My 9 year old English springer spaniel ruptured her cruciate ligament in her back left leg about 3 weeks ago, last Thursday she had THIS operation to repair it but I'm seriously starting to question if I did the right thing now.

I'm well aware that it was always going to be a long slow recovery but when she first came home she was toe touching and had been up until last night, now all of a sudden for seemingly no reason shes holding it right up all of the time and won't let you (me) get near it cause it's hurting so much. She went to the vets on Monday so they could check the wound and that was fine, she goes back next thursday for another check up. The thing is though shes so scared of the vets she never shows any pain when we are there and looks like shes making a good recovery, get her home and shes back to hopping around on three legs.

Shes so depressed at not being able to do all the things shes used to doing and seeing her like this is very upsetting. The advise I got from my vets was to do physio on the leg (bicycle movements) 3 times a day and ice it but, the info on that site I linked to says to keep it as immobile as possible for the first two weeks so I'm worried I'm doing more harm than good.

The other worry is what if the surgery is a failure, where would that leave us?

I'm sorry to hear about your girl and her cruciate ligament repair.

First of all I have no experience with cruciate repairs, but my last dog did have patella problems and 3 operations to repair it, the third time it was successful.

My feeling would be to speak to your vet about your concerns, after all that is what they are there for.  Did a specialist perform the op or was it your practice vet?  The reason I ask is that for things like this a specialist is  the best person to deal with injuries and repairs like this - do ask for a second opinion if you have any doubts whatsoever.

We were not told by the first specialist who performed the first two operations exactly how to take care of our boy after the op, it wasn't until the 2nd specialist from a different practice operated and told us exactly what we should and shouldn't be doing, this included, no stairs, only walking outside for toileting, no running, jumping etc etc - this was crucial to his recovery so you do need to know exactly what you need to be doing.

I found that the surgery itself is simple but the recovery does take a long time.  You need clear advice on how best to treat your girl, if the vets advice conflicts with the advice you have read about the recovery, then do voice your concerns. 

Again, from my experience, if you think something is not quite as it should be - go with your gut instincts and speak to the vet immediately.

Hopefully someone with more experience of this type of surgery will be on soon to help you, good luck and please keep us posted with her progress.

I have an oldie that has had both cruciates repaired by that method at different times . One was completely succesful the other for one reason or another and not through over use too soon wasn't. My vet did attempt to repair it again and when this also failed I was given the option of TPLO, which is a different and more expensive technique best undertaken by a specialist or to carry on with cage rest and metacalm as it would eventually attain some stability on its own . As she is an oldie I oppted for the latter as I didnt wish to subject her to the risks of a third aneasthetic in such a short time. She now has as much exercise as she wishes and the knee has stablised.   She doesn't need the metacalm all the time but does have some arthritus there again that applies to the knee that had the successful repair. She was 10 when this happened and will soon be 12.

Thanks Perry and satincollie for the replies.

I did take her to my normal vets but when it was first suspected that it was her cruciate ligament we then saw a different vet at the same practice, he explained everything in great detail, gave demonstrations with models he had, and also said he had performed many of these operations in the past with great success. He came across as very knowledgeable and really seemed to care, getting on the floor with her and making a fuss of her and so on. I trusted him.

After the op he called me and said he had to take out more debris and make it tighter than he had expected, I'm guessing the debris was parts of her meniscus, he didn't clarify at the time as I was in the middle of Tesco when he rang. The follow up on Monday was with a different vet who was just assessing the wound, we're due to see the surgeon again next Thursday.

When I picked her up I did come away with three pages of instructions for me regarding her recovery, they include the physio, message of the calf, icing the knee, no running/jumping/playing and then further instructions on when it's advisable to start short walks and other strengthening exercises.

I guess it's just because since the op she has been toe touching a lot of the time but then all of a sudden she starts holding it right up and not letting me easily do her physio.

It has only been 6 days since the op though, I know that but still I can't stop worrying about her and wondering if I've done the right thing.

Our boxer had this op in Jan and was on complete cage rest, unfortunately on day 5 she got bloat and had to have another op to save her life, she had her spleen removed. Bless her she was stitched all over like a patchwork quilt. Now 2 months later she can run gently with the other dogs although we still restrict the amount of play, but at least she has no pain and getting back to her normal self and is getting a better quality of life than she had before the op.

I guess it's just because since the op she has been toe touching a lot of the time but then all of a sudden she starts holding it right up and not letting me easily do her physio.

It's best to contact the vet about this, it will take a long time to mend but it should improve slowly each day, if you think she has deteriorated in any way with her recovery then you do need to get it sorted sooner rather than later.  If all is ok then you have lost nothing, much better to be safe than sorry.

Make sure you speak to the vet who did the operation and don't feel reluctant to ask for a second opinion if that is what you want.  Describing the operation in detail is one thing but from what I found the recovery period is another, and this is where  most of us need the information and guidance.

