hello, we rescued a westie (from about to be put down by his owner) from the waiting room at the vets! he's been very happy up till monday when we had to have a cruciate ligament repair operation.  Using his own tissues, scar is very big and he is due to have the stitches out in a further 7 days. It's been very hard to keep him still as we have another westie and 2 retrievers who all love to run and play! However,  on a check up today the vet told us to start taking him for gentle 5 minute walks to build up the muscles, but this was the same vet who when having examined for the original limp told us to walk him more than his hourly daily walks to try and build up his muscles? only to be overruled by another vet and being told not to walk him at all for 4 weeks - subsequently the decision to operate was made.

Looking on the web I've found that some breeds seem to be able to cope with walks pretty much straight away whereas others don't.  So does anyone have advice on aftercare for him.  He is overweight (from the previous owners might I add) and is 15 Kilos.  We have bought him a swimming pool thing to exercise him in after his stitches have been taken out, but up until then does anyone have any experience of a west highland terrier having had cruciate ligament operations and if so can they give any advice on the process / time scales for the recouperation process/

Sorry not with westies but only with golden retrievers but I am sure it is the same slow process. You are right about swimming though that is very good.

It all just takes time.

Hi,

I have had 2 dogs that have had cruciate operations and both were repaired in different procedures.

I would really err on the side of caution and stick to small on lead walks to build the muscle up slowly.    I found this was the advice I was given by my vet and stuck to it religiously.   Neither of the dogs involved suffered any problems later.   Infact one of them is now 13 years old and still manages 1 hour+ walk daily.

No experience with Westies, but I had a 19 lb Yorkie who did both legs, at different times.   Especially since your Westie is overweight I would limit the exercise.  

By the way, I had the first leg done and the recovery was nearly six months before I could say the leg was perfect. After she ripped the ligament in her other leg I chose not to have the op.  She recovered in the same amount of time.

Bravo to you for taking on this dog.

Stacey

I had a retriever that did both back legs at the same time and so she could not have the operation because she didn't have a good leg to stand on.  Her recovery took the same length of time as one of mine that had the op. She lived to 14 without any problems with her legs.

What did that tell me? By the way one leg's ligaments were torn almost right through and the hock flapped backwards and forwards and other wasn't quite so bad.

One of my Danes had both legs repaired at different times. The first one took ages to heal but with the second leg she was up and about the next day wanting to go out. The dressing came off the next day because she took it off and the vet checked her after two days and said if she wanted to walk then let her but only 5 minutes on the lead. After a week the walk was extened to 10 minutes. Alot depends on the dog's attitude and the vets surgery skills.

"Alot depends on the dog's attitude and the vets surgery skills. "

Yup, and also on the severity of the injury to the ligaments.

Stacey