Traditional Repair for Small Dogs – Amy

Amy is a 4 year old rescue dog, a jack russell/pomeranian cross who lives with me and “brother”, Elliott – a 9 year old Jack Russell. She appeared lame on 15th March and her vet confirmed a torn cruciate ligament on her left rear leg. There was no apparent cause, but she had been very…

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Traditional Extracapsular Ligament Repair – Dalila

The day after Thanksgiving 2011, I took both my dogs, Samson (5 yr old Lab/Pit mix) and Dalila (2 yr old Border Collie mix), to the dog park so they could have time to run. They played hard for 2 hours, and Dalila spent most of her time running with the pack, her favorite activity….

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Extracapsular Repair Surgery (Traditional) – Tide

My 4 year old black Lab, Tide, had the Traditional Repair done on her knee back in December 2008. Onset of Cruciate Ligament Injury At about 5 1/2 months old Tide started to limp. Of course, being the crazy worried Mommy that I am, I thought Hip Dysplasia right away. Off to the vet we…

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A Tightrope Repair Surgery Story – Lucas

The decision to have surgery. My dog, Lucas, is a very active/jumpy 3 year old pitbull / boxer mix. I noticed some lameness in his leg about a year ago, but it seemed to go away on its own. The real problem started after introducing my boyfriend’s 2 year old lab mix to him. They…

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Double TPLO Surgery – Crash

Crash had two TPLO surgeries – first on his right leg, then on his left leg, about 8 months apart. Crash’s 1st leg was a gradual slow tear. He had been limping for around 6 months, and I finally got talked into taking him to the vet. I did and he had a partial tear….

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Bilateral TTA and Physical Therapy – Kendra

My Kendra slipped and fell on a very icy day in my yard. She was running and hit an ice patch in the yard with a slight slope. At 180 lbs, she hit so hard that the gouge in the yard where she hit remained for a year. She tore both ACL’s to near complete…

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TPLO On Two Legs Within One Year – Pilot

Our Dogue de Bordeaux (very large at 145 lbs) had his 1st TPLO in June 2011 for a partially torn CCL and his 2nd TPLO a couple of weeks ago (other knee) with a again a partially torn CCL and Meniscus. He is now 16 days post op and doing well. His 2 week check…

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Should I Get a Second Opinion? Asia’s Story

Asia the Pit Bull’s story came to me via email. I thought it was important to share both to help Asia’s owner get some feedback on how to proceed with recovery, and to also illustrate many of the questions that plague us as we decide what the best approach for our dog. As you will…

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My Decision to Pursue Tightrope Surgery – Mousse

I adopted Mousse, a pure bred chocolate lab, a little over 2 years ago – she was 15 months old. In the words of my vet, Mousse is exuberant. She was always ready to run, fetch, swim etc. etc. Then, about 6 months ago, she started having problems with her back right leg. I took…

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TTA Surgery on Both Knees – Lacey

Our 6 year old yellow lab tore her first ACL 2 years ago. After 4 months of limping and unsuccessful medications we had a traveling surgeon Do a TTA. She came home with 15 pages of instructions. It took months but she did finally regain all use of that leg. Recently she tore The ACL…

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