Torn ACL in Dog

[DragonEggs]

OMG sweetheart I am SO SORRY! I am SUCH a Saint lover! Mine is pure and at 6 months old was already pushing 100lbs. Someone not paying attention drifted off the road and hit him (and almost hit my BF who was walking him) going like 60mph. He was so mangled they whought he was gonna die. He was in ICU for a week before he recovered from the shock and the swelling in his brain went down enough to not have to worry about a cuncussion before they could take x-rays. His shoulder plate was shattered (vet said thats like trying to punch a 2x4 and break it, the bone is THAT thick) and the nerves behind it that connected the leg to his spine were so badly damaged they thought they were going to have to amputate. They decided to do the reconstructive surgery on the leg and hope for the best, but they said he might never regain full use of his leg if any at all.

This was him just hours after the accident

This was him a couple weeks later. THere was no way to put a cast on him so they had to put a splint on him. That was 6 weeks of HELL, listening to him cry everynight because he was in so much pain and so uncomfortable he couldnt sleep.

This all happened just before thanksgiving. This is him just before Christmas, right after he had the splint removed

So, here's the happy ending. $3500 later he can walk again! I had to take out a HUGE loan that I will be paying off for the next few years and will probably drive my credit to crap but my boy gets a second chance at life! Here he is today!

Don't give up! There are all kinds of people out there who want to help your dog! Try calling the Brown Dog Association. Theres lots of organizations like that. We got a medical loan through Care Credit to pay the vet bills. Most vets accept Care Credit and can help you get approved. The interest is murder just like any credit card but my boy was worth every penny! Good luck to you!

 

[chickerdoodle]

Quote:
The only experience that I have with ACL surgeries is about 15 years ago, with a dog with a repaired ACL, but who became increasinly grumpy because she remained limited in what she could do, was prone to re injuring herself and became dog aggressive on account of the constant nagging pain (that the owner did not know about)
I would suggest that you ask the vet what quality of life you can expect post surgery and what you can do to keep her pain free. I don't know if they have advanced since (probably) or if the surgery that I know of, was just a pretty sad case to start out with, or maybe they botched it and the owner never knew.

@ ShowMe31. I am sorry for your recent loss.

The surgeries are much better now. Instead of just suturing the ligaments back on the medium and large breed dogs they actually cut the bone and change the angle of the knee so the dog doesn't put great pressure on those ligaments anymore. They use a plate and screws to support the knee until the bone heals and viola! Its called a TPLO ( by Slocum) and has a high success rate and most dogs go back to normal activity. I would only go to a board certified surgeon who does many of them for the best outcome.

 

[hunterjumper999]

ha, i just did this

Deamus is an 8 year old Dane/Dobie mix. he was walking about 5 months ago and he in lame on a hind leg. thought nothing of it. rimadyll for a few days and good as new. about 3 months ago he stepped on the sprinkler head and yelped ( WHILE WALKING) and i immediatly took him to the vet the next day. well turns out he partially tore the ligament the prior time and then finished it off .

we got the sedation and xrays at our vet .

we got referred two weeks later to Auburn university.

we took him for his appointment and they had him stay for surgery. The estimate was 2400-3200.00

he was operated on on a thursday. we took him home monday at 5pm. Total cost at Auburn was 2400.00. Our vet was i think 90.00 for the drugs that auburn did not give enough of.

He was on serious sedatives, pain meds and anti inflammatory for 5 days, crate restriction and leash walk only. LITERALLY 4x a day, less than 5 mins out of crate allowed. for a dog who has never been on a leash really in his life to poo. THAT was fun!

Pain meds were knocked down . . . kept him on the sedatives tho, because like the leash he was not crate trained either.

