Nearly 12 months ago my sheltie ruptured some ligaments in her left hock which required pen rest followed by short leadwalks.  Meanwhile some months later  she then sustained damage to the cruciate ligament in the right leg which required surgery.  In between those two events she then suffered with a womb infection which necessitated her being spayed - so my poor girl has really been through the mill this year!  She has made a pretty good recovery and has now started doing a bit of controlled obedience training again which she loves - vet said it would do her good as she was getting depressed we felt,  having been such a busy active little dog.

For those of you who have been through these leg injuries, I was wondering whether you feel that your dogs are ever quite the same again?  Isla is 6 now and since the spaying and lack of exercise has put on too much weight despite my best efforts.  Every morning I walk her around the local field where she starts off quite sprightly but slows down considerably on the way back and I notice that whenever she gets up from lying  her hind legs are quite  stiff still.  I am wondering what if anything I could do to help her as - and the vet did tell me this - I fear that she will eventually suffer with arthritis.  She is on a joint supplement (UMove) and one carprofen daily.  I expect some dogs may benefit from hydrotherapy but she hates the water (imagine that voluminous coat in the water!!).

I just want to do the best for her - it would be lovely to have her back all busy and bustly as she was!!

I have had a dog with luxating patella, similar op to cruciate and he is perfect now, you wouldn't know he had had the op. However, he was just 10 months old when he had it so that probably made a lot of difference. He also didn't have the complication of being spayed therefore weight gain was not a problem despite the long period of inactivity.

With all of the problems your dog has had I'm sure she will have been rested even longer than mine and it may be that she will just take longer to get right. Pity she doesn't like water as swimming might have helped to exercise her without being weight bearing. Would she not feel safer in a pool with a jacket on rather than a pond or river?

Keep your spirits up.

Oh no :( I hope the longer resting to longer recovery theory is right.

One of our poodles just had cruciate ligament surgery. She's coming to live with me for a month and were starting hydro therapy next weekend once the stitches are out. Considering it's been less than a week since the op she's already started putting it on the ground, and putting some weight on it. Hopefully sign of good things to come.

Sounds like yours is living a happy life though! I expect they wouldn't be the same after such an ordeal!