Hi there.  One of spaniels was diagnosed with cruciate ligament damage yesterday.  Two vets, including the orthopaedic specialist examined her and they were inclined not to operate.  They have advised rest and metacam.  Now I'm familiar with glucosamine, cortaflex, cod liver oil (which she is on) and vit C but which are the best forms to give these in?  We live an hour from the nearest town so I have been looking to buy online but wasn't sure if I could get human versions??  Any advice appreciated.

Hi, this is a link to the story of my American Cocker that had this nearly two years ago.

<a class='url' href='http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=641163;hl=Cruciate%20Ligament;hlm=and#pid641163'>http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?pid=641163;hl=Cruciate%20Ligament;hlm=and#pid641163</a>

I have given him all the supplements that you mention ever since. I just get my supermarkets own brands but I have also had them from the online place called Vitamins Direct. I'll nip off and get the link for you.

I wanted to avoid surgery with my lad if it was possible, and we were successful, but it took him 6 months to get back to normal. I didn't think that was bad because the post op convalesence was going to be about the same.

Good Luck.

Dawn R.

Thanks Dawn,

We're obviously pretty gutted as she was doing well in the ring and this means she's out I guess.  Do you have any idea whether there are any hereditary links to this injury?  We don't want to breed from her if it's likely her line is pre-disposed to it (spelling!)...

Thank you so much for the advice... any is appreciated, she is such a joy to live with and I'm gutted that she can't come on walks now... she's the easiest dog we've ever owned.

Kay

Hi Kay, I think she's out of the ring for the time being anyway. Try not to think too far ahead, just take it a day at a time. I found the complete cage rest very difficult to enforce but I really do think it's important to do that in the beginning.

As to whether or not it might be hereditary, I don't know. No doubt there will be two trains of thought. Do you know of any others in her pedigree that have had this happen?

In any case I think it's going to be a long haul. :(

Dawn R.

>We're obviously pretty gutted as she was doing well in the ring and this means she's out I guess.  Do you have any idea whether there are any hereditary links to this injury?

Hi Kay,

My girl, Izzy, suffered a torn cruciate ligament last November, my own vet was in no hurry to operate so we crate rested her for 5 weeks and gave her rimadyl and synoquin, however, she was no better after this time and we had to resort to keyhole surgery in January ( whcih failed after 3 weeks :( ) followed by TPLO in March..............she was back in the Ring on June 10th with a bald patch on her back and a half grown leg of coat she took some placings and in August, qualified for CRUFTS so basically, what i'm trying to say, even if you do have to go down the surgery route, with careful management, you'll still get her back in the ring with her movement not suffering as a result.............Izzy had 7 months out of the ring.

Our Orthopaedic Surgeon was of the opinion that Izzy's CL tear was of an athletic nature and not hereditory.............

Thanks so much everyone.  Some friends are suggesting I get her operated on as some dogs have been known to come back sounder than before (my bitch had such great movement:rolleyes:).  She's on metacam at the moment but I am concerned her misery of no exercise for months without surgery will prove fruitless.

Everybody seems to be backing TPLO.  Is this injury covered by insurance usually?  And what if the other leg is affected afterwards?  Would they cover it then?

The main thing is I do the best by her.  If no surgery but rest means she can live a relatively normal life (whether that's possible in a mad spaniel!) but I can't ever show her again, then I won't go down the surgery road.  Such a hard decision especially when she doesn't seem to be in pain.  I wasn't going to show her much more than about another year... I don't know what to do....
Thanks everybody..

TPLO was covered by my insurance (MoreThan) and the other leg would be covered as a separate incident if anything should ever happen to it. It took awhile for him to recover completely but my 40Kg golden goes crashing through the brush up and down steep hillsides and river banks with no problem now. I don't show him but his movement was more affected by the length of time he was lame than the surgery. We waited for 2 1/2 months to see if he improved - he didn't and ended up having the surgery. He had so much muscle wastage by the time he had the surgery he didn't recover as quickly. He was too young to have TPLO when the injury first occurred.

Hi, my newfie has had TPLO surgery on both back legs and both were covered by insurance, as someone else mentioned my insurance classed each leg as a serperate incident. My newf had the first one done at about 10 months old and then the next leg done 12 weeks later, its now been over 3 years since she had it done and you wouldn't know the way she charges around and turns that she has had any surgery at all on her legs. Hope she gets better soon.

I think it depends on the severity of the tear TBH whether you go ahead with surgery.... it became obvious with Izzy that our only option was surgery, for both ops.....the insurance paid out for all of our treatment luckily, as so far it has reached just over £4000

I can highly recommend TPLO, alongside as much rest as poss

Just my opinion but I take gluc/chondroitin for my own knees and never found it helped - until I took the right dosage of a better quality supplement and made sure it had chondroitin. I originally took what was at the local grocery but they weren't strong enough to help. The ones at the vitamin direct link are on sale right now too. I've just placed my first order with them for me and my dog to share. :)