My dog ruptured a ligament.

[bluedigger]

The dog equivalent of her ACL in her left rear leg. She chased a tennis ball into another room last night and came back lame. I checked her out and couldn't find anything obvious wrong with her. I took her in to the vet this morning when she didn't improve. X-rays showed a ruptured ligament. It will probably cost about a $1000 to fix her. I scheduled her for surgery Monday afternoon.

Luckily, I got laid off just before Christmas, so I'll be available to tend her until she's back on her paws. 2-3 months for "complete" recovery is the estimate.

Any other DUers have experience with this sort of thing? Any tips would be appreciated! (She is a soon to be 4 year old Catahoula, about 60 lbs.)

[MuseRider]

1. Oh goodness yes we did this.

Our little beagle mix rescue doggie did this. Of all the dogs it had to be her. She was supposed to stay in a kennel for 2-3 months. This dog will not tolerate even a huge kennel. We tried and she broke off most of her teeth and tore up 3 kennels, that was when she was on a massive dose of Ace and Prozac to keep her calm right after the surgery. Most days we hooked a leash up to the coffee table in the room we are in mostly. It was not ideal and we had to add another month to her recovery time.

In the end she is good now. She runs around but gets stiff and sore after she does. They told us that dogs that have this happen are very prone to have it happen to the other leg as well. Our neighbors Golden was one of those cases.

It was worth it for her, she is happy and not compromised when running around with the other dogs and she tends to pace herself better on hikes now. Good luck.

[bluedigger]

3. I'm a little concerned about her recovery.

She doesn't run around the house unless she's chasing a ball, though. (I just picked up all the balls - she isn't up yet, lol.) I'm not sure if I should crate her or not. She used to be crated as a pup, but she has had free run of the house for almost three years now.

I'm glad to hear your dog recovered well from the procedure!

[RKP5637]

2. My cat did this to his rear knee about 6 years ago playing with the dog and did an acrobatic

act getting his leg caught in a fence, twisted it, and ripped out the ligament that held his knee together (I forget the name of that ligament.) It was about the same cost, $1000. Fortunately we have a really good veterinary hospital here, it's an amazing place, practically like going into to a human hospital.

He recovered completely, not even a limp. His surgeon was incredible. The entire ligament that holds his knee together was replaced. I imagine this is about the same as for ligament reattachment, etc.

The surgeon said the most important part of this is keeping the pet calm during recovery, and the worst is if the pet jumps up, like onto a sofa/bed and possibly rips the surgery lose before the muscle, etc. heals and bonds the injury back together. He said the success is really in the post-operative care by the owner.

The following is what happen with my cat, probably similar for a dog. I had to keep him completely calm for 3 months. I had two cages. A large 4' x 6' one I kept in the living room by the slider so he could see out. For a cat it worked well, as I put a small kitty litter box at one end of the cage, and his food/water at the other end of the cage. It opened from both ends. I got it up at one of the big-box pet stores and it wasn't that expensive. He stayed in there all day, and I spent a fair amount of time lying next to his cage.

He then had a smaller cage I kept on my bed next to me. He slept in there at night and I would pet him 'till he fell asleep and then locked the cage door shut for the night. I carried him everyplace, between cages and just for carry walks around the house.

This went on for three months, never once letting him walk on his own than in his cage.

Initially I had to take him to the vet every few days, then every week, then that taped way off toward the end of his three month healing process. All of his visits were included in the original cost for his operation. For the vet trips I used a smaller cage so he never once walked during his recovery, than limping around his cage a bit toward the end, which was OK. For the fourth month I just had to try to keep him calm as he ran around, trying to keep him from jumping up too much. A real job keeping a climbing cat still.

He made a 100% recovery. Absolutely no limp, no problems whatsoever.

Anyway, I just relayed all of this ... because it's so important after the operation to keep them from running around, jumping etc.

PS: For the first few days I had to give him pain killers in a syringe. It was a large one, and had a tube on the end so I could just inject it into his mouth and he swallowed the liquid pain killer. Then, after that, I gave him a pain killer (pill) in a piece of rolled up chicken. That worked well. It seemed I had to give him the pill pain killers for about two weeks. He never seemed to be in heavy pain, but one could tell it hurt. He had about a 5" incision in this thigh/knee area. They popped his knee out to do the surgery.

He's a large cat, about 20 lbs., all muscle, not fat, just a big kitty that's very active.

I hope this helped. My cat and I really love each other and are best of friends. I was amazed at how well he was with all of this.

[bluedigger]

4. Thanks for the reply!

Your cat looks like a troublemaker, lol. I didn't realize they could hurt themselves like that. Cats always seem like they are made of rubber.

I was thinking maybe if I put my bed on the floor that would help Cleo - she has slept with me since I got her, and is big enough that she wouldn't have to "jump" if it was down on the ground.

I'm not looking forward to walking her, either. She won't go in her own yard, and prefers to be about two blocks away before she poops...

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, his nickname is brat cat, lol. That sounds like an excellent idea, putting the bed

on the floor. That's one thing I like about cats, no cat walks for poops. Good Luck with all of this, I'm sure you'll find it all works out OK!

