ACL Recovery

If anyone has had any experience with their canine partner having an ACL injury and would like to share please contact me. Grace and I are facing this now. Joanne Kuchinski

Greetings! I have worked both a Terv-ish mixed breed and a Westie through an ACL recovery and I learned HOW IMPORTANT the post-surgery physical rehabilitation part of the equation is.

Research shows that there's about a 50% chance of an ACL injury in the OPPOSITE knee following a dog's surgery. This, I believe, is because many folks don't help their dogs learn how to properly reuse the injured leg. Thus, once the injured leg has had surgery and has healed, the dog still over compensates with the uninjured leg (simply because it's developed a bad habit of compensating for the once-injured leg).

A good friend had ACL surgery on his GSD in October and did NOT go through any extensive physical rehabilitation. He kept his dog inactive (per vet's instructions), which allowed the injured and repaired leg to heal, but he did not do specific exercises to help the dog learn that it could once
again fully use (and trust) the injured leg. Just three weeks ago, the dog ruptured the ACL in his opposite knee.

I cannot say for certain that the reason was because the dog was over-compensating on the healthy leg, but that's my guess. I am fortunate to have an excellent canine physical therapist who lives
just about an hour away from Pittsburgh. I used her advice, exercises, rehab plan and follow-up visits religiously with both of my dogs and have had no problems. (Although the Westie is showing signs of arthritis.)

Anyhow, I don't have much more to say, but I would really encourage you to find someone in your area to talk about what a good rehab program and schedule might look like. No guarantees, but I'm pretty convinced that it's an important step.

All the best to you, may things go smoothly and well. Marti Wiseman

I have an Akita (personal protection/tracking) that blew out a cruciate at 10 mos. old. I have an incredible Vet that repaired it immediately with excellent results. I explained that the knee needed full range of motion and be able hold up to heavy stress. It hasn't hampered my guy at all, he doesn't show any signs of arthritis, and shows no discomfort, even after several hours of hard work. 11 1/2 yrs. post surgery and he's still going strong. :-) Sue West

I feel your pain, my Siberian Husky tore her ACL in Jan. 2000 at the age of 5 and at the height of her agility career. When it happened I knew at once what she did. She was playing with the others in the snow when all of a sudden she flew straight up in the air and came down screaming for about 10 mins. The operation was done, a pin was put in and she was home in 3 days. I took her home with a bandage but she was not placing at that point. I was told to keep her immobile for several days only taking her out on a leash to do her business which was very hard to do with all the ice on the ground. This was a very critical time and about a week later I was able to increase the length of her walks. As time went on she started to improve and during the summer I swam her back & forth in our pool (on leash) gradually building up to about 10 laps. This helped her build her strength and eventually allowed her to play with the others. In late Nov. of that year, I noticed that she started hiking that leg up again and I took her in and x-rays showed that the pin had shifted causing her discomfort. Poor girl had to be operated on again to remove the pin. My vet was furious at this "well known surgeon". After that she improved again. I also gave her adequan shots for awhile and she is on Cosequin for the rest of her life. Well the following year she tore the other side but this time my vet hospital used a man that was the head surgeon at Tufts. Incidentally this wasn't too much of a surprise because my vet did tell me that when they tear one side that they usually tear the other. Everything that I read on ACL concurred with this finding. The surgeon did a little extra work on her knee by going a little deeper and cleaning it out completely. The method he used was with Gortex making a very strong repair. They also sent her home with a Morphine patch for pain. I was pleasantly surprised when I picked her up because she was placing, standing on all fours and not bandaged. Again it was the same instructions of "bed rest" but this time even with the patch she was in terrible pain, would not eat for about 4 1/2 days. All she did was moan . I made her as comfortable as I could, trying to get pieces of soft food down her. On the 5th day she started eating a little, the pain was starting to subside and she gradually started to improve. I did the same thing with her during her recuperation as with the first operation and things gradually got better. She is now 9 1/2 yrs. and is a joy to watch. She plays (only like a Siberian can) real rough especially with the puppy, jumps over the arm of the couch and looks at me as if to say "see what I can do". She was at the height of her agility career but you know what, I pulled her from the sport, cause she is my best friend and did not want to take the chance of a reinjury and putting her thru anymore pain. She still loves to play in my training area, jumps, weaves, tunnels, tire, table, see-saw, even A-Frame but is very unsure of the Dogwalk. That's ok, though, cause she is still having fun with the other obstacles. Her chiropractor cannot get over how well she looks.