Usually 3 weeks is the 'reccomended' rehab ( per Auburn) but im a little crazy with the animals so...

after 3 weeks of crate restriction he was allowed roam of two rooms. NO oppertunity to get on couch, chair ect.

week 4 he was allowed to walk on leash for longer amounts of time , my fiance would tie him to her belt loop and do yardwork

week 5 we had a trip planned so we boarded him at a place he could swim for rehab. it cost 200.00 for the week but his muscle atrophy is really doing better

we're at 7 weeks post op and today he actually ran, hopped and basically all out frolicked like he had no issues! it was great to see!

they say that a dog with a torn ACL is 50% more likely to tear it's other. our thought was that if we do the conservative approach, no surgery and let it heal ( she WILL have arthritis, thats a given- deamus had it in most of his joint in the 2 weeks from 1 xray to the auburn one) and he blows out his other one then he'd have NO good legs and a life of pain. this way he's rehabbed well and essentially has a "new" leg...the vet said he can't really damage it at this point and if he blows out the other we'll go conservative and he'll at least be spared that pain.

try carecredit i think its carecredit.com but check google

of course if it came between feeding our family and getting the dogs leg fixed, we may not have gotten the expensive surgery. BUT thankfully it didnt . . . all in all im extremely glad we did it. even tho the rehab almost killed me for the first two weeks.

total - ABOUT 2700.

eta... don't do a 1/2 surgery... they don't work and they are becoming less and less respected by good vets.

 

[chickensioux]

It happened to my small terrier/mix 9 years ago.........$1000 back then for a small dog. Sorry this happened to the poor thing. It's a painful injury. I'm glad he has you.

 

[SillyChicken]

I have a young dog that has had damage to both her ACLs. We took her in for surgery on one knee and 2 wks later the other was damaged. We opted not to have surgery on the other knee and she's actually doing better on that leg than the one that had surgery. The one with the surgery has pins and there's alot of scar tissue from her lack of being able to move properly. Some times it swells and gets fluid in it.

She also has some other problems, arthritis in her knees on the upper long bone which we contribute to her problems with the ACLs. She cannot properly bend her hind legs to sit without a great deal of effort and discomfort. She is very weak in the back legs and they litteraly slip out from underneath her so she falls alot. I was so disappointed she has ended up this way. I had hoped to do competition obedience with her...... she's smart as a whip and just the sweetest disposition! She always has a happy smile on her face and her eyes always just shine.....I imagine at some point she may need to be put down or possibly get a wheelchair for her.

Several years ago, I had a rottie/lab mix that tore her ACL at 2 yrs old, she went through the surgery fine and never had any problems... I think she was 12 when she died.

 

[cmjust0]

Quote:
There's a new surgical technique for this called the "TightRope" surgery. Our LGD (a 150+lb Sarplaninac) blew out the ACL, destroyed the meniscus, and partially damaged the PCL in his right hind leg.. Obviously, he had to have surgery. I looked into TPLO and it was in the $3000+ range.. I looked into the "heavy suture" (fishing line!) surgery and it simply wouldn't hold up for a dog of his size and strength, especially given what he's out there to do..

Luckily, our vet has training and experience using the TightRope technique and said he's had nothing but success treating dogs that are actually heavier than mine.. Cost was quoted somewhere in the $1,500-$1,800 range, initially.. Expensive, sure...but do-able.

Ivan had TightRope surgery on 2/24/10. Four days later, he hiked his GOOD leg to pee, which left him standing squarely on his repaired leg. No problem. Make no mistake -- he was still pretty lamed up for several weeks, but it didn't take long before he started regularly walking on it again. We kept him quiet for about 8 weeks, then put him in a smaller enclosure with our bucks (goats) for 4 more weeks. After that, we turned him loose with the rest of the herd and the other LGD.

Today, he runs, plays with the other LGD, and generally acts pretty much exactly like he did before he had his surgery.. You can see that he's got a slight hitch in his giddyup, but only when he's walking slowly.. If he's walking quickly or running, you'd never know he'd had any problems.

Best part is that the surgery is that there's no bone-cutting involved...they simply drill two holes and run a piece of extremely high-strength "fiber tape" through them, pulling it tight and basically removing the need for the dog to have an ACL.. The recovery is MUCH easier with TightRope than TPLO, and the failure rate is about the same -- very low. So far, we've not seen any indication that the TightRope was anything but a complete success.

Look into it. If your vet doesn't do it, find one who does and at least ask.. Could save your dog a lot of unnecessary pain during recovery, not to mention the potential that it would save you a considerable amount of money.

