My 7 year old black lab Phoenix, has been diagnosed with a torn ACL/CCL I have been reading A LOT about this and there is controversy over whether to have the OP or not. As I understand, there is a 80+% chance he will tear the other one during recovery, which is a long grueling period. I have read where limiting the EXTRA crazy behavior, can limit the discomfort to a minimum without the surgeries. A week ago he was limping terribly, but limiting his activity to "non Psycho puppy" activity, now he is back to normal and limp free. He has been on the meds, but I have been told with proper supervision, good exercise, and a supplement program, he can continue. Our appointment with the specialist is Tuesday. Has anyone out there treated this injury Holistically and what were the results? Thanks.
The chance of the second one going is about 50% from what i understand regardless of whether or not you have the surgery. If the meniscus is torn you risk further complications of infection down the road. The patient can usually walk on the repaired leg the day after surgery so they can share the weight better than if they just continued without it. Once torn, the CCL will never repair itself or “grow back”, it’s irreparable.
The recovery in an older animal would not be gruelling at all. It’s all perspective and goes relatively quickly as long as you follow the surgeons recovery plan. I wouldn’t let recovery stop you from getting the surgery, it’s not bad at all. They usually stop the pain meds 5-7 days after surgery and can prescribe Trazodone for 8 weeks ( look it up for post surgical care in animals ) to manage the anxiety that might arise from restricting the dog movement but it has shown no harmfulness or negative side effects. If you can do the TPLO surgery from a reputable surgeon i wouldn’t hesitate. There are several members in here who have had it done on both of their animals legs, myself included in an 18 month old. In another 3 weeks my dog will be running again just like he did before the tears. He would never be able to do that with holistic healing.
Something I never asked and you never mentioned was which surgical procedure are you referring too? That’s quite important to know to get a good answer. There are two procedures I’m aware of, TPLO. being what I consider the only viable option if the two. The “tightrope” option although a lot more affordable is simply not an option for a Lab. They are simply too large and athletic.
I'm sorry that Phoenix has torn his ACL. I know how devastating that news is, having gone through it with two of my dogs. My experience was quite some time ago (8-12 years ago) and I was told that there were two options: (1) an operation or (2) amputation. There were two options for the type of operation at that time, the same that @Johnny Walker mentions above. Now there are other surgical options as well. I chose a TPLO for both my dogs and was very pleased with the result. Both dogs went on to tear the second knee as well, by the way. One dog was deemed to old for the second TPLO (she tore the second knee 7 years after the first at the age of 16) and was put on a strong regimen of pain killers to keep her pain free until she passed six month later. It was a hard decision, but one we took carefully with the surgeon. He felt that the pain killers she would require would blow out her liver, but due to her age, it would be too much of a trauma on her to do the surgery and recovery. Ultimately, the potential damage to her liver from the pain killers would (and did) buy her a better quality of pain-free life for the time she had left. So all that to explain that for a young dog, which Phoenix is, I didn't even realise there was a non-invasive option. I hope someone else can share their experiences as I'd be interested if how this approach has worked for them.
