Dog gets nar w/ ACL Tear

My dog decided to wake up this morning and only use 3 legs.

After we realized this wasn't an adventurous ploy, a short trip to vet diagnosed an ACL tear or strain, upside is the strain. Got him on anti-inflammatory meds and forced rest.

Anyone had similar experiences or been thru this kind of deal?

Dog stats:
Golden Retriever Cocker Spaniel Mix
Name: Rookie
Sex: Male
Age: 3 years
Weight: 70lbs
Energy level: High
Tennis ball addiction: Tad higher
Favorite food: Dirty socks (women's are a plus)
Favorite skis to sniff: Brown Thunder BD Zealots

Never on such a young dog. My old Lab blew out one then when he was recovering did the other. We never had repairs done and he's fine but then again he's not the high energy puppy that he used to be either. Hutash is the one to ask questions of I'd reckon.

I'll check in with him after a week is up on the meds.

We just got the dog as a rehome back in November from a pretty well off family that was putting up a new home without a yard for the dog. Since he's from a local breeder you'll see his litter mates from time to time. Thru the grapevine, one of Rookies brothers just tore one of his ACL's. My girlfriend works at a super fancy pet store, so they see a lot of well off people, hence the intel.

Hope he surpasses it with the rest.

I had a black lab that tore both of his acls (think they are actually ccl's in dogs but essentially the same as the acl) The first time I would say he was about 6 yrs or so, the 2nd time was when he was like 10.
Surgeries were around a grand each time. For the 2nd surgery I was going to a new vet and they wanted to do a tibial plateau re-grade, which was going to be $2-3k but given that he was already 10 and already on the lazy side we opted for the standard acl reconstruction.

The whole tibial leveling thing was interesting though- they said some dogs genetically have a more sloped tibial plateau that is more conducive to tearing so if they regrade the plateau they are less likely to tear it again in the future, which might be of use to you if the dog is young. Surgery might be cheaper these days too as this was several yrs ago.
Good luck!

I think the quote was $1000-$2000. That probably depended on the extent of repair. I'll definitely ask about it though, seems like he is genetically prone.

Thanks for the info!

I had a freakishly tall rottweiler have two TPLO surgeries for blown ccls in his knees. As mentioned above, genetically he had less surface area on the tibia plateau, so simple reconstruction wasn't recommended. First surgery was at 3 years old, completely worth it and returned him to normal. Second knee was 5 years old, and he didn't recover as well, had to have a follow-up to remove hardware, etc. He recovered to maybe 75% on that leg. We went to both CSU and VRCC in Colorado for opinions, everyone said his size correlated to tears at a young age, and surgery was his best option. I think it was about $2500 a knee.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CascadeCement

Favorite skis to sniff: Brown Thunder BD Zealots

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Dog knows skis. Best skis of all time! Good luck to the pup.