Torn ACL on dog's right rear leg... anyone been through that with their pet?

I know of it happening twice to two different good friends. One healed up after a month or so on a bungee brace thing to re strengthen. The other had to be put down about 2 months, after an unsuccessful surgery.

Yes. On both her legs. $3000 a knee. Best decision I ever made. Good luck!

4 Oz. of lead, 50 Grains of gun powder, problem solved.

If it were a horse you won't even be asking.

Your dog, put him down like a man, don't prolong his suffering.

Yes, although i'm not 100% that it was ACL. It was a ligament on the hind legs, knee area. They performed surgery and gave him a prosthetic ligament. it worked well. he had full mobility afterward. He was a bullmastif and snapped the ligament on ice.

Same here. Both knees done within a year or so of the other. $3,000 a knee. My dog was good as new after the surgeries.

get a 2nd opinion, should be 2 to 3k.

cranial cruciate ligament, basically same as acl in humans.

Hey cool! I have that exact setup! Let me know if you ever jack up your knee and i'll help you out too.

Yep. My oldest dog had both knees redone, TPLO. I ‘only’ paid $3000 for each.

TPLO is the best option for long term recovery, especially in larger dogs.

The recovery is a bitch, but I have my dog back and he’s is very but the puppy she was 9 years ago.

If you can afford it, do it!

Yes - our Boxer does! We opted not to have the surgery. The vet said there was also arthritis and it would likely not do as much as we would hope and it was going to cost $4k. She gets around fine. She does get stiff after laying around but she gets around ok. We have glucosomine chews for her which seem to help and she thinks are delicous treats. :)

Warm towel, or cold towel, oh too late.

And every once a day and night when you have the time?

Pets usually get infected when there meaning isn't together or something,then they get cold spots that turn into rash?

Yep! It was well worth it! Did both with in 3 months of each other. I think it was harder on me than it was on her tho.

Poor pup

My dog had that and had surgery with a titanium plate screwed to her knee and in 2.5 yrs later we had the other knee done. She is fine, running around and climbing stairs but at 7 yrs old now she is slowing down and she does have arthritis in her knees but with the proper meds I give her she is still a happy dog with bionic knees :)

Going through the same... looking for options as well.

Vet wanted to do this to my 6 year old Boston Terrier. She hurt her back left and instead of surgery we started anti inflamatories, MSM/dried liver ( [link to www.nuprosupplements.com (secure)]

suppliments and really made her take it slow for about a month.

She is doing great, these things take a very long time to heal and I hear surgery is quite successful also. So it is a tough call.

I think this Nupro stuff made a big difference in her recovery

I'm using Biofreeze on my dog, or linament. It's really helping his mobility, he's fourteen and only has three legs. Ice helps too. Good luck!

CBD helps too. My cat felt better with a few drops.

3-4k.
Get the tight rope procedure. It's easiest on the dog. quicker to heal.

First week sucks. You have to sling hold the dog to the bathroom. Nut easy.

First month heavily limited activity.
Second month limited activity.

Forever you'll need to limit jumping and you must tell all vets to NOT check the dogs legs or hips at routine check ups as they will man-handle and loosen the procedure.


Otherwise, you'll find the dog pretty good to go.

My Shepard/ Lab experienced this. I went to vet- $3000-$5000 for surgery plus they don’t do it around here- I would need to travel & stay at hotel near the vet hospital. Anyway, money is tight. I opted to order a brace online. The brace was time consuming daily to put on, but we did it. 3 months later, my dog is running & jumping- almost normal (no brace). He limps a little if he runs around for extended time. He seems ok. The vet gave him some nsaids- which we rarely use. So far so good.
This is the brace I got [link to alpha-mobility.com (secure)]

I have done 4 acl surgeries with past dogs. All times I have done the TPLO surgery. I had one dog need 2 within the first 3 years of its life. Recovery isnt fun but the dog with the two tplo surgeries is 10 now and hasnt had any issues since. If you need any advice, let me know

Our dog had it in one leg and then the other six months later. We opted out of surgery. We did swim therapy for her and best decision ever. She got around fine after a few months. They adapt quickly. Surgery OR letting it heal naturally, both options will result in arthritis.

We had the same diagnosis on a 2 year old AKC Labrador. I took him to a friend of a friend that is a Vet. She told me that this was a common "misdiagnosis" and that he was fine.

Be careful, earning a DVM has nothing to do with ethics.

Diagnosis:

Bad pet owner

Newfoundland, left hind leg, TPLO, $6000 surgery (huge dog) and $10,000 ICU bill after he almost died 3x from severe hyperthermia.

Thank God we have insurance. He's my service dog and an awesome boy.

Be prepared for 3 months of intense recovery, therapy and rehab.

But necessary if you want your dog to be well again.

Had the surgery done on our large male boxer. Worth it in my opinion.

yep, had the exact same thing with my 100 pound lab about 10 years ago. The vet rebuilt the tendon with huge fishing line. it worked good and it cost around $900.

My lab had a torn ACL when he was almost 10 months old. Within 5 minutes at the orthopedic surgeon told us he needed surgery!

He wasn't even done growing yet. He was about 60 lbs and his final weight would be 85-95 lbs.

Affording the surgery was another issue. It was about $2,500 but through my initial research, quickly found that the other leg would eventually "go" and we'd have to fork up double that number.

So yes, we looked for "alternatives" and it worked! It's been about 9 months now with no issues.

First, keep your dog as "rested" as possible. No jumping up on the couch, or down from an SUV. Stuff like that is bad. Why? Because you need to let the scar tissue grow around his ACL. That's the goal. It won't grow if you don't let it.

Second, I ordered a brace for his leg. There are a ton of companies out there that make braces, it's a very popular alternative. There was actually a place right down the road from me, but I didn't even realize that's what they did, so I ordered over the internet. The company I used was great, no complaints at all. The cost was between $800-$900.

Now, don't freak at the price, first off it's cheaper than surgery, but second off, by the time the brace arrived, my dog didn't even wear it. He had already started healing on his own. As a matter of fact, he has never to this day worn it!

Let me repeat, with "rest" he was able to heal on his own.

I also used something called "Photo Light Therapy" which helped the scar tissue grow. (Promotes Healing)

The model I used was Medlight 630 NIR. I bought it new for about $200, but just looked and there's one for $75 on Ebay. I honestly think this helped.

I don't want to post too many links so if you want to look up more info on light therapy do a google search for "photo light therapy for dog torn acl".

I would say if you notice your dog's leg "seems better" on some days and worse on others, then you have a good chance that an alternative to surgery will work, because that "seems better" is actually the scar tissue trying to grow around it, you just need to keep him rested so it can continue to grow.

Here's an article about someone that healed their dog without surgery. It's kind of tarded, but still worth a read. [link to notesfromadogwalker.com (secure)]

I'm going to post more links below. I don't like doing too many links on one reply because GLP flags it.

Good luck OP

Here's the Youtube channel for the Kneebrace I ordered.

(try that again)
Here's the Youtube channel for the Kneebrace I ordered.





[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]