Argh, this is a rant against no one, or no canine, just a bitch.
My dog blew her CCL (canine cruciate ligament) out this last sunday. There was a husky, there were deer, there was husky that came back 1/2 hour later with a pronounced limp. The vet confirmed it today. She goes in for surgery on monday.
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I now have a husky who is a tripod dog, and is already pissed that I won’t let her go down the stairs to the back yard, or anywhere but the deck and house. She doesn’t yet know that we have three months before she can be off leash, anywhere. And because my house is on a hill, I have to carry her up the steps to the street any time she wants to take a pee. For at least the next two months.
It’s going to suck for both of us. For three months. I had another dog do this 12 years ago and it sucked, for both of us. I put on 10 pounds and the dog hated the leash.
Shit. At least I have good vet and have been through this before. But summer in Montana should not be spent at the house. She will want to run, she can’t run, and i’ll be more prone to doing household crap than our usual 10-20 miles of hiking, running and biking a week.
Sasserfras had both done last year, plus she had a skin condition that required and still requires much trips to a dermatologist. I considered getting her a social security number cause she sure as heck went over the 7.5% of my salary in medical bills.
Do you have “baby” sitters lined up so that she isn’t left alone until there is no chance of redamaging/pulling out the screws (I am assuming your little one is getting ACLU)?
My dog blew out her right knee in November 2002 and had the surgury with a good recovery. Then in 2003, a year later almost to the day, blew out the left knee. Again surgury and a good recovery, except for hair regrowth.
But now my wife doesn’t want to let her out in our fenced yard without being on a leash. She’s afraid that new damage will be done. I guess it’s possible, so better safe than sorry.
I don’t know the technical name of the operation, but no screws or plates were used on either knee. We reserved that as a fallback incase the simpler operation didn’t work. IIRC the operation with the plate requires some bone removal.
Good luck, and if I find a fat cat with a broken leg, it’s coming your way!
whistlepig, I feel your pain and am sorry about your poor baby. Pia, my 8-year old bulldog, tore her ACL about a year ago. The husband was watching Wrestlemania with some buddies one night, and in a fit of testosterone they decided it was time to wrestle with the dog, who was more than happy to oblige. The next morning she was limping badly, by the afternoon, screeching everytime anyone came within inches of her leg. The next day we were given the news that it was indeed a VERY torn ACL, and that the surgery would cost a little over $2000. YIKES. It wasn’t even an option for us not to do it, she’s part of our family. The worst part was we had to carry her up and down stairs for about 2-3 months after the surgery. Lugging a 60-lb bulldog up and down stairs gets reeeeally old after a while. You’ll build your arm muscles up nicely. And if the dog is as smart as mine turned out to be, she will milk it for all she’s worth. Nothing more pathetic than a dog holding up her leg pitifully, waiting to be carried up the stairs to go to bed. She had us SOOO snowed.
I had a dog years ago that blew out both of them too - fortunately one at a time. He was over a hundred pounds, and his recovery took a long time. He never could jump into the back of the truck after that, but he did have some functional years left in him.
We were lucky enough to have a good orthopedic vet surgeon in our town, whose dad was a professor at the vet school at UC Davis. I don’t think it was more than a thousand per knee, but that was a huge chunk of change.
I have smaller dogs now, so I hope it doesn’t happen again. Poor ol’ dogs. Maybe a nice peanut-butter filled kong would cheer him up?
My sympathies - you may remember that Spooner, our Shepherd/something fuzzy mix tore both CCL’s within 8 weeks of each other last summer. Carrying 50+ lbs of dog up and down the stairs ( we live in a trilevel and she HAD to be in the same room that we were) got real old real quick.
Sorry, that what I get for posting some of our family slang. At Casa Rick give a pet or pets means to pet the dog. So what I was trying say was give your dog some petting from me.
You have our family’s sincere sympathy. Nipper the Wonder Dog had ACL surgery on his right hind leg last summer and on his left hind leg the summer before that. Between the pain and suffering (more on our part than the dog’s) and $1200 per leg…what a mess!
We took our four poster, hand carved, cherry bed frame, headboard and footboard apart and stored it in the garage. Almost a year later, we’re still sleeping on the mattress and box springs. Just so Nipper doesn’t have to jump.
The first few days he was home I fed him vanilla ice cream from a spoon. A mother’s love!
Thanks all. She goes in for surgery tomorrow morning. I will be doing the stairs carrying things beacuoup times a day, since there are stairs into my house both back and front. she’s in great physical shape, so that should help with the rehabilitation.
I’ve had about 10 dogs since I was little and none have ever had this happen. What causes it and are some pure breeds and/or heavy dogs more prone to it?
(Mods, please feel free to move this thread to MPSIMS)
Nica came through the surgery fine. The vet put in three sutures instead of the standard one, since that is his practice. Sounds good to me, though it did increase the risk that her body will reject the sutures. She will be at the vet’s until Thursday morning when I can pick her up (they usually hold the dog for two days, but I’m doing my last work trip of the season so she will have to spend an extra day.)
When she comes home, she will wear the Elizabethain collar for about 10-14 days. I’d forgetten about that part until we were at the vet’s this morning. Oh well. I’ve told my office that I will be in and out on Thursday and Friday. Thankfully, they are all dog people and understand. .
Heavy dogs are more prone to this injury. Larger breeds are more prone to it, probably because they are more athletic. A dog that does more stuff is more likely to have an injury. Nica is in excellent shape for a 7 year old dog - every vet that has examined her has said so.
