My dogs ruptured her cruciate ligament

justintime2001

justintime2001

justintime2001

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Had to take my 11 yr old german short haired pointer to the vets today as she had been limping for the last day or so. Turns out she has ruptured her cruciate ligament. Aparently its a major operation which has been planned for Tuesday and a long 3 to 6 months recovery.
She means the world to me and the wife and just wondered if anyone's come accross this before and got any tips for post-op looking after her or to aid recovery?
 
Not had an experience like this exactly, but my cat fractured her hip, dislocated it, and broke off the ball from the top of her femur when she was younger, that was an op, night in animal hospital and quite a long recovery though she did cope well.

When she gets home, just make sure she has water available, she may well not want to eat, and if she wants to be by herself just leave her, don't bother her too much. I imagine she'll be on strong painkillers and will still be groggy from her anaesthetic. Just let her lay somewhere quiet. If she is hungry give her something like plain chicken. Don't let her climb up on the sofa or anything, try keep her on the floor, or in her bed.

Over the next few days I'd just try keep her quiet. She may not want to move much, but do you have a cage you can leave her in if/when you go out? Put her on her lead to take her outside to go to the loo then lead her back in.

Hope that helps.
 
This happened to my dog, I brought my sister home to stay with us for a week and the dog ran to meet us. Next thing we know she's limping like mad and struggling to get up.

I think the operation was £600 or so.

We took her back to the vets, weekly I think, where she went into a tank with a treadmill in it. The water helped support he as she walked and started building up her strength.

They also told us to do an exercise that involved fully extending the affected leg daily (something like 10 stretches).

All in all it wasn't too traumatic but we needed to carry her about a fair bit, taking her outside etc.
 
Pet insurance paid it's worth for one of the boxers. She had her rear right done last Sept and the vet said when one goes the other one is sure to follow. And he was right, she's just had her rear left done two weeks ago. Both times she has been wanting to jump around after 3 or 4 days. I don't think dogs feel or comprehend pain like we assume they do, they just seem to get on with it.
Just keep yours quiet for a few days so it doesn't want lick the wounds. Light exercise after a week or so. With me it was hard to restrain her because she wanted to do so much more than what I was expecting. The vet will give you full advice on how to handle and treat yours.
 
Our chocolate labrador did that when she was a puppy, just running around the garden and slipped :(

They will be fine as long as they take it careful for a few months afterwards :)
 
My dad's Siberian husky had both his legs go and has both operated on successfully. It's a horrendously expensive op without pet insurance, but it's quite complex and not done in that many places.

The recovery is long and he's never been quite the same at running, but his age is probably also to do with that.
 
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Our family dog did the same thing about a year and a half ago now. He was running about in the snow like a lunatic and his leg went, took him to the vets and they scheduled the op pretty fast.

He just wasn't destined to be with us for much longer. They put in a bolt strong enough for a dog twice his size ( he was a tibetan terrier but a tiny one at that). For unexplainable reasons, the bolt bursted out or something and they weren't sure if he could survive another op.

They told us to let it heal naturally and despite having some bad days it actually worked to a certain extent. He then went blind but had a good go of things until he had a seizure and we took the decision to put him down.

The op is often successful, so don't take our bad experience to heart :p

Just believe it was his time to go.

Wishes are with ya!
 
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