vet is booked for next week and hoping for improvement after some rest.

my dog is intermittently limping just now on back leg. Still bears weight though and once she gets going she can run around pretty much as normal. Can still jump in to our 4x4 ok.

limp is more or less ok first thing in the morning after sleeping but more noticeable after rest in afternoon/evening

feeling a bit anxious about what it could be

she is an active breed - we do throw ball for her so I know this can be a risk for cruciate

Sister’s dog has recently had surgery for this, caused by throwing balls so stop that if you want to reduce the damage.
Surgery has cost £4k so far, very strict restrictions on activity for next 4 months minimum, only allowed in the garden on short lead for 10 days, no jumping up on furniture, into car etc or anything else for 2 months.

My dog is so far avoiding surgery and having laser treatment and physio, which has made a massive difference! From hopping 50% of each walk to the occasional hop once in a while

Stop them jumping in or out of your vehicle immediately, any jumping is dangerous. We had a Dobermann who couldn't have surgery due to a heart condition so it was strict rest for a couple of months, walk only on a lead, he didn't use a crate but happily slept in front of the fire for months, luckily it was winter. Physio was slow but he recovered pretty well. He was an absolute moron of a dog who found more ways to harm himself than I could have ever thought possible including breaking a rib and puncturing a lung!!! I spent so much time nursing him (and would do it all again, still mix the lunatic).

One of our previous dogs had bilateral ruptured cruciates. She had surgery at the Vet Hospital in Glasgow. The first op was a Tightrope procedure, and the second was a tibial plateau leveling procedure. After the first op she ended up in cage rest for 9 weeks, then another 6+ weeks after the second one.

Unfortunately, just as she was getting back to being more active, she dislocated one kneecap (apparently this is a known but uncommon complication of the surgery) so needed a third knee op to deal with that - and about 3 months of cage rest and very limited activity. She also developed a gastric ulcer from the pain meds she was given for the ulcer, and needed more medication and a special diet!

But it was all worth it, and she did get back to about 90% of her previous activity - maybe more. It was a tough few months for us all.

She was a very active dog but she coped very well with the cage rest - we put the cage in the front room, so we were about most of the day, and she was happy to sleep in there at night.

The hospital tried to sell me a sling, to use under her belly when we were walking her out to the garden to do her business - but I rolled up a towel around a spare lead and tacked it in place and saved us £££.

The total cost was just north of £10,000, but our pet insurance paid for everything without a murmur, apart from the specialist food she needed after the ulcer. They paid the vet hospital directly too, which was really helpful.

I’m happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Could be many things so I would not immediately jump to cruciate unless it has been diagnosed.

Do stop ball throwing and jumping in and out of the car.

If it is cruciate surgery is usually sucessful and after a period of crate rest and gradually returning to normal activitiy. Weight of dog often determines whether surgery is needed. Cruciate will not heal itself but lighter dogs can manage with just rest as the scar tissue may stablise the knee. Not usually an option for larger dogs.

Insurance should pay but not all policies pay for it on both legs

Ramp training will be invaluable - do this as soon as you’re able.

Our large breed dog had a torn cruciate ligament and had to have a tibial plateau leveling osteotomy procedure. She was on total rest for three months, and then gentle exercise and physio exercises for another several months. That was 18 months ago, she is absolutely fine now, happily balances on that leg with the other off the floor (she likes to scratch herself standing up). Fortunately our insurance covered it, but the total bill was over 5k. I've bumped up our cover since then as it's not unusual for the other leg to go as well apparently.

Yes. My dog has done both of hers and few months apart and had surgery on both.

Our large breed had hers repaired - like a pp she also developed a gastric ulcer from the pain meds and then required an emergency operation to fix that about four days after the first operation.
Fortunately she made a perfect recovery from both operations - unlike my bank balance as the two operations cost more than 10k. Am hoping that the other leg doesn't go!

My 7 y o small (10.5k) dog goes in for her second cruciate repair (TPLO) tomorrow.

The first one went completely 18 months ago, surgery was successful. It’s 10’days of 5 mins to have a wee three times a day, then 10 days of 10 min walks, then 3 lots of 15 mins for 5 weeks. Then unlimited lead walks for 8 weeks.

This second one seems to be a partial tear but the expert we have been referred to (who did the first one) says surgery isn’t the only option (some repair after 6 months rest) but it’s his opinion that it’s the best one. Insurance is covering this as well as the last one. I did try and change insurance providers but any new provider wouldn’t cover the second cruciate if it went.

