Dog Surgery Reference, Triad Area

rbo1577186

rbo1577186

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Location
Winston Salem
Me and the pooch was playing in the back yard the other day and she fell over trying to make a sharp turn. Later on that day she was limping pretty bad. Our vet, Dr. Herman of Shallowford Veterinary in Lewisville told us she has torn her ACL on her left rear leg. Doc says surgery to repair this. From what info I gan gather on my own, and what the doc did in the office (X-Rays were good) it sounds accurate. We are going to get a second opinion though (Anytime I hear the word surgery I get a second opinion, even though I'm confident she's right). She referred us to a Dr.Lew in Greensboro for the Surgery.
I was wondering if anyone had any first hand expirience with this type of surgery. There just seems to be a lot of pet owners on this board (I also have a similar post on a pet forum). She is a Basset hound mix of 6 1/2 years of age. I'm not worried about the expense, I just want her to be her normal self again............ She doesn't seem to be in much pain, but if she moves around too much she's limping again.

Thanks for any replies,

Ricky B
 
ACL surgery is not 100%

There are several different types of surgery ("fishing wire" tendon and TPLO variants). A basset might not be able to have TPLO anyway so it might be mute. The costs seem to be anywhere from 800-2500 lately. You typically want an experienced surgeon that can guestimate their own success rates and quote the literature.

Like with a human the proper PT etc after the surgery is important.

Bad news is that 50% of dogs tear their other ACL within a a year or so. There are a few medical conditions that may predispose and they should do bloodwork to rule those out.

It sounds like they are referring you to a local specialist so be prepared$$$$, but they will do a great job.


adam
 
rbo1577186 said:
Me and the pooch was playing in the back yard the other day and she fell over trying to make a sharp turn. Later on that day she was limping pretty bad. Our vet, Dr. Herman of Shallowford Veterinary in Lewisville told us she has torn her ACL on her left rear leg. Doc says surgery to repair this. From what info I gan gather on my own, and what the doc did in the office (X-Rays were good) it sounds accurate. We are going to get a second opinion though (Anytime I hear the word surgery I get a second opinion, even though I'm confident she's right). She referred us to a Dr.Lew in Greensboro for the Surgery.
I was wondering if anyone had any first hand expirience with this type of surgery. There just seems to be a lot of pet owners on this board (I also have a similar post on a pet forum). She is a Basset hound mix of 6 1/2 years of age. I'm not worried about the expense, I just want her to be her normal self again............ She doesn't seem to be in much pain, but if she moves around too much she's limping again.
Thanks for any replies,
Ricky B
Click to expand...

Ricky,
I can tell you first hand that this sucks.........
My labs were playing and running around on the deck when the little one hit the rail then fell also with a torn ACL.
After several trips to the vet he ask me a bunch of questions and said you need to head to the NC State Vet school if you want it done......... He is Very good and does a lot of cutting on dogs and cats but if I wanted the best outcome head to them. at the time was told 4-5K $ to have it done, talked to them and was told she would do a lot better, But would not be NEW, it will never happen..
I my self have had my knees cut I will tell you that first hand they make them better but no where close to new if you know what I'm talking about...
I would have 1-2 more docs look at her if you want to go that way. A second maybe someone you know and third being the vet school if you still want her fixed.
Ok, after a lot of thinking cash in hand I started doing more checking and asking more questions and ask my vet what to do, if it was yours. He said that with something like this they have seen, ( its a rough one) some never make it off the table, problems that they did not know about, some are the same or a little better and some do fine and don't have a problem. HE told me to give it time its as bad as it gets now and will only get better. I'm going to stop now other then saying that this happened many years ago and I love my dog, I think more then most, she is hitting old age thinking about 11-12 or so and her friend is long gone so she has slowed down, but without having anything done she has and is living a long and fun life, still runs on all 4 legs and the only thing is she can not carry her pack load for hikes and stuff and does not stand on her back legs to jump and be in you face, but ask anyone at CNC 4x4 fall bash last week she is one hell of a dog and lives a good life.
I hope everything works out for you and the dog, I'm sure it will...
Jon
 
ajbirken said:
Like with a human the proper PT etc after the surgery is important.adam
Click to expand...

