Cruciate ligament surgery

scats

scats

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Looks like Bess needs surgery on her cruciate ligament.
What’s the recovery look like for this? She’s a very lively, busy body type of dog who lives for her exercise and we are dreading it 😞
Experiences welcome. She’s a corgi x cockapoo but basically looks and acts like a terrier.
 
How long has she been lame for?
Recovery depends a bit on what surgery is done. Assuming she’s small-medium you’ve choices there.
 
I’ve written about my experience before, but to summarise:

My boy had a TPLO in early 2021, when he was about 10, it was just on his left leg. He was a rough collie x JR, so a large, long body on little legs. He was around 19-20kg. We were referred to an orthopaedic specialist, as our regular vet didn’t have TPLO experience, and I wanted the best surgery for him. Surgery cost about 2.5k, in Northern Ireland.

We worked alongside a vet physio & regular vet who supervised the initial recovery and on-going rehab work.

Initial recovery period was about 12 weeks, if I remember correctly. First few days were all about icing and heat packs, alternating, and then getting him back on his feet. The following 12 weeks were a very gradual increase in exercise, whilst he was confined to an area of the living room using puppy panels. Strictly no jumping, no steps or stairs, no up on furniture, no slippy floors, for the rest of his life. The house was covered in non-slip yoga mats & flat woven rugs, with ramps on all steps.

He also began working at the hydrotherapy suite, again with vet physios, and went on the water treadmill. I think we were doing twice a week for several months, and then dropped to once a week for maintenance.

His surgical recovery & rehab was about 12 months altogether.

After that, he remained under supervision as he got older, and we continued his hydrotherapy, physio therapy (a combination of laser, massage, and acupuncture), alongside on-going pain relief (Gabapentin) & occasional supplemental pain relief for flare ups, until he passed 3.5 years later. He thankfully never needed his 2nd cruciate operated on, but there was always the worry. As he got older, I don’t think I would’ve subjected him to the 2nd surgery and recovery, and it would’ve been a PTS situation instead.

The surgery itself was a no-brainer for me, and he became completely mechanically sound after recovery. It was just tricky to maintain his muscle mass, and control pain from arthritis and compensation as he became older.
 
She’s been on and off lame on the left hind since the Autumn and been under the vets. She is fine if she does normal walks and doesn’t run too much, but if she chases a ball or has a mad run, she’ll be on 3 legs for the next few days. Then it settles down again. Under vet advice we’ve tried resting, medication, gradual building up of walks but she’s so high energy that she’s like a bomb going off when she’s allowed to a bit more and then sets herself back again. She lives for chasing things and her absolute favourite thing is her ball, but she can no longer play fetch with her ball because she ends up on 3 legs. She goes at things with gusto- she’s a busy, energetic dog who never stops moving.
Vets have now said that the only real option to allow her the life she wants is to do the surgery. She’ll be 9 this year.
We want her to be able to give her the best chance to do the things she loves again, and that’s to run and chase.
 
Our dog had the surgery about 4 years ago. They advised crate rest etc post surgery, our dog was not used to a crate, so we confined her to downstairs, on the lead outside to do her business and used a ramp to get her into the car rather than any jumping, as she would worry when the other dog went out. We liaised with the vets about our 'personalised approach,' to her rehab and because we were sensibly restricting her, they were happy. There has been no problems since. 🤞
 
My next door neighbours little terrier had his done a couple of years ago. He reacted badly to the sedatation and had to be brought round so needed two operations at double the cost ! He was on three legs but happy before the op and was exactly the same after. Now he’s on strong pain killers and uses his leg on and off. His owner says with hindsight he would have just rested him and he thinks the op made no difference apart from to his bank balance.
 
writing the above made me think of Skinnydipper for some reason. Where is she, doesn’t seem to have been around for a while ?
 
Would definitely recommend the TPLO not extra capsular. If all goes well (and they mostly do) should have full and normal use of knee (some extra arthritis long term). Rehab 8w strict generally in a pen unless out with O on lead /doing exercises and then increasing exercise after post op X-ray (generally done at 8w).
 
My 37kg dog had a TPLO 2 years ago when she was 4. I followed everything advised by the vets and several helpful online sites. I basically lived with her 24/7 for the first week in a 2mx4m section of a room that I sectioned off for us and then a further 8 weeks or so downstairs. Did all the ice packs, massage, small walks, no jumping, water and regular physio etc and she came out of it totally sound. As per @fiwen30 says above really. I think it would be difficult to manage if you normally leave your dog at home whilst you work or whatever plus the physio and water treadmill is not cheap.

I think it cost about £5k all in. I had the op done by a travelling specialist vet who performed the op at my local vet clinic.
 
My first question is how has it been diagnosed? I started a thread asking about TPLO surgery last year after my dog was referred for the operation but the specialist said she'd be misdiagnosed.
 
