Among the many alternative therapies for a CCL injury is one you may or may not have heard of: prolotherapy. Prolotherapy (“prolo” is short for proliferation) is an injection technique used to stimulate the growth of healthy connective tissue to help strengthen torn or weakened ligaments and tendons and eliminate chronic pain. Prolotherapy has been used successfully on…
Tag: Conservative Management
Conservative Management – Lucy the Corgi
We have a wonderful Corgi named Lucy who will be turning 2 years old the first week of December. We picked her up from a breeder with a good history. She is pretty active at home with her step-brother Corgi Charlie, but at the dog park she doesn’t like to play; shes an explorer. At…
Conservative Management – Juni
My 6-and-half-year-old Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Juni, injured his left hind leg last Monday. He was jumping on and off from the couch and just like that, he started to walk with his 3 legs and had his injured leg up. He was not crying or mourning…But still, he was hopping like a kangaroo! We rushed…
TPLO Complications – Blu
Initially we tried conservative management with my pit/shepherd mix Blu because I did not want to put him through surgery. We had some success with that for about a year until I got another dog and he reinjured it roughhousing. We tried CM again but this time he wasn’t improving so we made the tough…
Conservative Management vs. Surgery – Bella
My dog Bella was also diagnosed with a partially torn ACL about 6-8 weeks ago. We have been trying a conservative approach. Our vet even gave me a lite sedative for her because she is so used to being so active. I have seen about a 20% improvement. She limps mainly when she first gets…
Photonic Light Therapy for Dogs
There are many ways to help your dog heal after surgery, such as acupuncture, massage, or turmeric paste. Another treatment you may have heard of is photonic light therapy, which uses a laser with red or near-infrared light to penetrate damaged cells at specific points on the body. A laser, in the simplest terms, is an amplifier…
Turmeric for Dogs
What It Is Turmeric, an herb known for its bright orange color, has long been used in its native Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries as a staple for not only cooking and clothing dye, but also as medicine. For thousands of years, Chinese medicine, for example, has incorporated herbal remedies as part of its holistic…
Injury Misdiagnosis – Lucy
Our 8-year-old Goldendoodle Lucy was at our dog boarder while we were on vacation and we received an email that she had injured herself running while off leash. We picked her up a few days later and realized it was much worse than what they had described; she was trying to walk on 3 legs,…
Treatment Options – MacDuff
MacDuff is an almost 15-year-old terrier mix who weighs 21 lbs and is very healthy but 2 weeks ago he injured his back right knee and we’ve been told he needs a unilateral TPLO for $5,000 with an estimated 8 weeks of recovery. I initially said yes but then started wondering if that would be…
Surgery vs. Conservative Management – Sophie
Three months ago in February, my Scottie Terrier, Sophie, tore her CCL. She is 22.5 lbs and 7 years old. She had x-rays and saw two different vets, one being an orthopedic who recommend the band surgery. He manipulated it and said it was completely torn (not sure if he can really tell?) Anyway, I…