Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Collie problems

I've got a problem. It concerns our 10-year-old collie, Jay. Jay turned up lame about couple of months ago. He started favoring his back leg. The vet took an X-Ray and told us he needed ACL surgery.

Normally, we'd go ahead and do it, but there are complications.

1) I'm out of work. $1500 in vet bills are going to be a huge problem.
2) It was going to mean months of convelescence, with his movement strictly limited.

The other option was to wait and see, try and keep him from making it worse, and see if it would heal on its own. He was on a canine NSAID for a couple of weeks. That helped. After that, he showed steady improvement. Everything was was going fine until last week. We don't know what he did, but he turned up lame again the other morning, and has been hesitant to put weight on it since

We thought about a second opinion with another vet, but I also thought I would throw this out to y'all.

Complications:
1) He's a collie. With some dogs and some OTC drugs like baby aspirin, there can be adverse reactions. With collies, those reactions can turn into a toes-up situation without warning.
2) He's 10, and a fairly big dog. Our last collie died at 9. We weren't expecting this dog to last forever.
3) He's active. He's not the kind of dog you could keep in a crate for 6 months.

Any suggestions?

Tough row to hoe. Ten years is a good life. Make the most of what he has left. Love him back. Love him hard and let him go.

As Bowsinger said, "tough row." While dogs as essentially family, it's also hard to invest 10 times their worth to extend their lives. Always loved everyone we've owned, but in reality they are simply pets.

When their quality of life becomes near unbearable, it's time to let them go.

Hoping for the best,

I know it was foolish but I put $4500 into a 10 year old female husky mix to repair both knees, she lived another 7 1/2 years.
But, I was working, and it was kind of a promise I made to take care of her.

Actually I had her scheduled to be put down, but when the time came she managed to propel herself out to the truck, and I decided if she could do that I would give her a chance.

I would try crating him when you arent home or actively semi keeping an eye on him, take him out on walks with a leash.

Then talk to dr about nsaids and maybe gabapentin, but dr may want you to limit the movement and pain killers for a while until things can fuse.

Wifes dog showed up at the vet clinic as a stray puppy, x-rays showed 3 broken legs in his past. Never expected him to live like he has but weight control and pain management have given him years we didnt expect

Make a decision and don't look back whatever it is.

Two things:

There are worse things than death if the quality of life is poor.

If you can absorb the payout somehow, its only money.

Thanks all.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with the second opinion and see where that leads.

NSAIDs seem to work the first time. Maybe they'll work now.

Wishing Jay the very best!

I've got a similar problem with a 3 yr old heeler.
She jumped out of a moving truck when she was about 1 yr, tore up something in a shoulder. Have had trouble with her re-injuring it since then.

I took all of her balls away permanently. No more frisbee. If we play fetch at all now it is retrieving a duck dummy from water.

I've had good results with aspirin for chronic pain in dogs but would not use it in this instance because I want her to feel the pain and not try to play through it. (I would consider an anti-inflammatory if possible).

Vet fitted her with a neoprene harness that restricts movement but still allows her to walk. The harness cost me $400 but is nothing so complex that you couldn't look at canine prosthetic devices and get some ideas for things you could do.

I've had success but it's like injuries we all get and then re-injure time and again.

Since it is a hind leg I'd be building ramps wherever possible. No jumping into trucks or boats. Avoid stairs. Remove any temptations to chase stuff.

edited to add -
Dog bone can be cheap entertainment. The last episode we had with our dog re-injuring herself the dog was unhappy being restricted. When we see her getting wound-up, bouncing, we'll toss her a bone and that buys some extra time.

Lot of 3 legged dogs out there seem to have good lives. A little lame is not insurmountable.

Hope you can work through it.

My last (lab sized) dog started having hip problems at 13, mostly arthritis type stuff. Vet put him on Rimadyl and he made it 2.5 more good years with little problems, really made a big difference in his well-being.

Dogs do not dwell on their problems, they don't think "Damn, I used to chase rabbits but now I can't". Instead they'll just hobble after rabbits as best they can, pretty much what they did when they could still run.

It is possible that gimpy back leg bothers you more than it bothers the dog.

Just a thought.

Good points.

I'd make the dog as comfortable as possible and let him figure his own activity level for the time he has.

I got to agree with Mike on this. Animals just do what they can till they can't anymore.

That does not mean I would let him suffer

Best of luck my friend.

Give him some painkillers and let him be on his way. When he cannot make it anymore at all, put him down.

We were faced with that situation a few years ago. He's a big mongrel that pulled up lame chasing a rabbit. Vet said he needed ACL surgery. But he was about ten years old then. We gave him this product instead:

http://www.foodscienceofvermont.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=300365180

It worked wonderfully. He's 14 now and still ticking. That stuff really works. My wife takes it too when she has joint pain.

Give it a try.