My 10 year old pup injured himself. We went to the vet earlier today and was advised that he should have a surgery. Since they are very playful they tend to injure themselves from playing. Has anyone of you tried visiting https://tploinfo.com/? Is this a trusted source with regards to TPLO surgeries? I've read articles from their page and they are very helpful. I just wanted to know your thoughts if ever you had this kind of experience. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. -Amelia
Hi Amelia, sorry to hear your pup got injured. My 2 year old Lab tore both his ACLs and had TTA surgey 10 months and 7 months ago. If I remember I visited that website too and found it useful. TTA and TPLO are very similar. Sam had his first operation within a few days of the injury and I didn't get a chance to read up on the procedure. Second time around I knew way more. There is information on cruciate ligament disease and recovery/ rehab on canineathritismanagement.Co.uk which I found invaluable. There's also a course now i think. TPLO is a routine op and has great success rates, so don't worry too much. There is a thread on this site for what to do with dogs on restricted exercise from Julie whose lab also had two cruciate surgeries. V helpful. I found the best information tho was my own vet who knew my dog. Recovery and rehab is very individual, but your vet should give you a rehab programme in any case. the very best of luck with the surgery and recovery. It's a long road ahead, one day at a time! warmest wishes, Katrin
Hi Amelia, Johnny had TPLO at age 5 and the other side went 6 mo. later. Both surgeries were successful. My best source of information was my vet and the orthopedic surgery vet. Suggestions to take or toss but listen to your vet first and foremost. Post op: - they will prescribe drugs for pain and a mild sedative. Give drugs as directed; your dog will not become a drug addict. If the drugs don't seem to be having the intended effect, speak up. - yes the cone is a pain in the neck but it's absolutely essential you prevent the dog from licking the incision. An infection can be disastrous. - ask how to reduce food intake to prevent weight gain during recovery. - we used a pen rather than a crate because I worried Johnny (85lbs) would be cramped in a crate. I kept Johnny in the pen or on a leash lying in a bed in front of me. - for a while you'll only be taking the dog out to do their business on a leash. We have hardwood floors and to prevent tripping or skidding I got a roll of rosin paper at the home store and used masking tape to cover the routes to the backyard. Rosin paper is cheap and this worked well. Do take up the tape in a month or so when it's easy to remove. - every dog's recovery is different - Johnny's recovery was different even between the first and second TPLOs - so take "timelines" with a grain of salt. - for Johnny rehab was essential so if humanly possible find a rehab specialist now. A lot of the work you'll do at home but having the rehab vet oversee and correct is invaluable. - Johnny was prescribed codeine, trazadone and gabapentin. He didn't need the codeine after 10 days or so. The trazadone and gabepentin were continued to 6 weeks. The vets did a slow taper of the trazadone (fine) but said the gabapentin could be stopped without tapering. This was the wrong choice for Johnny who exhibited lots of over-threshold behavior so we tapered that drug too. TL;DR use common sense and speak up. Overall the TPLOs and recovery were no where near as challenging as I feared. Johnny is neither overly active nor a couch potato and he handled the confinement well. He slept a lot and did well on leash lying near me for a change of scenery. Best wishes to you and your boy.