[TorchTheWitch]

6. I did a lot of research on it since it's what I suspected was

the problem with my old dog, Boo. Unfortunately, for Boo it turned out to be bone cancer. I also talked extensively with my vet about it since his beginning symptoms could have been because of an ACL tear.

X-rays wouldn't show a ruptured ligament though they are helpful in determining the amount of arthritis that has set in and is helpful to determine how best to go about conducting surgery. In order to diagnose if this is an ACL tear (also called a rupture - where the ligament actually becomes severed rather than stretched), the vet does what is called a "drawer" test, which is manupulation of the joint to see if the ligament has completely torn. It's called a "drawer" test because if the ACL is completely torn, the manipulation of the joint causes the lower leg to slide away much like a drawer sliding away from a dresser. When the ligaments are intact, the joint can't be manipulated in such a way as the healthy intact ligaments prevent the movement. Unfortunately, the dog has to be completely relaxed in order to not show a false negative, which is pretty difficult with most dogs since most dogs are going to be at least a little tense at the vet office to begin with much less having their parts handled in such a way. Often the drawer test is done after sedation in order to get the dog relaxed enough for an accurate assessment.

I still have a few YouTube videos that explains and shows how the drawer test is done, an explaination with a model that explains the knee structure and the various ligaments, and also a few about surgery, helpful knee braces, etc.

This one is in two parts... the first part discusses the drawer test and what the ACL injry is all about, and the second part deals with the surgery. I have to warn you that the second part about the surgery is a little stomach turning for those of us that find looking at an actual surgical procedure icky. Frankly, I just couldn't watch the second part...

Part One -

&feature=related

Part Two *GRAPHIC WARNING* -
On Edit - I forgot the links show up now as an embeded video, and the picture on the sceen of this one is icky, so I took out the link. If anyone wants to watch it, YouTube puts it first in line for recommended videos.

This one is a dog trotting around while wearing its knee brace. Custom fitted knee braces are really amazing in how much they keep the knee stable, and there's lots of short clips that show dogs running and playing while wearing their knee braces after surgery and recovery, so poke around the other videos that YT recommends -

&feature=endscreen&NR=1

There's also a really good Yahoo group for dogs with ACL injuries though I no longer can find the bookmark for it. It's great for learning a lot with other people going through the same thing, and support like that while you're going through it is really great. I got an infinite amount of knowledge and support through a Yahoo group for dogs with sebaceous addenitis when my first Akita got it.

What I did learn is that this is going to be no fun at all for either you or the dog. One thing that is very discouraging is the price. Surgery for repairing a completely torn ACL (total separation) is around $4000 to $5000. The $1000 price you mentioned I hope is because this isn't a completely torn ACL which would certainly be a lot better. If you have pet insurance it may or may not help... a LOT of pet insurance coverage purposely omits ACL repair surgery simple because of the obnoxious price. But it is was it is because it's very delicate and very time consuming surgery.

What is also unfortunate is that medium and larger breeds like you have are EXTREMELY likely to rupture the ACL in the opposite leg within the first year after the surgery. For this reason, many dogs undergo the surgery in both the leg that has the tear and the opposite leg at the same time... that is, as long as it's something one can afford (which most people just can't since we're talking around 10K). Be prepared to have to end up going through the same thing all over again with the opposite leg.

Recovery is very lengthy (commonly six months) and the dog must be on complete cage rest for a long long time. I'm guessing that the 2-3 month recovery estimate you mentioned is because the ligament isn't completely severed, or at least I hope it isn't. Both the price and recovery time you mentioned sounds to me like it's not, so that would be a good thing. It's the recovery part that sucks the most for the dog and the owner since the dog isn't going to like that one bit. This is where a Yahoo group can be really helpful in suggestions to entertaining the dog so they don't go completely stir crazy while in recovery as well as helpful devices and suggestions for helping the dog outside to go to the bathroom, etc. They also help with information on charities that may help you with the cost, if that's an issue.

Good luck to you and your pooch, and keep us posted!

[MuseRider]

7. I thought I would come back since I may have misunderstood what you were asking about.

What my dog had done was a TLO, I think it is a tibial plateau leveling osteotomy but don't quote me on that. They had to shave off part of the bone. There was no ligament correction that I recall.

Your sweetie will not feel too cramped at first since she will be feeling rather bad for a few days however when she feels better, and you know how stoic they can be, she will not like being contained. One of the vets was really mad at us not keeping ours in a kennel until he saw what she did to it and her teeth. She really went nuts. As I said, we kept her with us in whatever room we were in but tied to some piece of furniture so she could not just get up and walk or play. We had to sling her back end and walk her that way for 3 months every time she needed out. No weight allowed on those legs.

It does suck but the alternative was to have her in pain and limping and her leg getting more painful as the years go on. They also told us that once it was done there was no doing it again on that leg. The remaining alternative was amputation. This was several years ago, hopefully there have been improvements.

She is lucky that you will be there. It will help but be prepared to feel really guilty for a while. Those eyes that say...."Why are you making me stay tied up?" Ours always goes and sleeps during the days in the place she was tied up for so long, still makes me feel bad.