Author: lfranza

Just as a side note, I’m trying to keep record of Lennon’s ACL surgery, so other dog owners out there can see the progress of the surgery recovery. Hopefully this will help someone who may have questions. I will also blog about pricing that we found, because there is very little information out there about this.

Over the past 2 weeks, our Australian Cattle Dog mix has been recovering from an ACL surgery, called Lateral Suture Stabilization. She is doing pretty well, and the doctor says her incision site looks absolutely wonderful.

Even though she “just had” ACL surgery, this dog has returned to her normal sassy self, which is good… That’s what I keep telling myself :). She wants to play, run, stand, etc. At the moment, the only thing she is actually allowed to do is rest in her crate, eat her dinner (standing up if possible), and go out to pee on a leash. No running, no jumping, just resting.

We literally just got the OK to start taking her on three 5-minute walks now that she has had 2 weeks to heal. We tried taking the cone off, so you will some pics with, some without. She just had the cone put back on about 2 minutes ago, because she wants to pick at her last 2 stitches.

During the second week, she was still toe-touching and tapping her paw on the ground, which is good, because she’s trying to use the leg again. Here is a video of the toe-touching/tapping thing, so you can see what it looks like.

Thursday, May 27, was her 2 week mark, and we started the 5 minute walks with her. She absolutely loves getting out of the house, but I just want to stress that this is something you do with your dog AFTER the 2-week mark and AFTER the vet tells you it’s ok to do this. I will blog again next week and maybe even have the motivation to scan and post the pricing information about the different surgeries that we were quoted.

So, last week was Lennon’s first ACL surgery. She had her back, left leg operated on, because the left leg was worse than the right. We originally started out with the “referral” we got from our regular vet. He referred us to some surgical specialist, who quoted us for a TPLO surgery. TPLO is one of the top-notch, “gold-star” (as they put it) surgeries that you can get to help with a torn ACL. It doesn’t actually fix or repair the ACL in any way. It changes the angle of the knee, so your knee no longer needs an ACL. I don’t really get how it works or how it fixes the problem, but I’ve heard and read a lot about it by this point.

Of course, we wanted to do the right thing and fix Lennon’s legs, but something that would have ended up costing about $10,000 in the end is just crazy. We went and saw another vet for a consultation about other surgery options. I’ve read before that there are about 4 surgery options for this problem, so I wanted to hear about something other than TPLO.

We took our “pup” to my family’s old vet (before I was married) to see what options they could give us. They talked about a surgery called TTA, which is essentially the same as the TPLO (just not copyrighted), and another surgery called Lateral Suture Stabilization in which the vet replaces the old ACL with nylon fiber.

After a lot of questions and research, we decided to go with the Lateral Suture Stabilization technique, because it was better than nothing, and our vet said the results are just as good as the other surgeries. It takes a little longer to heal from this surgery, but he said he sees very similar results in the end.

We dropped Lennon off on Thursday of last week and picked her up the next day. They wanted to keep her overnight to make sure everything was ok. The surgery took about 2 hours (1.5 was the predicted time, so the extra 30 minutes cost us extra), but the vet was able to put in 2 nylon fibers, one acting as a back up. She is a stubborn, thick-headed dog, so we were happy to hear the words “back up.”

When we picked her up, she was doped up and making sad noises in the car, but she came home and slept a good bit. We have to keep her in a crate for 2 months to ensure proper healing time, but we are ok with that, and Lennon is making her peace with it as well. She only comes out when we take her outback on a leash and with a back sling (to help keep weight off her leg), so it takes 2 people to let her pee. She also enjoys her passive therapy or range of motion therapy, because it means she gets to lay on the living room floor for a while.

Passive therapy or range of motion therapy is when you move the leg and replicate the natural walking/running movements, so the muscle doesn’t get stiff. She doesn’t really like it sometimes, but that is expected. We have to ice her leg afterward to help with the pain, but she is such a trooper.

Since this surgery takes longer to heal, I opted for the laser treatments for her. We take her to the vet 6 times (3 times the first week, 2 times the second week, and 1 time the third week) to have them put a cold laser on the incision and the affected area, which helps reduce inflammation and pain and also increases circulation back to the muscles.

These pictures are from week 1 of the surgery. She had some really bad razor burn, but other than that, the incision is really clean and is healing WONDERFULLY. The vet is also amazed at how resilient she is. I am not surprised, because Lennon seriously is the most stubborn dog I’ve ever met. She will not rest until she does what she wants to do, which in this case… is good. It means she is trying to walk on the leg more. She isn’t putting her weight on it, but she is fully extending it and trying to walk with it. According to the vet, she is about a week further than most dogs are when they have ACL surgery.

When I get to my scanner, I will post the quoted prices of both surgeries for those people out there who are querying “dog ACL surgery prices.” When I searched on Google, I didn’t find much on prices, so hopefully this will help others looking for more information.
 

For the past 2 years, our 5 year old “pup,” Lennon, has been limping around and having a generally tough time doing the things she likes to do (Yep, she.). The stairs have become a no-go zone, because she tries to gallop up the stairs and usually tumbles back down when her hind legs give out. Walks around the neighborhood are a no, because they put her out of commission for the rest of the day. We took her to the vet 2 years ago, and we were told she had a sprained muscle, “Give it some time to heal. Limit her activity.” Now, if you’ve ever had a cattle dog before, limiting their activity is nearly impossible. Squirrel. Bird. Wind. Mailman. Car. Tree. Fork. Dog on TV. Cell phone. Everything causes this dog to tense up and run toward whatever object made the barely audible noise. There is no “rest” with her.

When she had her yearly dog exam in 2008, they said she probably partially tore her ACL, because her limping hadn’t gotten any better after we let her rest for a few months. The doctor said “No activity. Just bathroom, eat, lay, sleep.” That didn’t work either. A few months later, he told us to try a medicine for pain and swelling, although I honestly thought that was the worst thing to give her. Give a dog who doesn’t ever rest or take it easy a pill that will make her forget that she has an injury, so she can then return to normal jumping, pouncing, and tearing through the house. The pill is great for pain and made her return to her normal peppy self, but at the same time, now she thinks she can do all of these high-stress things on her back legs. Now in the middle of play, she falls down. She tries to run upstairs by jumping over the gate and and falls down. She tries to run after a bird on her very short walk to the mailbox and falls down. Poor pup :(.

This week, we took Lennon to a Vet Surgeon to see what it would cost to fix her leg, which we were then told it is actually both of her ACLs that are torn. So 2 legs, 2 surgeries, $7-8,000. WHAT?! Yea. That’s right. You read it. I am all for fixing my pup, but $8,000?? Let me just pull that outta my pocket for ya. And the annoying part was that the Vet didn’t give us any other options than the most expensive, PATENTED surgery out there. I have done my research; I know that there are 4-5 different surgeries, but this guy is a “It’s this or nothing,” type guy. Not cool.

Yesterday we took Lennon to another Vet Surgeon who gave us 2 more options, one of which was more reasonable for the average person. He’s going to email us a more descriptive quote, so here’s to hoping *crosses fingers*. We want to help our pup. Our crazy, wild, frustratingly hyper pup. She may eat my Domino’s pizzas, Halloween candy, hairbrushes, Christmas cookies, Birkenstock sandals, nice couch blanket, all of my bedspreads, pillows, bottle of TUMS, acrylic paint, etc., but I love her and don’t want to see her in pain.