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  1. #26
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    Bump, because this is the most relevant thread on dog CCL injury that I could find.

    We have a labradoodle that has at least a partial, if not complete, CCL tear. Vet did X rays and hands on testing and isn't sure if it's partial or full - prescribed carprofen for two weeks and see if there's any improvement,which might indicate partial tear. Unfortunately the dog injured himself two days before we had an overseas trip scheduled (which we're on right now, because the vet said it'd be OK) - son is taking care of the dog now.

    I have a couple of questions for those who've been through this with their dogs:

    1)How long do we wait and see on the dog's condition before going back for surgery consultation? Vet said there's no harm in waiting, that the joint doesn't get worse - but doesn't this stress the other hind leg more, and make it more prone to injury?

    2) How did you cope with post surgery recovery if your dog was a very very active dog? Ours is a nutcase that will run around the yard all day if you let him. I'm worried about him reinjuring himself.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  2. #27
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    Reinjury is the suck.

    My dog goes berserk. Still does post surgery.
    Five years old. Two years post surgery.
    Only one knee so far with this dog. But off leash she’s insane.

    Follow the vets advice. Only leash walks for a few months.
    Partial tears can heal. It’s hard to slow them down. But you have to.
    She had some laxity in the other knee. But so far so good.

    For activity. Try rolling them over and wrestling with them on their back. They need to play.

  3. #28
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    Posting to add: upon further searching, there are a couple other CCL dog threads, but this is the most recent. Searching on a phone isn't great.

    I appreciate any input anyone has, particularly on rehabbing a nutcase spazz of a dog that loves running more than anything else in the world.

    Edit to add: thanks Core Shot.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  4. #29
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    Hand feed. Take the daily allotment of kibble and maybe add some bits of cheese and hot dog so sometimes there is a surprise. Play games, teach tricks, give bits of food whenever you walk by, try balancing on her nose. Catch. Make her lay down and line up food on her legs and all over in front of her and then tell her which one she can eat..

    Feed any leftovers on one of those feeding mats .

  5. #30
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    Good luck! We did almost all the suggestions in the thread, but ended up getting her a mild sedative from the vet that really helped the second week. Right after the surgery she was pretty content to sleep all day and didn't want to move around (possibly from the anesthesia and/or other medicines), but eventually she got pretty discontented with her confinement and we were worried she'd try to do things she shouldn't movement-wise.

    I do think having the enclosure in a family area was helpful and I liked the open top as we would just climb in and snuggle her.

    We went with the filament surgery rather than the tibial plateau reshaping. It was the recommendation of the vet and I agreed after reading pretty much every study on canine ccl reconstruction in the past decade and seeing results were pretty darn close with less complications. I'm not sure it was the right choice as we had some issues with it afterwards. The filament stretched/loosened/something in a way that shouldn't have happened. The vet said it was only the second case he'd had that happen with and the first since moving to the new class of filaments several years previous, but who knows. He did offer to redo the surgery for free. Unfortunately, before that happened, my dog had a seizure almost out of the blue, and died of a brain tumor maybe 6 weeks later. It was a terrible year of dog ownership, but I loved her so much so I am glad that I had the time I did.

  6. #31
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    Thanks again everyone - one more thing to add - the dog is about 58# (a healthy weight for his size, he's definitely not fat). Google results suggest the TPLO surgery produces better results for larger dogs. I'll obviously be discussing this with the regular vet and with the referral surgeon (regular vet doesn't do this surgery on larger dogs), but I'm interested to hear what the larger dog owners here decided on the type of surgery.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  7. #32
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    We're going through this now with our 2 year old 95 lb (also not fat) Shepherd/Husky rescue.

    His TPLO surgery is on the 21st. Due to his size, two surgeons said it was the only way to go. So, at 58 lbs that's consistent with what I've heard.

    Fortunately he's a pretty chill dog for the most part.

  8. #33
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    Good luck Chup! Slowing dogs down when they’re hurt is a real pain for you, and for them.

    Best advice I've gotten, and seems to work, is to just make sure they are mentally stimulated as much as possible. Make sure they don't have just a boring routine, but teach them tricks, play games, get them puzzle feeders, etc. If they can get into a car, go on car rides to the coffee shop where they can get lots of pets and treats, etc. Go on walks in different neighborhoods so the sights and smells are different.

    A Kong filled with treats and canned pumpkin, then put into the freezer, is a good way to kill a few hours.

  9. #34
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    When its time for her to start moving swimming is going to be way better than walking/running if you can figure that out somehow.
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    "I'm constantly doing things I can't do. Thats how I get to do them." - Pablo Picasso

    Cisco and his wife are fragile idiots who breed morons.

