Ugh - our dog has a torn ACL
 

Our 5 year old shepherd mix started limping about two months ago . It was random , sometimes he didn't and other times he did . It is his left rear leg . Last week it was to the point where he wouldn't put weight on it .

Soonest vet appointment available was this morning . Found out he has a torn ACL . Crap ! Vet put in a referral for a local orthopedic specialist and we are waiting to hear back . The vet tech said you are probably looking at 5k and a lengthy recovery.

So for those of you that have gone thru this educate me on how it went for your dog . Is that price in the ballpark ? Any other advice ? Bad timing with the holidays coming up but it is what it is . We have absolutely no idea how he did this , kind of frustrating .

For whatever this is worth, my then 7 year-old lab/sheltie/border collie from a Menonite farm was limping a few years ago. Vet performed an arthrogram and diagnosed her with a partial ACL tear and gave me my ortho surgeon options. Not entirely sure how that diagnosis arises from a dog's arthrogram so I decided to watch it for a bit. 6 months later, no limping, no limitations and none since. I don't know how your dog was diagnosed but something to think about depending upon how much limping and limitation is happening.

$3200 for my chocolate lab about 20 years ago. Went fine.

The diagnosis was via physical exam . The vet said his knee is way too loose . Ruled out partial tear and said it's a full tear .

My Daisy had the same, cost about 5K, but from what I understand that price may have come down due to the proprietary nature of the method at that time (12 years ago).

If you go that route, do EXACTLY what the vet says for recovery. It takes weeks of no play and it can tug at your heart to see your pup constrained during the recovery.

There were two other pups that the care takers did not follow the recovery directions and they injured the repair and had to do it again.

Daisy was great after recovery. Miss that girl.

Sorry for both of you. It’s hard to keep a dog quiet while they heal.

Do the x ray. If it’s partial, it’ll heal on its own. Add ligament supplements. Save the 4 grand.

Rick,

Went through this with Billabong approx. 15 years ago.

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Happened during a "romp" with Winkipop at a nursery while I was there to pick up plants. I always let the girls out to tear around in the back areas, which of course they loved. Billabong came up limping. She and Winkipop both lived to almost 17 and Winkipop never blew hers out.

After I had Billabong's done it was about a year later the other side went, as the vet had predicted. So we had that one fixed. Both repairs took and things went just fine for the rest of her days....which was about 10 more years.

I was very fortunate to find the right vet who was familiar enough to do the particular procedure I wanted. The Arthrex Tightrope. I had done my own research and discovered this procedure and so set about making phone calls trying to find a vet who knew about and could perform it. And I did - and he was great! In fact he had already done a bunch of them and even had consultations over time with the vet at the University of Missouri Vet School, who was one of the nation's authorities on it.

The product is actually produced by a company in Naples, FL:
https://www.arthrex.com/corporate

This procedure is not recommended for animals over 40 lbs. And the vet will first need to shoot some xrays to determine if it is the right approach for your dog.

The cost (back then) was under $2K and since this is minimally invasive the recovery time was shorter.

Here is a couple videos showing how it works......good luck and please keep us posted!

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<iframe width="718" height="404" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sbqzSK-4m6s" title="Tightrope For Surgical Repair of CCL Tear of Dog Knee" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My pooch blew out his ACL.
During recovery, blew out his other one.
During recovery for 2nd one blew out his first again.
Very expensive lesson, financially and emotionally.

Both my girls were crate trained from the get go. They loved their little crate homes. Slept in them and provided a retreat from the world, as needed. Of course their desire always was to be with their daddy 24/7. I put their crates in the living room so they wouldn't be isolated from the rest of the home - and me.

Crate training really helps when they are recovering from surgery and you need them to stay still as much as possible.

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Been there, paid that. Luckily, happened during COVID and I was working remotely from home. Toughest part was segregating him from the other two pooches so, he could heal. He came through it remarkably well.

Made him his own low level “couch” next to where I set up my temporary home office.

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Gave him another five good years. Vet was worried that if we didn’t do a repair, he’d overcompensate and possibly blow out the other. Being a Lab/Shep mix evidently results in high probability of it happening.