There is lots of stuff on the web if you do a keyword search on ACL Canine injuries, some with photos.

I think the worst part of this operation is the fact that it is imperative to keep them immobile during the early recuperation.

Hope this helps, good luck to you and please feel free to e-mail me if you have any more questions. Happy Howl-i-days Marilyn Zanotti

Not really a "current" problem, but Mesa is recovering from the TPLO surgery. Had it Sept. 16th. She is now allowed walks on the Flexi where she can move with more freedom and not just at a walk.

I was interested in getting information about what kinds of conditioning and rehab programs folks have followed to get their dogs back to competition levels. She will likely not be allowed to do any jumping till this coming late spring some time.

Mesa went to the AKC Nationals last year and was in the prime of her career, working towards her MACH, when her knee injury surfaced. It was a partial tear, improved some with rest but resurfaced a few months later , so we had the surgery done.

Thanks for any helpful info. you could share. Kim

You may want to check out the E-Group at yahoo called "Orthodogs" and join it. It is a list of folks from all over the country who have or are going through orthopedic problems with their dogs. There is alot of discussion about ACL injuries there, an archive with tons of information and lots of very helpful folks to ask questions of.Good Luck and sorry to hear about your situation. Kim

I can't believe that someone told you to keep working your dog until she tears her knee fully! 'Was that a veterinarian???

My Mesa had a partial tear and I tried 8 weeks of restricted activity, only leash walking, no off leash activity at all! She was better after that but as I returned her to conditioning, running, and low jumps I knew that she just did not seem 100% on the leg. The problem with a partial tear is that the knee becomes less stable and there is an abnormal movement inside the knee itself that then causes secondary arthritis, pain and more damage. Very few dogs over 35lbs go on to heal a partial tear. Also to fully rest your dog you have to keep them pretty much either crated or in an x-pen for 8 to 12 weeks. That means no jumping, running or playing at all. The only way an ACL can heal itself is by scar tissue. It is tough to lay down scar on tissue that is moving, particularly for a bigger dog. There are some folks that have had partial tears heal, don't get me wrong but they had to really restrict their dogs for long periods of time, give supplements etc. I might have done that if I didn't have such an active dog.

The more damage to the knee preoperatively, the less chance of an excellent recovery.

Like I mentioned, I had been to a few orthovets before I felt comfortable. At the University of Penn. they actually wanted me to wait and see... sounds like the advice you got.

The problem was, Mesa was starting to be quite lame on that leg in the evenings after getting up from laying down. xrays done after 7 months.. showed the beginning of some arthritic changes.
Mesa just turned 6 years old but is a very "young" Labrador who actually moves more like a Terv! She is a 60lb light boned girl.

Usually the surgeons that offer the Traditional ACL repairs( and there are all kinds of different ways they do it..)wait until the knee is completely blown before they do it the surgery.

My surgeon who did the TPLO said that the sooner they can fix it, the less arthritis she will have and he was able to use part of the intact ligament to stabilize the repair even further. Her meniscus was also not yet damaged and they were able to leave that intact as well. Not to mention the amount of atrophy of the leg muscles that happens very fast after a fully torn ACL.

IT is a very tough decision as it is a very invasive procedure. But for me I could not resign Mesa to a "quiet" life. She is a working dog and has many good years ahead of her I hope.

