Tplo Complications in Dogs – Hammer

My Schutzhund competition dog had tplo surgery 6 months ago. His recovery was very slow. I did plenty of low impact therapy from month one, then put him back on Rimadyl when the surgeon advised that he should be able do everything he did prior to surgery. After some hard training work, he developed a large swelling over the joint, and a small fistula began to drain.

Well, the surgery was done up north, and now I am 1200 miles away, so I need to have another surgeon remove the plate and screws. I have not yet got a price, but will post tomorrow.

I am resigned that my dog can no longer do the work to compete in the sport. Had I know the outcome, I would have opted for extra capsular repair.

Think twice about Tplo. When it works, I hear good things, but when it goes bad……it goes very, very bad.

6 thoughts on “Tplo Complications in Dogs – Hammer

  1. So sorry about Hammer 🙁 TPLO has a very good rap, but yes, when things go wrong, they might go VERY wrong.

    Of course you don’t know what’s gonna happen before hand.

    We did go with the extracapsular repair, simply because we didn’t feel we wanted to take the, however slight, risk of things going bad. If extracapsular repair goes bad, you’re nowhere worse than where you started.

  2. Hello, I just wanted to share my story with you to hopefully make you feel better about your dog’s future. My 4 y/o working Lab had TPLO last year. 3 weeks after surgery he was in the same place your dog is now, with extreme swelling and facing a 2nd surgery. We went ahead and had the plate/screws removed in addition to his meniscus. After 3-4 months of therapy and taking it easy we started working him. These days you would never know anything had ever happened. He runs hard uphill in deep snow (ski patrol), plays Frisbee and shows no lameness. It seems hopeless during the healing process, but at least we don’t regret the surgery decision.

  3. My 6 year old golden retriever Sampson , who was VERY active and heathy, suffered a knee injury after being prescribed CIPRO for a grass seed that penetrated his paw. I,ve read that CIPRO is known to cause tendon rupture in humans. Also CIPRO was prescribed without trying more traditional anti-biotics first which I’ve read isn’t proper procedure.Anybody with a similiar experience?

  4. what to make of the website Pet Health 101…”only 20% of dog knee surgery’s are successful after 6 months” (show improvement)?

  5. Wow, not familiar with CIPRO. So sorry about Sampson knee though!

    Can you give the full link to the Pet Health 101 article? That information is not adding up to anything I’ve learned or experienced. While some of the knees don’t get completely well, in my mind the statistics would have to be the other way around if anything.

    If only 20% of knee surgeries were successful after 6 months, there would very little point of putting one’s dog through that.

    My experience and knowledge is quite the opposite.

  6. Today is the king of all days. My surgeon told me that Chief hurt himself while in their custody because of his mentality. This despite the surgeon knowing that Chief has ADD and needs to be sedated while in a vet office cage waiting for surgery. Chief’s story is online and my TPLO experience has been a nightmare. I used a highly recommended speciality vet hospital in Ottawa. The surgeon will not even agree with the other highly experienced surgeon that he works with. Both my vet and this other surgeon agree that the screw that is lose in Chief’s leg needs to be removed but my surgeon disagrees. One surgeon says it is easy to get it out as does my vet. My surgeon, soon to be very ex surgeon, says it is not easy to take out. This is probably so he can run the bill up even further. Unfortunately the new surgeon that I trust is on holidays and Chief would have to wait an additional two weeks or so to get his external fixator bar out of him, that has already been in three weeks longer than it was supposed to be there in the first place.
    Glad I have a legal background cause I think I am going to need it.

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