Dog torn knee ligament

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Rikkitic

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#1954730 10-Feb-2018 11:53

Good luck @JayADee. I know how much the love of an animal matters. I hope you can get this fixed.

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JayADee

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#1954801 10-Feb-2018 13:46

Rikkitic:
Good luck @JayADee. I know how much the love of an animal matters. I hope you can get this fixed.

Thanks Rikkitic.

JayADee

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#1985050 28-Mar-2018 16:48

Update: my lovely 8 year old dog had TTA surgery a little less than 3 weeks ago and she is already walking better on the leg than before the op. We are being very careful though and she spends most of her time tethered to the couch leg laying on her mat or in her cage at night. She is surprisingly ok with this so the operation must have taken a bit out of her although she has been pining after rides in the car, which I might let her have on the weekend with me holding her on the leash next to her while she sits on the fold down seat. Currently she gets a max of three 10-20 min leash walks per day on the flat, meandering around our yard.

Unfortunately her arthritis in that leg is worse than thought said the vet once he got in there for a look.

The vet who did the surgery did a great job, there was next to no swelling of the leg post op and no issues with the stitches which came out last week. There will be no scar either. The vet was a specialist who travels around, I think he is based in Auckland.

I am not sure what the final price tag will be yet.

Rikkitic

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#1985146 28-Mar-2018 21:08

You can't put a price on that kind of thing. I spent $2,000 on my cat, who was the best friend I ever had. Unfortunately even that was not enough.

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JayADee

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#1985168 28-Mar-2018 21:44

Rikkitic:
You can't put a price on that kind of thing. I spent $2,000 on my cat, who was the best friend I ever had. Unfortunately even that was not enough.

That's sad. Sorry for your loss. I've had great cats in the past, they are all such characters.
I wish animals lived longer.

pctek

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#1985844 30-Mar-2018 09:46

People think surgery is a magic wand.

All they do is connect the ligaments back together. This is not a cure, this just holds it there until the body heals itself.

It may "sound whacked" perhaps you can ask your vet to give you the medical explanation.

surfisup1000

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#1985848 30-Mar-2018 09:51

JayADee:
It sounds whacked to me to keep the dog in pain, not allowed to do what she loves and allow the muscles in the bad leg to atrophy and wait until she breaks the ligament! You wouldn't treat a person that way, I don't think.

This is exactly how they treated me, after tearing my ACL. Tore it, they wouldn't do anything. Tore it again, they said it could then be repaired.

So I had 3 sets of month or more pain, the time of the original injury, the second time I tore it more, and the third time after surgery.

Except, I had the added hassle of arguing with the ACC that my torn ligament was an accident.

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JayADee

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#1985869 30-Mar-2018 10:29

pctek:
People think surgery is a magic wand.

All they do is connect the ligaments back together. This is not a cure, this just holds it there until the body heals itself.

It may "sound whacked" perhaps you can ask your vet to give you the medical explanation.

My understanding is they don't repair the ligament, they change the angle of the bone so there is no shearing force on and less movement in the joint. (Movement that was normally constrained by the now buggered ligament)
https://www.willows.uk.net/specialist-services/pet-health-information/orthopaedics/tta-surgery-for-cruciate-ligament-rupture

The whole point of surgery for me was to get the dog out of pain and back to enjoying being able to walk, run and swim again. It won't cure the arthritis but at least she will have a happier and longer life.

We took her for a car ride this morning.

By the way, the vet said he had preformed this surgery on working dogs who could then go back to work.

JayADee

2148 posts

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#1985872 30-Mar-2018 10:33

surfisup1000:
JayADee:
It sounds whacked to me to keep the dog in pain, not allowed to do what she loves and allow the muscles in the bad leg to atrophy and wait until she breaks the ligament! You wouldn't treat a person that way, I don't think.

This is exactly how they treated me, after tearing my ACL. Tore it, they wouldn't do anything. Tore it again, they said it could then be repaired.

So I had 3 sets of month or more pain, the time of the original injury, the second time I tore it more, and the third time after surgery.

Except, I had the added hassle of arguing with the ACC that my torn ligament was an accident.

Ouch!! Not like you need it to walk or anything.

JayADee

2148 posts

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#2204622 25-Mar-2019 11:40

Final update! My much loved pooch is back to good as new, you'd never know she had surgery. She does still of course have arthritis (you can't tell by watching her but the surgeon said she did) and she is getting on in years (10 in July) but the surgery really does work in case any readers are considering it. It is a long recovery period but better then the alternatives in my opinion. Also she gained some weight in recovery being crated then on very limited exercise and in the interest of her joints has been on reduced food and is almost back to her ideal weight.

Thank you all for the support earlier on.

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