Our Springer Spaniel is 3 weeks into her recovery after having TPLO surgery. I'm amazed at how well she has recovered already, although aware we still have a good way to go! She was weight bearing on it the following day and tolerated all the icing and physio exercises she has to do. She was walking pretty much normally within days. We're gradually upping the walk time each week. I was apprehensive about how she would handle the crate rest as she is a spaniel and yes is typically a bit nuts! But she's been really good and is also walking nicely on the lead. She's used to being crated at night which i think helped.
I work from home so have started letting her lie next to me on a bed under my desk with the lead around my wrist so she doesn't feel like she's cooped up all the while.
Due for x-rays again on 20th March 🤞

Hope all goes well if you decide to go ahead and may be surprised how well she will adapt to the rehab.
 
One of my Jack Russells had a cruciate ligament injury many years ago, vet prescribed rest and anti-inflammatories and he recovered well. Getting him to rest, especially once the injury had started to recover, was the hardest part!
 
Sorry I’m late in updating this thread. She’s off to Oakwood in the morning as an emergency referral as unfortunately the thing just went yesterday when she turned.
We’d had a good couple of weeks and she’d not had any lameness so we were in the process of deciding when to send her to get it done (with regards the recovery fitting in with other stuff going on in life at the moment- we knew it would need doing at some point) but the decision was taken out of our hands yesterday.

Will update more tomorrow. She’s already struggling with being made to stay contained :(
 
I have done this twice, once with a very active 40kg doberman about 20 years ago (TPLO) and the other with my VERY VERY busy cocker who had the TPLO 2 years ago at 11 years old. The most important part of the recovery process is the crate rest for 6 weeks and only going out to have a wee on the lead and then straight back into the crate. Both boys recovered remarkably following the crate rest, hydro and myotherapy (I a did all of this as I'm a myotherapist). My spaniel will be 13 on friday and is still running around like he's a puppy.
 
We’re already planning on how to deal with recovery. Think my parents or me are going to move a mattress downstairs and sleep with the dogs for the next few months. Or take turns doing so.
Getting JD’s old crate out of the shed and setting up a recovery room for her in the room where we mostly spend time so she’s always got company.
Dreading it but we will manage.
 
I've done the recovery twice with my nutty dog. It was a long 12 weeks each time - very long as he is not the best patient to say the least - but was manageable and the time does pass surprisingly quickly. He was crated when I didn't have eyes on him but was loose in the room with me most of the time as he'd kick off in the crate if he knew I was there so there was a worry about injury then. Mind you, on the 2nd op he was fairly heavily sedated for the first 6 weeks. I'd forgotten about that! He didn't have physio or hydrotherapy as he is very wary of strangers at the best of times, let alone when he is sore but despite that I'd say he recovered to about 90%+ soundness within a year of the 2nd op. I think he would probably would have recovered fully if he could have had the extra therapies and not been such a prat.
 
She’s home. She’s really struggling with the cone and the situation, but it’s early days.
I went and picked up an XXL dog crate so she’s currently having a sleep in that. There’s 3 of us here so we are taking shifts to be with her.
She goes back in 15 days for her stitches out and wound check. Then we’ve got 8 weeks more until X-rays.
 
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to help her navigate the cone? She hasn’t drank all night (we checked she could access it, but she just doesn’t seem to be able to work out what angle to go at the water). She’s just drank like mad with us holding the cone at an angle for her.

She’s very agile and the vet said that a donut/soft cone wouldn’t keep her away from her leg, so we are having to keep going with this awful thing.
 
scats said:
Does anyone have any suggestions about how to help her navigate the cone? She hasn’t drank all night (we checked she could access it, but she just doesn’t seem to be able to work out what angle to go at the water). She’s just drank like mad with us holding the cone at an angle for her.

She’s very agile and the vet said that a donut/soft cone wouldn’t keep her away from her leg, so we are having to keep going with this awful thing.
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With my lad, his surgery was during another post-Covid lockdown, and so I sat with him during the daytime and he wore his cone at night. I also made him a leg sleeve from a pair of child’s leggings - there’s lots of instructions online, just make sure that it’s a stretchy material.

The cone should only be until the stitches are out, it’s bothersome but far far better than an early infection.
 
I always add a good amount of water to Daisy's food because she has a history of urine infections. Subsequently she rarely drinks from her water bowl as she is well hydrated via her food.

You can also take the cone off (supervised) for meal times and to offer water.
 
We are 2 weeks post op now and she had her check up today with the surgeon. We can remove the cone now (thank god!) and can now commence 2x 10-15 minute on lead walks a day for the next 2 weeks, then increasing to 25 mins for 4 weeks.
We then go back at 6 weeks from today for X-rays.
She is putting weight on the leg now and using it when walking.
 
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