Hi everyone. This my first post. My 6 year old chocolate lab had his luxating patella surgery 8 weeks ago on his left hind leg. He had the right hind leg done when he was 11 months old. For the last 5-6 months he was favoring the left hind leg. It was a struggle for him to get up sometimes and it was obvious it hurt him to walk until it would get loosened up. I would take him to the vet multiple times and they would say it’s his luxating patella but to try and rehab it at home to avoid surgery. I did but after awhile that leg became almost lame. After this most recent patella surgery he was doing great. Stiffness sure, but no limping after 5 weeks and doing great at rehab. The physical therapist would say he was in pain or sore but would still put him through the workouts and just prescribe more pain pills. One morning about 5 1/2 weeks after the patella surgery he was not putting any weight on that leg and we couldn’t figure out why. The therapist thought possibly the surgery didn’t take, the vet thought it was arthritis, and the surgeon wouldn’t speculate. The therapist said I should still bring him for PT which I did. Finally at the 6 1/2 week mark I made them give him an x-Ray because he wasn’t getting any better. Results said the patella was fine but that joint mice were causing extreme pain. Seemed odd to me but okay. The surgeon said he needed to open him up and clean out the knee. I agreed. Anything to relieve my boy of this pain. I take him in for surgery and 5 hours later I get a call saying his ACL was completely torn! How could a surgeon, radiologist, vet, and physical therapist miss that?! It made zero sense to me but needless to say my wife and I were crushed for our dog. The surgeon said he performed some type of makeshift ACL repair because a standard surgical repair was not possible (why?). I had my vet ask around and she said other surgeons have said they have never heard of this happening before and can’t believe it. Has anyone ever heard of a dog tearing the acl in the same knee they just had luxating patella surgery on? Is something fishy going on? I don’t think my dog can take much more of this and we are spending a fortune. We just want some answers.
Hi MattyB, welcome to the forum! I'm so sorry to hear about your Lab's injuries, it must be extremely distressing for you. I'm afraid I don't have any useful experience to share, but I wish you all the best, and I hope there's a happy outcome for your boy.
