Torn ACL

So my 5 month old Black Lab Barkley tore his ACL. I have him on anti-inflamitories have to wait 4 months for surgery. The Doc says he need to wait until the groth plates are fully growen before the can fix it. Lucky he is a very mellow dog.

Has anyone had this done? What has been the success with the surgery?

That absolutely stinks. Sorry to hear it Tim!

To a healthy and speedy recovery for your Pup Barkley!

Don, I think the surgery we are going to have is the TPLO. Sound major but the best. Less chance of arthritis at a young age. The cost is between $2500- $3500 I think. WOW>

Tim, here is something you may want to check out and discuss with your vet. http://www.woundwear.com/product3.cfm

My dog had the cheaper option done. No problems with that leg at all (actually, she tore her PCL, not ACL), but now she’s limping on the OTHER leg…

Vet says if one goes, the other one is likely to go too. Not sure if thats genetics or what, but I know by experience its not cheap to fix!

Ouch…

Mike

Thanks Don. Looks very interesting. I will check with the Vet and see.

I have and still use one on ocassion. The problem might be sizing for your dog. You would not want him to grow out of it in a month or two. They are not cheap.

Thanks again Don. I have a call into the Vet. I will let you know what I hear back.

Well Tim I feel your pain! Marly my 2 year old lab tore his right acl on his first 12 retrieves on snows in south dakota, 2 hours into the trip. He then tore his left acl in aug. He had surgery on the 28th of aug. and missed duck openr and our trip to north dakota.
Any way he recoverd from the first surgery in april realy well. He is recovering from the aug. surgery pretty good and I plan on hunting him on some divers next weekend. If the vet says I can. He has afollow up appointment fri. The tplo is the way to go.
Had him done at shamrock in Rosemont. about 2500 each side. (ouch). Surgical care was great. My daughter Brittney works there. call me if you want more info. 507 421 6321. They came highly recomended.

Thanks for the information. He is not limping on it now and has not for over a week. I am going to see how he is doing for the next couple of weeks and if he is not favoring it, start getting him off his meds to see if he has problems.

I have the A-trac brace I am going to put on him for now also. Thanks Don.

If he seems fine in another month, I am going to have a second opinion. I saw nothing on the first x-ray but the Vet said it was torn. We will see.

I had that happen to my old lab. I waited a 1/2 a year before having it done because I was too cheap to fix it right away. Ended up getting both of them done because she tore the other one from using it all the time. Kick myself in the butt for not having it done sooner. She was at damn near full recovery and then got hit by a truck. My guess is that she would have been good to go had the accident not happened. So, my recommendation is to get it done as soon as it is ready.

I did the TPLO surgery on my previous yellow (Payton) back in early ’03 and he recovered fine so you have my vote on that procedure. Unfortunately during his recovery he was diagnosed with cancer so as others have stated life isn’t fair by any means. I have heard that one theory why the other side goes shortly after the first is repaired is due to additional use of the non-repaired side causes it to fail quicker…

Inver Grove Height Animal Hospital (or something like that) did our procedure and did a good job.

Good luck with your decision.

-ted

Tim, how is the brace working out for you?

He hates the brace Don. I have had it on him a couple times and keep trying to have it on for at least an hour. He is getting used to it little by little.

He has not favored his leg for a month now. I am starting to get him off the meds to see if he favors it. I also am keeping him quiet. I will let you know how things go.

Thanks for all the help.