ETA -- once everything was said and done, the total bill was about $1,350. And since there's not really any considerable 'hardware installation' to check up on (just a fibertape and a couple of washers -- that's it), there are no follow-up X-Rays and all the other stuff that typically goes along with TPLO..

 

[Turkenlover]

I feel your pain and I am so sorry for you and your dog!!

I have a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that had surgery on both rear ACLs. She injured the first one in July of 2008, and we had surgery performed (we elected to have the less expensive version instead of the TPLO) and it recovered beautifully after six weeks of 99% activity restriction. SERIOUSLY. She was in a kennel the entire time except to go to the bathroom. Why so extreme? She is a nutcase who bounces on her back legs like a kangaroo.

Of course, in November, the ACL on the other leg went out, and the surgery on that leg was only partially successful the first time because the implant slipped, so we had to repeat the surgery in January. I believe the implant slipped because we relented on the strict kennel restriction for one evening, and she heard a sound and jumped violently to her feet, barking. She started limping immediatly after that. Rest assured, we did not let that happen the second time.

Now, I'm not saying you should just stick your dog in a kennel and ignore them. I spent time in the kennel with her, massaging her leg and performing range of motion exercises. While I believe small dogs *may* be able to handle not having surgery, larger, active dogs would really have a tough time living with so much pain.

Sophie, two years later, is now 100% sound and happy. I'll be paying that credit card bill for many, many years to come, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Sophie and I wish you the best.

 

[bantamamba]

Wow, thank you for all the replies!!

DragonEggs -- I love your Bernie. Glad to hear he recovered. They are a great breed. Molly is crossed with a Bernese Mountain Dog...

We have looked into the TightRope procedure...the vet actually told us about it as an alternative. However, the closest hospital that offers it is over three hours away.

I've searched around, and most of the other places in my area are more expensive for the TPLO (by a good $500). Yes it is pricey...but the parental unit and her boyfriend are splitting it 50/50, 1500 each...she is taking out a loan with CareCredit. I am but a poor student at present who does chores to earn her keep, but as I am here all summer I'll be able to keep an eye on Molly during the day quite easily.

She's getting said TPLO done on Tues and we will likely pick her up on Thurs, although they did tell us Wednesday night was do-able as well. Luckily our vet place has a doc who specializes in this sort of this thing. She will most likely be confined to a bed room for the initial first weeks...

It is comforting to know that a lot of people and their dogs appear to go through this. Molly really is the most accident-prone animal we've had in a long while though. Her last major hurt was a necrotic spider bite in her arm pit.

People can boast about their $7,000 bulldog...and I lol.

I will be keeping this updated.

 

[cmjust0]

If someone's charging MORE for a TightRope than a TPLO, they're straight-up ripping people off. The TPLO is a much, much more involved surgery and is usually done by board-certified veterinary surgeons.. The vet who did the TightRope on my dog isn't board certified -- he's just a dang good veterinary surgeon.

He explained to me that the TightRope is nothing more than a modified version of the old "heavy suture" surgery they do, and that anybody who can do one of those (read that: any qualified vet) should be able to learn a TightRope in no time. He learned it, then taught the other vets at my clinic and they've pretty much all done at least one or two at this point. The vet who did my dog's has done a couple DOZEN..

They charge about the same on labor for a TightRope surgery as they do a "heavy suture," with the additional price difference being primarly the cost of the apparatus itself... Obviously, human-surgical grade fibertape is spendier than fishing line...by about $400.

Ugh...sorry to hear that wasn't an option for you guys.

Really hope the TPLO goes well! Make no mistake -- it's still considered 'the gold standard' in CCL repairs, so she's getting a good surgery and should make an excellent recovery!

 

[bantamamba]

Quote:
Thank you so much. I've been doing some research and it really does sound like it is the absolute best thing you can do for big dogs with this sort of injury. I do wish the TightRope was available here...I think it is simply a manner of them taking the time to learn it, as you said. The 3 hour-away pet hospital is not charging more for the TR...but as far as cost for TPLO, yeah, my vet looks to be the cheapest around these 'ere parts.

Ah, my poor mutt. She's "special"...lol, but she's a good, loving girl. I'm staying positive that this will all be over before we know it.