ACL Injury
Our six year old dog was doing her usual full throttle chasing of her favorite yard toy when she started yelping and came back holding her left hind leg up to her body. I optimistically hoped it was just a sprain, but I had a bad feeling about it. The next morning she still wasn’t putting any weight on it. I started going through a mental list of orthopedic sports injuries related to humans, none of which were good, and made and appointment with the vet.
The vet visit wasn’t much more encouraging. After some brief manipulating of Mikki’s knee the vet pronounced she had a full, or partial tear of her ACL. Can you believe this? This is the same sports injury that plagues many human athletes. The good news was that there were two choices for surgeries. The cheaper one cost 400 dollars, and had a risk of possibly happening again. The other was 1000 to 2000 dollars for a tibial plate revision and would be good for the life of the dog. For that amount of money it should triple her life span as well.
I made the appointment for the cheaper suture repair surgery. The soonest it could be done was April 6th. She still tears around on three legs pretty well. I am praying that her good knee is able to put up with the added work. How do you stretch out and warm up a border collie before she really runs?
The Beatles song "I want to hold your hand" comes to mind when I look at these pics.
Maybe Bonzaii can help with post-op physical therapy. He could start her out with some light walking, and then gradually work her way up to some short jogs around the yard.
March 29th, 2010 at 6:44 am
My daughter’s 11-year old huskie mix -who stays at our house during the day and often overnight – did the same thing recently but the vet advises against operating because of arthritis in her hips. Needless to say, we all wince watching her tear across the snow with her buddies, my son’s St. Bernard and pug, along with the neighbor’s Rottie mix. She takes a strong anti-inflammatory pain medication each morning and seems just as happy – if a bit slower- as she’s ever been.
March 29th, 2010 at 8:34 am
Hi, I heard about your website from Clover Lane and like your book. I will try to get both of them. Just a comment about ACL. yes that happened with my German Shepherd. Just out of the blue with his regular tearing around the backyard, all of sudden something must have snapped b/c he yelped and came limping to me with no weight at all on his back leg! It was a complete snap of the ligament. I believe that is the more expensive surgery. A partial tear on a smaller/lighter dog can go “unrepaired” and the dog can just limp around until it gets better, but Buster (our dog) was completely out a back leg so we got the surgery done. He is also a bigger dog. He is old though which breaks my heart b/c I do not know how much $ we should spend on him at his age but we did it (around $1,200) b/c he is such a healthy sprightly dog. It was about 6-8 weeks ago and he is back to normal but I wonder if he will always have that minor limp going on. Anyways, it does not matter b/c I hope it is good for the time he has left which I hope is at least few years with the way he is going! (he is 11 1/2 right now but acts much much much younger!) It is so hard to put an animal down. I hope I never have to face that situation!
March 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Thanks for the comment!
Glad it’s working for your dog. You sound like a real dog person. Me too.
I did have to take our 14 year old Husky/Lab mix in to be put down. Arthritis had made her life miserable. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it was the last best things I could do for her. Don’t do this trip alone. We bought our current dog, Mikki, a couple years before I had to take Kelsey in. Of course they don’t replace the old one; they’re a different dog after all. It really does help soften the blow. They keep you from going through a dog-less phase, and it is major fun seeing the interactions of an older dog and a younger one.
March 30th, 2010 at 5:35 am
We’ve spent close to $500 at the animal hospital on our girl cat in the last 6 weeks. She was diagnosed with diabetes, now must have insulin shots twice a day. Plus the change in food needs must be added to the cost.
Also, I turned down TA Sub jobs to be able to nurse her thru the roughest first days.
We’ve had her since she was 7 weeks old. Next birthday coming this summer, she will be 15 years old.
I won’t miss the money so much as I’ll miss her when the time comes.
March 30th, 2010 at 10:53 am
What a sweet, loving cat. She seems like she is trying to help her friend feel better. [:-)
March 30th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Our dog is suffering from this right now. He tore it playing with my sister’s St Barnard a couple of weeks ago. We are trying meds, but I don’t think they will solve the problem. It is looking like surgery, we will find out Thursday. I hope your dog gets better quickly.
March 31st, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Get well soon Mikki. We need to see you up at the place this summer playing with Penny and jockeying for dropped hot dogs.