Who's had their dog's ACL surgically repaired?

[yellowstang]

So our older large dog, Bindee has a partially torn ACL. We tried the rest method to see if it heals, no luck. Cooper will not let her rest enough. Yesterday he pretty much jumped on her back, and now she is not putting any weight on it.
Going to make a Vet appointment for her, and I'm afraid he will recommend surgery. Anyone gone thru this, and what was the recovery like? I know it will be a lot of physical therapy for a long while, but she's worth it!
I read a little about some of the options, bone cutting, fishing line technique, TTA, etc. Gotta do more research still, but curious if anyone here has gone thru with something similar and your experiences with how it went.

[Broncojohnny]

If you fix it, the other side will blow out shortly thereafter. So be ready to do it twice. Dogs have no idea how to take it easy.

[Ruffdaddy]

We used the knee brace with good enough success on outfield lab. But we didnt have some other asshole dog ruining her recovery.

[yellowstang]

Yeah, Al, that is one concern I have also., We have a huge crate we can put her in, and a separate room we are going to start using since the asshole dog, Cooper is now being let out during the day. So far he hasn't destroyed anything, surprisingly.

I was looking at a brace, but the place we went did not recommend it, but thought surgery or some T-cell thing they do with her blood would be best. It was like $900 a visit, and would take at least 8 visits, maybe more... He really seemed like a quack, so we left and never looked back! Our vet doesn't do this type of work, so he suggested Google for braces, or look for someone else who used one with success. Who did you use, Ruffdaddy?

[Ruffdaddy]

I am not surprised a vet would recommend a treatment that would make them a lot more money. In out case the lab was 11 and very well could have died from a treatment with a less than 50% success rate.

I dont remember the specific brace brand but it was still like $300-400.

[bcoop]

My sister’s lab tore hers. They did surgery. She tore it again. Now she can hardly get around.

[Ruffdaddy]

I found the one we used. It was certainly an improvement over the last 2 years of her life, but long term she was never able to keep the same level of activity and eventually got real old and weak.

https://www.woundwear.com

[ryuu]

it was well over 15 year ago but we did the fishing string thing on our 105 pound coon dog/aussie mix
wife remembers it different than me so going with her version, recovery was harsh trying to keep her with limited movement, locked her in a walkin while at work and she turned the cone inside out, ate the damn trim, sheet rock and part of a stud but lucky for us didn't tear anything
costed over 2k and lasted the rest of her life with no other issues

[slow99]

The 4 or 5 I’ve heard of were all fat labs and they all blew them out again.

[LS1Goat]

My female Golden Retriever had two TPLO surgeries over the course of a year. The left blew first and the right a year later. The surgeon will tell you it's not if, but when the other leg will go because during recovery from the initial surgery they plant so much weight on the good leg to compensate. It's ridiculously expensive, but we tried the conservative wait and see medicated approach our vet initially suggested. He told us some dogs can recover to the point where they are somewhat normal, but remain limited and also in a lot of chronic pain. However, she never got better using non-surgical treatments. She was a hobbled mess and she was only 5 y/o at the time. I missed my walking buddy and was sad to see this happen to such an active dog whose favorite thing in the world was to play ball.

Our vet referred us to the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center. We had both done with them. The 1st at the Dallas location and the 2nd at the Grapevine location. She recovered quickly after the first surgery and after 3 or 4 months you never knew it ever happened. The 2nd one for some reason, took a solid 6 months to full recovery. However, at the end of the day she was back to being normally active and playing ball. However, we limited the amount of time playing ball. Even though there is nothing to tear and the leg is basically bionic with titanium screws. We were gun shy and mainly just resumed our normal walking routine and played ball very little. The main thing was no more pathetic hobbling around the house.

All said and done we spent around $10K. And they also shave almost the entire side they do the procedure on completely bald. And it takes close to 6 months to completely grow back to way it was pre-surgery. It is a lengthy process to get back to normal. The first 10 days after surgery your dog will be wearing one of those ridiculous collars, so they can't lick the wound. You cannot take it off. You also have to find a way to keep them still and quiet for at least the first couple of weeks. It's a huge pain in the ass for the dog and you during that period.

