Cruciate ligament damage in dogs

About 8 weeks ago, my Alaskan Malamute had a severed cruciate ligament repaired. The hardest part has been keeping him quiet. It didn't help that he had a reaction to the first lot of stitches that caused fluid to build up around his knee which caused his stitches to disolve and his wound to open up:eek:

He was kept on lead even to go on the garden for the first 4 weeks. He'd got so much pent up energy and was chomping at the bit to have a good run around. We got around this by taking him to hydrotherapy once the stitches had healed. We found it was a fantastic way to burn some of his energy without putting too much pressure on his joints.

Its only now I'm letting him have short periods of time off lead and he'll not put weight on it if he's done too much.

My boy was in and out of the vets on the same day and the poor lad didn't know what to do with himself when he got home. He slept standing up for 2 days because he couldn't work out how to lie down without it hurting. He was also grumpy and growly because of the pain.

The best advice I can give is stock up on buster collars. I lost count of how many I went through as he smashed them to bits going through doors etc:rotfl:

I hope she's not too sore when she gets home.

My Dog had TPLO 6 weeks ago. She stayed in overnight then I took her home the next afternoon, At first she had her legged wrapped in a bandage which slowed her down. The next day it was removed by my local vet and we put a headcollar on her to stop her chewing the stitches. The hardest part as everyone says is keeping them less active. I was told for 4 weeks she could have 2 minutes on the leash in the garden. After that 3 X 15 minute walks for another 4 weeks and then a bit more activity for another 4 weeks until checked again (need to find my bit of paper).

As we are half way through the second 4 week period I am finding that the more exercise she has the more she wants to do so is becoming frustrated.She has also had her food reduced by a third as it is very important not to put on weight.

After her stitches were removed at 10 days the headcollar came off. As my dog was very exitable she has been crated since I brought her home whenever I leave the house or at night or if she gets too excitable such as when we get visitors.

You may like to look at this website http://vetsurgerycentral.com/tplo.htm

My Surgeon advised that this more modern and costly operation is more suitable for active dogs. I'm sure your Dog is in very safe hands. Hope this info is useful. My house currently has tables and chairs on the sofas to stop my Dog jumping up. Unfortunately this week she keeps deciding she can still do this though:rolleyes: My suggestion would definately be to crate them after an operation like this. I got a 48" within 2 days via a seller on ebay for under £40.

I also got a dog ramp from Amazon to help me in and out of the car with her to visit the vet. Make sure you don't do your back in.

Our 10 month old Springer had an op on a ruptured cruciate on Thursday and she was out on Friday afternoon.

Hardest thing is stopping her jumping on and off the settee and we're carrying her up and downstairs and lifting her onto the bed at night. Fortunately, once she gets on the bed at night she doesn't move.

She has about a 4 inch scar and we have to take her to the vet in 7 to 10 days to have the stiches out. She hasn't bothered with the stiches so doesn't have to wear a collar.

We've been told she can have 3 ten minute walks a day on a lead and then she will see the specialist again in 4 weeks. She is on antibiotics and anti inflammatories for 2 weeks too. So far it has cost approx £1,500 and will hopefully be covered by insurance.

She's not happy about being left behind when the other two go out but apart from that she's been fine, eating, drinking and toileting normally.

pamril1 wrote: »

Just a quick question about our insurance.
We are currently insured by direct line and the max payout per condition is £4000 (had I had known I would have taken out the higher policy!)
Now if she hurts her leg again eg in a few months she rejects the plate or something similar will that be under the same claim or under a new claim?
I'm a bit confused about all this insurance business as you can tell.
Also the policy expires in January so If I were to keep on with Direct Line I know my premiums will go up but if she had further problems assosiated with this accident would this then be classed as a new claim due to the fact it's a new policy? (wish the smilies worked there'd be hundreds of confused ones on this post by now lol)

about the insurance, all polcies are slightly different, i can only tell you what happened in our case, Jess has per condition per life insurance (a mistake i now realise, but you live and learn) so this means that she has injured her cruciate ligament on her left leg, this was then repaired and paid out on, then she developed a further problem with this repair so that had to be claimed on under the same condition, then again a further op as was still not a stable joint, followed by another op (yup 4 now for cruciate problem) all these because they followed the inital cruciate problem have had to be claimed for on the cruciate problem, she has also had MRSA in the wound and this all counts on the same condtion. We are now £1000 over our policy limit of £6500 and it will never be claimable again. I am not sure what the future holds as jess only walks on 3 legs a lot of the time now and she has to see the speacilist agin next week, it looks like we will be buying painkillers for her for the next 10 years or so at the vary least.

This isnt to scare you, just really so you are aware, on the positive side she had the right leg done 2 years ago and this was straight forward, repaired, recovered, forgotten about now, and if she now developed a problem in theat leg it wouldnt be cruciate problem so we could claim again under a differnt condtion

I'm not sure i have made sense here..was trying to