Guest mhall Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 Tarmac has been limping for a little over a week. He's seen a couple of different vets, had x-rays and blood work, and it seems like a cruciate ligament tear is the most likely explanation. We are going to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon to try and get a definitive diagnosis and see what they recommend. I'm curious what other people's experiences with surgery to repair a torn cruciate ligament have been like. If your dog has had this type of surgery, how did the procedure go? Was it successful? What was the recovery like? If you had the option of doing it and decided not to, how did everything work out? I know I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but I want to go into the appointment armed with information so we can quickly make a decision about surgery if we need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheUnrulyHound Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 (edited) Stepper was diagnosed with a torn ACL, they were saying he needed surgery so we decided to keep him VERY calm and handwalk him till we could save for the surgery and just keep him on some pain meds. After doing a bit more research and talking to some people on GT I decided to not do surgery and kept handwalking him and started him on a human dose of glucosamine and condriontin. I had to keep him from playing and such. That was about 2 months ago and today he can go out and run and play and has no limp at all So keep that in mind, it can heal but it will always be likely to tear again. Sometimes if you operate on one you will have to eventually operate on the other as well. It al depends on how badly it is torn as to whether you can get by without surgery. There is a thread by a GT member named Hvacman who had a dog in a similar situation, His boy did not end up with surgery either I don't think. Edited August 26, 2009 by TheUnrulyHound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazygang Posted August 26, 2009 Share Posted August 26, 2009 We are currently resting our Jack Russell terrier after her damaging her cruciate. Thankfully she is healing well but it will be a slow process with gentle exercise building up....we chose not to operate after consulting our vet. My previous JRT (now deceased) actually had the operation and had a good quality of life afterwards until the age of 16. Hope Tarmac feels better soon.... Quote Run free our beloved Sir Snowy, Pip, Queenie, Sadie, Tess & Rosie until we meet again......I would rather feel the thorn than to never see the rose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mhall Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 Thanks for the replies. I just scheduled the consult with the orthopedic surgeon for September 2nd - the soonest he could see us. A lot of the information I've been reading online doesn't seem too positive either way. If you do surgery, they're more likely to tear their other ACL. If you don't do surgery, they're still likely to tear the other one. Even with surgery, they might still have chronic pain/limited mobility. It seems like a tough decision to make for an older (9 year old) dog. I'll be vary curious to see what the orthopedic surgeon says. I'll also do a search to see if I can dig up any older threads on this subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheUnrulyHound Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 My Stepper is also 9 keep him very very calm for this week while you wait and see if there is any improvement. go get the glucosamine and start it now, Stepper gets 2 pills a day of the human kind, I buy the big bottle at Sams to save money. If you still do surgery it won't hurt that you have been giving them to him Stepper will just eat them right out of his bowl with his kibble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mhall Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 My Stepper is also 9 keep him very very calm for this week while you wait and see if there is any improvement. go get the glucosamine and start it now, Stepper gets 2 pills a day of the human kind, I buy the big bottle at Sams to save money. If you still do surgery it won't hurt that you have been giving them to him Stepper will just eat them right out of his bowl with his kibble. Thanks for sharing your experience - it's good to know that another 9 year old grey is doing well without surgery. We have been giving Tarmac glucosamine since he injured himself. We had started him on it awhile ago, and then kind of neglected it over the summer because we kept forgetting with vacations and schedule changes and such. We're doing the best to keep him calm - he's on leash at all times when he's outside, walks are just around the block, etc. Occasionally I have to remind him not to run in the house, but usually he realizes it hurts and stops himself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fini Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 My Mother had her 10 year old Aussie's ACL repaired about three weeks ago. They actually reshaped some of the bone from what I understand. The recovery has proved difficult since she's such an active dog and she's got to be pretty chill for eight weeks post-op. Not an easy process at all, not to mention it's expensive. It's nice that a few of you seemed to dodge it with R&R. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kydie Posted August 27, 2009 Share Posted August 27, 2009 ACL injury, even in a human, can be tricky, therpy needed many times after surgery, for me it would depend on the over all health of the dog, I have an 11 year old, i would do it in a minute, as she is as healthly as a horse, Good Luck, please keep us posted on your pup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DylanGospel Posted August 28, 2009 Share Posted August 28, 2009 We took our grey to the vet because he was limping, and we feared the worst. It, too, was a minor cruciate tear, but we were able to treat it with pain meds, chiropractic, and a course of adequan, which is a liquid form of glucosamine. We have completed four weeks of the shots and have only had one episode of limping after he took off in the yard for a course of zoomies. Both of our dogs have been on glusosamine condroitan since their adoption three years ago. Good luck to you and hopefully Tarmac will be able to go through a less invasive therapy than surgery. Do you have access to a vet who has a background in acupuncture and chiropractic as well as surgical? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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