She is now 13 weeks post-op, doing very well and is now doing short walks on the Flexi with me. She will be starting some underwater treadmill exercise after Christmas to further build her muscle tone.

You may want to look for a second opinion or even a third. My advice would be to find a Specialist Orthopedic Vet who is Certified to do the TPLO and also does Traditional ACL repairs who can give you the whole set of options available to you. You can go to www.slocumenterprises.com to find a list of vets who do the procedure. Again, try to gather all the information you can....talk to people in the agility and dog community.

The best of luck to you. Kim

My husband's dog (a Vizsla) has an ACL injury, if it is a tear, it is very small and partial, or maybe it is a strain only. (he was lame after exercise, but recovered on his own after a few day's rest, and was diagnosed as a partial tear based on the drawer test). We were recommended the traditional surgery, and I was also researching the TPLO. We ended up
not doing either, because his condition is less serious and have other methods to help him available. He is on MSM, was on Deramax for a short time and homeopathic Arnica
Montana; has seen an acupuncturist several times and is doing physical therapy with swimming and re-education of the use of his leg in the whirlpool (he gets also massage during that time, to loosen up his muscles/joints). I realize that I am very fortunate to have access to this place, it was developed for horses, but is opened up for dogs as well.
As I understand in his particular case, the reason behind his injury is his improper way of using his leg. He has tremendous hamstring and butt muscles, but almost no quads, which is what's needed to stabilize the knee joint. The PT is important to help him develop his quads, and to learn to use his legs using the quads, not just the hamstrings. What was very interesting, is that because of his favoring his left leg (with the known injury), he also started to develop a strain on the right one, with inflammation and clicking. Without the PT, he was well on his way to injure (tear) the right one as well.

Also, it is very important that you find some way to do PT after surgery, if this is what needs to be done. It will be instrumental in reducing some future arthritis problems.

I hope you find some of this helpful, oh the time line is he started to show symptoms in mid november, was diagnosed in about 10 days, and started the acup/PT treatment in late november/early Dec. He is doing great, his PT is being cut from 2x/week to 1x, and we are done with the acupuncture. (This is a hard area to heal on it's own, very slow, but acup. helped direct the body's healing forces to this area with extra blood supply, etc.)

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask, be glad to share anything I've learned during this process or my research of the surgeries (especially the TPLO). Best of luck with Gracie! Erika Kiss

I guess it's comforting (sort of) that you're getting a lot of responses to your ACL query. I suppose it should be no surprise that a lot of SAR dogs go through this. My dog is up for TPLO on Jan 5, so we're in the same boat as you. Everything I have heard and read about this condition and this treatment suggests that dogs have an excellent chance of recovering full, working function after surgery and rehab (but you probably already know this).

Anyway, someone has probably already pointed you towards an excellent list (but just to be sure): orthodogs@yahoogroups. It deals mostly with ACL injuries, and is very active with lots of knowledgable posters. It's so high volume that I have had to go "no mail" on some of my SAR lists, but that's just where we're at right now, unfortunately. Good luck with treatment! Sue Barns

I had your message forwarded to me by someone on your agility list. My Field Spaniel blew his out last March. I had the TPLO surgery done at that time and he just took a first place in Ex A Std today! I had his surgery done at Mich Vet Specialist in Detriot area. They have a very good web site. Mike Roehrs

My understanding of this is that a partial tear is basically the beginning of the end. The ligament is like a rope make up of a serious of bundles. A "partial tear" is one of the bundles rupturing. That weakens the overall strength of the "rope", making the dog vulnerable to further ruptures until the whole thing lets go. Unfortunately, you will probably have to decide if competing is worth the risk of a complete rupture. If you have a very active, fast moving dog like mine, it probably will go anyways, in a manner of time. If she is calm and quiet, she could go the rest of her life w/o a rupture. While surgery reinstates function, the risk of arthritic changes is significant. Good luck with what every you decide. Mike Roehrs