Our almost 7 year old, totally active and energetic, boxer dog pulled up lame in her left back leg in early October 2010. The next day, I took her to the Vet after she fell coming up the basement stairs (had to help her climb them). We were told by our Vet that she had an ACL injury to her left back knee.

She’s in top physical shape, totally excellent physical specimen of a dog and not at all overweight, although she is a female Boxer dog and weighs 72 pounds, she is all muscle, a tall and beautifully muscular dog, runs like a thoroughbred horse, an amazing sight to witness.

But due to her falling while coming up the stairs and exhibiting lameness, I took her to the Vet straight away.

The Vet said she had an ACL injury in her back leg as they got a “drawer” sign while examining her. We weren’t keen on spending the $2,300 on the surgery and follow-up visits but didn’t want our dog to be in pain or lame.

We got the traditional surgery straightaway the next week. It was a real rodeo trying to keep her inactive for the next several weeks. Gosh, that was a real trial but we got through it. She just wanted to run but we couldn’t let her do that.

I think that our Vet really steered us correctly in getting treatment quickly and we will hopefully avoid a tear in the other leg because we acted fast and she didn’t learn to compensate with the other leg and blow that one out as well.

She’s doing extremely well now, even better than the Vet had hoped for, given the extreme tear of her ACL ligament.

We’re giving her Glucosomine pills now(probably for the rest of her life) and Rimadyl (down to once a day from twice a day early on, just a little cream cheese on the pill and she gulps it right down).

She is going strong now and does not appear to be in any pain or favoring her good leg anymore.

I am very pleased with her progress and credit it all to quick diagnosis and treatment of this condition. I’ve heard that if you wait, a big dog like ours will develop a habit of relying on the other good leg and blow that one out as well. Hopefully we’ve avoided that situation and it’s related expense.

Our Vet said that a good natured Boxer like ours will never let you know that they are in pain, they’ll just soldier on so you will be happy with them. I believe he was right. Our dog is such a happy dog, she never would have let us know how much pain she was actually in. Glad we had such a good Vet who really cared about her and helped us to get her treatment quickly to hopefully avoid future issues in the other leg.

Thanks!