Yep , so true. My wife is a PT for one of the big places around here and the dog has had a lot of PT also.
Funny thing is when we put her in a bed covered her up and held her down yelling your going to be ok heading down the halls of a large medical place around raleigh...:lol:
Everone thought it was child or something just getting out of the way tell we got behind closed doors.:bounce:
BUt, but thats a dog...........
J
 
A true pet owner does exactly as you are doing, doing what you can.
Our Cat Sam, just spent 10 days in the Hospital. Some kinda crystals blocking his bladder. They said one more day, and he would have been dead. So $700 plus later, he is home and getting back to normal. Special food now, and still catching up on his lovin's.
A Damn ol cat, yep, but has been a great friend for 6 years now.

As far as AC goes, I separated mine in a Jeep endo X2 about 7 years ago. Told me it would heal fine without operation, or have operation and have a hump. I chose the hump. Wrong, it didn't heal fine, lifting anything (raising my shoulder hight than just below level) is impossible. 10lbs is a struggle. Wish I had gotten another opinion!
 
Our vet gave us 2 recommendations. Dr. Lew who is in her 40's (I agree with the experienced surgeon advice 99.9 % of the time) and a much younger fellow who could do a procedure cutting the bone, which like you said guarantees the ACL would never be an issue again.

I think this is similar to what MR.GADGET is reffering to. The Physical Therapy and keeping her down is going to be the hard part. She can still jump on the couch as long as she isn't limping real bad. If she hears something she still darts to the front door to check it out, ect. She is a tough dog. After we got her fixed, you couldn't tell she had surgery, she was wide open the next day. She still tugs like hell on the leash is she sees something she's interested in.

We were warned about the other ACL. Since more weight is depending on the other ACL it greatly increases the chances of it going out. As of yesterday morning we are not letting her go up stairs, get on furniture on her own, or pull while on the leash. We're trying to keep her off it AMAP. As long as we do this she doesn't have much of a limp.

Thanks everyone so much, keep it coming.

Ricky B
 
Our little girl(107lb lab) Liies to pull when on the leash. The gentle leader or the pinch(not choke) collar works great. just an FYI
 
For the best vet hands down in the triad area, North Davidson Vet in Welcome, NC. People come from VA and SC to see him, he's worth it.
 
We used to go to North Davidson, I like Dr. Smuck. I didn't like waiting 1.5 to 3 hours (I'm not kidding)...... They don't take appointments and that place is ALWAYS busy. I waited 25 minutes just to get some antibiotics refilled earlier this year (and I called ahead). The only other bad thing I can say about the place is since they are always slammed, they really rush through the appointments. It makes you wonder if they are not taking the time to look over everything properly, but other than waiting I have never had a problem with North Davidson.

We had another opinion Yesterday from a Dr. Bea at ABRI in Winston Salem. Dr. Bea said since she can walk around OK, she probably isn't a candidate for surgery. She recommended 2 weeks of R+R, (no walks-excitement) and bring her back. She said if it was torn bad enough to need surgery, she would have a constant bad limp from not being able to put any weight on it. As long as she takes it easy, its almost unnoticeable.

I'll problably go to North Davidson again for one more opinion, they've always been good to me.

Thanks again.
 
rbo1577186 said:
We used to go to North Davidson, I like Dr. Smuck. I didn't like waiting 1.5 to 3 hours (I'm not kidding)...... They don't take appointments and that place is ALWAYS busy. I waited 25 minutes just to get some antibiotics refilled earlier this year (and I called ahead). The only other bad thing I can say about the place is since they are always slammed, they really rush through the appointments. It makes you wonder if they are not taking the time to look over everything properly, but other than waiting I have never had a problem with North Davidson.
We had another opinion Yesterday from a Dr. Bea at ABRI in Winston Salem. Dr. Bea said since she can walk around OK, she probably isn't a candidate for surgery. She recommended 2 weeks of R+R, (no walks-excitement) and bring her back. She said if it was torn bad enough to need surgery, she would have a constant bad limp from not being able to put any weight on it. As long as she takes it easy, its almost unnoticeable.
I'll problably go to North Davidson again for one more opinion, they've always been good to me.
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
ITs hard to do but we put ours in a crate for about 2 or so weeks. We did the ice and altrasound (pt) and wrapped it with a ace.
After that you could not tell anything was wrong if she would not run or jump a lot.
Now we just help her up and down out of the truck and whenever needed.
Jon
 
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