Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs My chessie tore his ACL.....

Confirmed it yesterday at the vet and my 3 year old Chesapeake Bay Retriever has torn his right rear ACL. We see the ortho guy on Monday. I've been reading about our options online about different surgical options and see that some families have had success NOT going the surgical route. Through strictly limiting activity for like 8-12 weeks they claim high quality of life?! Is this too good to be true? I'm sure when I go to this ortho specialist I'm gonna "sold" on something. The wife would make the damn dog bionic if cash allowed. Me on the other hand, I live in reality. Dexter is a house dog and has already been diagnosed with a "loose hip" and now this ACL tear. Looking for some advice. Please.

Nearly 700$ just to get to this point.

Sorry to hear.

Can't speak to dogs, but ACL repairs in people aren't usually done right away.

My Doc likes to wait awhile so all the swelling goes down and full range of motion is restored before he goes in drillin' and cuttin'.

I am betting you can wait a while and see how he does on it. I think ACL surgeries are done WAY to often on people, much less a house dog.

I ain't no animal Doc though.

Good luck Dexter!

Thanks dude. This has been really hard on our family. We just want to make a well informed decision.

Tuff spot for sure Woodson

I am not a doctor but have been there and done that with my dogs a couple times
And many times with livestock.

Lots of them can do well with confinement
if your dog is a good patient and you have the time and ability to properly restrain them for long enough you can be successful
not all surgeons are equal.
If you are considering surgery make sure that a true expert is going to do the work and be prepared for poor prognosis . Seek a second opinion. Be realistic
With your family and keep the quality of life as priority.

Good luck


I am

Give it a couple weeks & see if he improves at all. Our weim is almost 11 & she tore hers in mid October. It took a month before she was back to moving somewhat normally and bearing full weight. The first two weeks we would only go from the house to the yard to pee & then back to our bedroom where she stays all day. Have to pick her up to put her in & out of the truck, etc.. Finally by week four she was starting to be able to take short walks. Unfortuatley we took her to a marsh with a trail through it as we were looking for moose sheds when she scented /sighted a snowshoe hare. Took off after it full speed for 100 yds before I knew what was up, & by then it was to late. She waited for us on three legs as she just undid her 4 weeks of healing. Now we are back to step one again & it will be 3 weeks on Sunday and she is still confined to the room & gets lifted in & out of the suv. She just likes to go everywhere & is content to lay in the back seat of the tahoe on her sleeping bag as long as we will leave her in it.
I am not as optimistic this time as it seems to be taking longer but it may be worth a shot for you to give it a few weeks and see if he improves at all.

We see the ortho guy on Monday and our "plan" is to take it easy for a number of weeks and see how it goes. Thanks everybody.

Good plan, IMO. The surgery can always be done later if this doesn't work well enough.

Good luck to both of you.

Woodson....dogs with a higher center of gravity can be susceptible to this injury...I.E. Boxers.....like I have. She tore her right rear ACL 2-3 years ago. Started using only 3 legs! It was horrible. I thought she was just lame for a few weeks until I went to get and to THAT news! 2200 bucks later, she has a repaired ACL. She was about 8 or 9 and in good health. She recovered perfectly and quickly! Back to new I would say. A punch in the cock and wallet, but glad we did it! Hope this helps.

Woodson my LM now has had surgery on both of his,chukar hunting in Hells canyon Idaho can be hell on dogs.I am in about 5 grand on the knees but he is such a phenominal hunter I wouldn't consider not doing it! I guess like the vet says he's only 5 and there are only 2 knees! Easy for him to say! LOL

Saw the ortho guy today and to be honest I'm pretty hopeful. He didnt try and sell me one way or another. Scheduling surgery 2 weeks from now. Quoted "low 2000".

I've blown money on dumb schit all my life and this isn't one of them. If he blows the other ill feel foolish. Cost of doing business? He is so smart I can talk to him like a person.

My buddy has an outstanding Yellow Lab that has torn 3 ACL's. About $1600 each time. Good luck.

big difference in the bio-mechanics of a human and a dog, in quadrupeds there is much more "tibial thrust" than with humans. That means there is more pressure on the acl to stabilize the stifle and prevent "drawer" hence it usually beneficial for dogs to have a complete acl tear repaired. There is a better than 50% chance the dog will rupture the other acl at a point in time. Lots of ways to surgically repair the joint (none of them cheap). Hiighest cost are tplo and tta techniques, lowest tight-rope/extra-capsular. Depends on surgeons preference, probaly should get it fixed in a 3 yo dog.

best of luck!
give us an up date when you can.

Great information. I appreciate it. I'm definitely getting it repaired and will update everyone.

Our knucklehead aussie blew her's May 2011, did the TPLO, and she's 100%. Good money spent on a good dog..

I posted about it, and got some good advice, along with some bad of course (Manlicker, what a surprise).

Here's the threads -

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/5221959/1

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/5207940/2

After firming up our surgery date the plan is for the "tight rope" procedure? Thoughts?

I think the biggest thing is to stabilize the joint. Any of the techniques performed by an experienced surgeon should be beneficial. I do the tight-rope in my general
practice, the specialist does the tplo and tta

We were recommended to a TPLO specialist, and like I said, Sunny Girl is 100%, and continuing to be great member of the family. We don't regret anything, even though it was a chunk of change.

You might want to post up in the campfire.. We received some good off-line PM's from member/vets who really helped out. It's a sewage pit in general up there, and expect odd ball responses, but you'll probably get more info that will help.

I am not a vet but check out( ask your vet) about Adequan Canine. We had an older dog with the same issue. This helped relieve the inflamation. At the end of 5 weeks she could walk but she never hunted again( she was 13). All the best.

This stuff worked so well that both my wife and I wondered why we were not given it when we bloo our knees