Surgery was brilliant last time, dog recovered well, and 8 weeks seemed a long time but she was chasing and running and swimming happily within 4 months.

Vet said whilst waiting, keep her as quiet as possible to avoid more damage.

My JRT had surgery after x-rays showed surgery was the only option, he was 10, spent 6 weeks in a crate, had to carry him outside to toilet, spent a lot of time sleeping and subdued (never left alone).

It was a really slow process to recover but he did
cope really well, is almost 16 now, I paid £1300 for the surgery.

I opted to wait and see rather than go straight for surgery. Medium sized dog and was 10 when it happened suddenly. I took the advice of a specialist vet friend first and my vet was happy with it (my friend had said my vet may well push straight to surgery). So conservative management for a few weeks/months as in his (extensive) experience after 9-12 months the results are often the same (surgery versus no surgery). My vet supported this and I was very very strict. Lifted out for toilet at first, out on lead in garden for a month, building up to 5 mins out, 10 mins etc over a few months etc. no jumping up for months (bed, sofa etc). He is 12 now and walks about 5 miles a day with much of it off lead. It went originally due to a heavy session of ball throwing on the beach, so we don’t do that really. He stills swims (did a lot of that after few months to help). Not saying it’s for all cases of course but my vets now say we made the right decision and he is fit as a fiddle. I’m insured so wasn’t necessarily a financial decisions, more the anaesthetic and the research I had done final about outcomes being the same. That said, I believe this approach is highly unlikely to work with very large dogs, but should certainly be considered with small to medium.

When my dog pulled (tore ?) hers she couldn’t walk on it at all. She did it by walking out the front door! The vet gave her a shot for the pain and some pills but it was weeks before she walked normally and months before she would go upstairs. Ok now.

My working cocker had an intermittent limp on his back leg which seemed to happen at random times. He was checked over at the vets who brushed us off saying there was no issue. The best advice we got was to take him to a good animal physio, and thankfully we have a brilliant one very close by. She identified that he had cruciate ligament damage in that leg and has worked wonders with him. He’s had weekly physio and laser therapy and the difference in him is significant. He was only 7 months at the time (now 11 months).

We had to take things very slowly when he was having his regular sessions. Short on lead walks only, managing his activity (so no zooming about, jumping up etc - difficult with a young dog!), mats down on slippy floors. After a few sessions we have gradually built up to walking off lead again and increasing his activity levels. The physio also discovered he has mild luxating patella in the other leg, so I am glad we went down this route as we would have never known otherwise.

We are now doing a session once a month as ‘maintenance’ to keep an eye on him, but he is doing great. Obviously depending on the level of damage this might not be appropriate for your dog, but I would highly recommend a good physio!!

This sounds good. I am guessing not co eyed by insurance though? Also was wondering how much poking and prodding of the dog is done by the physio? How much do they need to be sedated for it did your dog manage with that?

yes my dog (small breed under 10kg) had both of his done at age 2. They did the wait and see approach because he was small but then he got TPLO surgery on both legs.

They went 6 months apart so the surgeries were 6 months apart too.

It was a hassle having to keep him from jumping about but after he recovered he was good as new and he's 11 now and still absolutely fine. Perhaps a touch stiff but nothing too noticeable.

Thank god i had petplan at the time as surgeries were about 7K and that was back in 2016.

I wish you luck with your situation. It's horrible when they are ill and limping.

It was reasonable enough that we just paid for it ourselves - £40 a session for 6 weeks then we did a further 3 sessions and then one monthly moving forward. I’m not sure how it works with insurance, maybe if the vet refers to physio then you could claim? I’d look into it. Our excess was £150 anyway so didn’t seem worth making a claim. I was expecting the sessions to be much more expensive so was pleasantly surprised.

Our boy is used to being handled so wasn’t bothered, but to be honest there wasn’t much poking or prodding at all. She did some exercises with him which involved walking over a slightly raised pole and she showed us exactly what she was looking for, which was a funny sort of limpy hop (technical term 😂). She had a quick feel of his back end too. The laser sessions are so chilled, he always falls asleep! Here’s some photos the physio took at one of his sessions, fast asleep. She does some other exercises with him with the poles and also sit, lay down, up in sequence which works his back legs.

Just to add, we are in Yorkshire so prices may be more expensive if you’ve in the South East, for example.