If you can afford it and have the patience, it is worth it. This is a real fix, not a band aid. The TPLO makes the leg about 5x stronger than it is naturally. And if there are no complications, your pup will get back close to 100%. If your dog is older, then I would go with the non-invasive techniques. It wouldn't be worth it on a 10 y/o dog, especially a Golden/Lab. Because they are Cancer magnets and all tend to die within months of diagnosis. Absolutely wonderful dogs, but they are born predisposed to cancer. Type T Lymphoma in most cases. Mine, my parents, and recently a friend of ours. Same damn thing.

[Shorty]

When I was a kid our German Shepherd blew his out and they repaired it with fishing line. He had a full recovery and was a fucking nutcase his whole life.

[yellowstang]

My female Golden Retriever had two TPLO surgeries over the course of a year. The left blew first and the right a year later. The surgeon will tell you it's not if, but when the other leg will go because during recovery from the initial surgery they plant so much weight on the good leg to compensate. It's ridiculously expensive, but we tried the conservative wait and see medicated approach our vet initially suggested. He told us some dogs can recover to the point where they are somewhat normal, but remain limited and also in a lot of chronic pain. However, she never got better using non-surgical treatments. She was a hobbled mess and she was only 5 y/o at the time. I missed my walking buddy and was sad to see this happen to such an active dog whose favorite thing in the world was to play ball.

Our vet referred us to the Dallas Veterinary Surgical Center. We had both done with them. The 1st at the Dallas location and the 2nd at the Grapevine location. She recovered quickly after the first surgery and after 3 or 4 months you never knew it ever happened. The 2nd one for some reason, took a solid 6 months to full recovery. However, at the end of the day she was back to being normally active and playing ball. However, we limited the amount of time playing ball. Even though there is nothing to tear and the leg is basically bionic with titanium screws. We were gun shy and mainly just resumed our normal walking routine and played ball very little. The main thing was no more pathetic hobbling around the house.

All said and done we spent around $10K. And they also shave almost the entire side they do the procedure on completely bald. And it takes close to 6 months to completely grow back to way it was pre-surgery. It is a lengthy process to get back to normal. The first 10 days after surgery your dog will be wearing one of those ridiculous collars, so they can't lick the wound. You cannot take it off. You also have to find a way to keep them still and quiet for at least the first couple of weeks. It's a huge pain in the ass for the dog and you during that period.

If you can afford it and have the patience, it is worth it. This is a real fix, not a band aid. The TPLO makes the leg about 5x stronger than it is naturally. And if there are no complications, your pup will get back close to 100%. If your dog is older, then I would go with the non-invasive techniques. It wouldn't be worth it on a 10 y/o dog, especially a Golden/Lab. Because they are Cancer magnets and all tend to die within months of diagnosis. Absolutely wonderful dogs, but they are born predisposed to cancer. Type T Lymphoma in most cases. Mine, my parents, and recently a friend of ours. Same damn thing.

Grapevine location would be perfect, we are in Keller. She's 5 years old, so still fairly young. She blew it out playing ball, so I will NEVER do that again! Thanks for the write up, great explanation.
Edit: damnit... right up, lol...

[Ruffdaddy]

Grapevine location would be perfect, we are in Keller. She's 5 years old, so still fairly young. She blew it out playing ball, so I will NEVER do that again! Thanks for the right up, great explanation.

Yeah 5 years is way too young to deal with the brace. Ours was old and the surgery alone could have killed her, or the 6 month recovery would have just ruined the last bits of her life. At 5, i would have paid the $$$

[8mpg]

My mastiff had it done with DSVC in Grapevine and one in Dallas. All great outcomes with no issues after.

My boy had his first one done doing a TPLO. Worked great, no issues. He had a full tear. His other back knee had a partial tear and they thought the TTA was a better option but sent us to the Dallas location because the Dr in Dallas had much more experience with very large dogs. My dog was the first giant breed TTA that they did. Ordering hardware from Germany and what not. It was great. Recovery time was much faster than the TPLO and until he died, never had an issue with either leg.

Dr Franks from Grapevine and Dr Raddash at Dallas. DSVC is always the recommended place by a few vets I have talked to including one who could have done my dogs surgery.