My Rottie X had this op...twice!  Right one at aged 2 and-a-half and the left one 10 months later.  Our vet happened to be an orthopaedic specialist and recommended this surgey over TPLO for him.  On both occasions he spent around a week in the vets on total cage rest (I don't use crates at home and I also had boisterous giant breed youngster so the chances of complete rest at home were slim).  On coming home, we were instructed to walk him on lead 2-3 times per day for very short periods (no more than 5 mins to begin with, increasing at his own pace).  After several weeks, when the wound was 100% healed, he was allowed to swim. Recovery from the first op was fairly slow whereas, surprisingly, he seemed to bounce back from the second one.

I'm happy to say that he's 6 now and, depite being left with some fairly severe arthritis in the joints (controlled with supplements and not troubling him thus far), you wouldn't know there had ever been anything wrong with him.  He is a very large dog at approx. 50kg so he has done much better than anyone would have anticipated. 

It's still early days for your girl - can you imagine how you'd be feeling less than a week after major inasive surgery? Hopefully she'll show some improvement soon. 

My Rottie had this operation at around 14/15mths old - he had the conventional surgery and then 1 year later he had his other leg operated on.

It was a long slow process to get him fully recovered - I winced when I read someone's dog was offlead after 2 months.  It was 6 mths before both my vet and physio would let mine have a longer lead and potter by himself and 9 mths before he went off lead by himself properly.  He was having physio and hydrotherapy and was kept in really good shape throughout and now at 3 1/2 is perfectly fine running free with other dogs with no lameness at all.  Also his x-rays have shown no sign of arthritis which the vet was quite surprised at. 

I did however spend so much time on getting him healed to the best of my ability and although it was a long hard road I am over the moon at how he progressed.

Thanks for all the replies, they have been very helpful, especially from those whose dogs have had the same operation.

I was quite happy with the way things were going to be honest it's just her sudden urge to start holding the leg right up after 4/5 days of toe touching. It's making me wonder if shes hurt it in some way, although how she could of is a mystery to me seeing as shes spending most of her time on her bed either asleep or depressed. What have been your experiences after your dog has had the op, have they been toe touching straight after, holding it up or a mix of both?

Everyone I've spoken to has said I've done the right thing and to just stay positive because things will get better but I'm still not sure that this short/medium term pain and discomfort shes in is really the best thing for her. When I look at her I just feel guilty, it was me that through her ball for her when she initially got injured and me that made her have the surgery. It's all my fault.

We had a young dog operated on for a stretched ligament in the knee-cap, where an older dog had run into him with such force and literally taken him out.   After the first operation by our local vet he was unable to put the foot to the ground.   He was then taken to an orthopaedic specialist, he actually walkled out on both hind legs, but within 2 days was holding the leg off the ground.   He had to go back for a third operation by the specialist and this time he had to have pins inserted to stabilise the joint - he walked out from that op on both hind legs, the post recovery period he was caged for 6 weeks and only allowed out on the lead, never outside off the lead in case he exerted too much pressure on the joint.   After 6 weeks exercise was gradually built up daily and he recovered really well, but later in life (old age) he developed arthritis in that joint, but was managed with metacam.

Golly, as I'm reading this thread, I'm so glad that I've never needed to make a decision to subject one of my dogs to major surgery.  I've nursed plenty of other peoples' but am not sure that I could do it to one of mine. :(

Hi......our Rottie had this surgery 2 weeks ago today & is making good progress. As we live in a bungalow there was no need to cage him as his movement was restricted to one level anyway. The wound healed beautifully, he never bothered about it & last night he had the stitches out. He was probably completely off the leg for about 3 days...then slowly started toe touching when he was standing. He's been weight gaining on that leg for about 4 days now but only at a walk. The vet was pleased with his progress so far & he starts hydrotherapy next Weds evening.        

One of my dogs tore his cruciate & was operated on by one vet (pre TPLO, so old strand method) & he was using the leg after, I was told that was normal. Then he got an infection & they opened the wound up again, cleaned it all out & he didn't use the leg, another vet told me THAT was normal too, which confused me. I was on the phone to them & down the surgery every 5 minutes with my precious lad, they must've been fed up with me. At that time that operation was, to me, far more stressful than the many whelpings I've attended, so dont worry about being overly concerned with it not getting better, I wondered if I'd made the right decision many times. The dog was crated for months (luckily he didn't mind) and eventually with careful management recovered without damaging his other cruciate (always a risk) but his knee was about 3" wider than the good one.

After that I've had 2 more dogs with cruciates go, one was operated on by my vet, again old method, she didn't recover too well & I ended up taking her to a specialist for the TPLO, they did a fantastic job & you wouldn't know which leg it was. The other one had other complications not connected to the leg so hasn't made 100% recovery. Both times the specialist gave me detailed instructions on how much lead exercise per day/week & she wasn't allowed any hydrotherapy/physio until after the 6 week checkup xray.
Fingers crossed for your dog.