  10. #35
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    Thanks again everyone.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  11. #36
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    Murphy came home today from his surgery yesterday. He's pretty groggy and mostly wants to sleep now. Am icing his knee now.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  12. #37
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    Brings back memories of lying down with our knee-rebuild dog while icing her knee. Sweet times.

    Good on ya, Chup.

  13. #38
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    My dog is in for double TPLO surgery on Friday. Thanks all for tips. Fortunately my wife and I are going to be able to adjust our schedules to alternating working from home. I'm still shitting my pants a little bit about the process but am really looking forward to being able to take the dog for a walk again in a few months.

  14. #39
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    Murphy had his 8 week post surgery checkup a few days ago, with X rays, and he's healing up great. Bone is healed. We are still going to restrict activity while strengthening his injured leg, in the hopes that helps reduce likelihood of blowing up the other knee - theory being that if we get both hind legs equally strong, he won't favor the non surgically repaired side and over stress it.

    He can do around 50-55 min of leash hike now, without limping. Pushing longer and he'll limp a little, show signs of soreness.

    No off leash time yet.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  15. #40
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    Good to hear Chup. We're in snow country so hopefully Loki should be 2 months or so into recovery before we have deal with rehab while there is snow on the ground. It'll be a bit relief to hear that her bones are healed up.

    Any tips from your experience with the recovery?

  16. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by John_B View Post
    Good to hear Chup. We're in snow country so hopefully Loki should be 2 months or so into recovery before we have deal with rehab while there is snow on the ground. It'll be a bit relief to hear that her bones are healed up.

    Any tips from your experience with the recovery?
    The dog will feel much more healed and capable than he is, early - like 2-3 weeks out. Our vet gave us a lot of exercises to do with Murphy as soon as possible, starting with very low activity immediately, and progressing at about the two week point.

    We kept Murphy in a corral (pictured above) when we had to leave him in the house, so he couldn't run around, for about 5-6 weeks. The dogs sleep in our bedroom upstairs, and running up / down stairs is bad early - we close the door to the bedroom to keep them in at night. For that same 5-6 weeks, we'd only bring Murphy up / down stairs on leash, or holding his collar.

    Murphy is not a good walking on a leash dog - he pulls, hard - because we usually just let him go off leash with a radio collar. For rehab, we got a "gentle leader" type lead to keep him from pulling too hard, so he couldn't pull against the repaired knee. He hates that thing, but it does work to reduce pulling. The brand we got was a Halti, off Amazon.

    Just last week, we started using a retractable leash for walks, so he can go a little further away. Not using the gentle leader any more - pulling against the leash at this stage probably helps strengthening.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  17. #42
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    Well, I'm back in this thread, same dog, other side knee. Murphy came up limping this morning after running around the yard. He doesn't want to weight his left rear leg most of the time, and seems depressed or hurting. I'm icing his knee periodically and will get him to the vet soon. Guessing it's another TPLO surgery.

    Poor dood.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  18. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by El Chupacabra View Post
    Well, I'm back in this thread, same dog, other side knee. Murphy came up limping this morning after running around the yard. He doesn't want to weight his left rear leg most of the time, and seems depressed or hurting. I'm icing his knee periodically and will get him to the vet soon. Guessing it's another TPLO surgery.

    Poor dood.
    Damn Murphy sorry to hear. Loki is doing good now, one leg healed up real good and the other one had a bit of a rougher time.I have no idea what happened but we wound up with early snow and after a leashed walk she ended up limping pretty badly. It turned out that she basically wound up rebreaking it, but the plate stayed put and the bone slowly healed up. The vet said he'd never had a dog have that issue on a surgery he did. It ended up probably adding a couple months to her recovery time and there was talk of bone grafts. After a winter of stress things ended fine and I can't even remember which leg was the troublesome one now.

    If anyone else is reading this who has a dog going in for surgery I'd highly recommend the above advice to keep your dog drugged up for at least the first few weeks and maybe longer

  19. #44
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    Quote Originally Posted by El Chupacabra View Post
    Murphy came home today from his surgery yesterday. He's pretty groggy and mostly wants to sleep now. Am icing his knee now.
    I have the mirror image of this going on right now. Murphy had his left knee TPLO done on Thursday morning. Rehab time again...

    He's not a happy guy right now.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  20. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by schindlerpiste View Post
    Just give up your days and be there for her. She’ll appreciate it
    That's it. Just spend lots of time and make her feel included without much getting around. She'll appreciate it.

  21. #46
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    After my pup had surgery we moved the bed to the floor of the living room and slept out there for a couple of days with her. She was so much more calm and happy then having us in the back of the house that she had difficulty getting to.

  22. #47
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    I slept in the living room last night on a pull out bed, to be near Murphy in case he had any issues overnight. He slept better than I did.
    Quote Originally Posted by powder11 View Post
    if you have to resort to taking advice from the nitwits on this forum, then you're doomed.

  23. #48
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    This is the way.

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