Conservative Management for Knee Ligament – Lola

Lola is a German Short Haired Pointer – very active, spins and bucks like a bronco 30 or 40 times a day!

When she was about 7 she started favoring one back leg, not even weight bearing at times. We took her to the vet when this went on for a couple days and he said it was a ACL tear and recommended surgery. When informed we would have to keep her calm for many weeks we were overwhelmed – there is no keeping this dog calm so post op would be pretty difficult. I read about it online and talked to some people whose dogs had surgery and who still have a lot of pain due to arthritis. We decided to take a wait and see approach using Glucosamine and Rimadyl.

Within 4 months she was her old self – truly amazing! Then two years later she started limping again. We took her to a new vet who specializes in holistic medicine. He offered surgery, but said he thought a wait and see approach was okay, too. He squeezed Lola’s leg and showed us it wasn’t really painful and that the arthritis is minimal. He said she seemed to be favoring it like it was a “trick knee” rather than from pain.

He encouraged us to take her off Rimadyl, but to keep Glucosamine and add Fish Oil. He told us that he thought adjusting her spine through chiropractic measures would be worth trying. He adjusted her spine and she hopped up and started running around like her old self. We brought her back in 3 weeks and then in another 3 weeks for two more adjustments even though she was acting perfectly normal after her first visit.

It has now been 6 months and she has continued to be her crazy, spastic, spinning and jumping self. We are very happy that we gave her those months to recover the first time. Her quality of life is amazing, I believe better than if she had gone through the pain of surgery and certainly it was less costly than surgery! I encourage everyone to see a holistic medicine vet before making a decision on surgery.