My lab might have ccl partial tear in knee

[jhol]

Who has experience.....vet said probably partially torn. We did x ray shows inflammation. Going on meds for ten days then re evaluate. Any advice would be great. Seven year old lab not overweight.

[herm]

What do you want to know? My lab, age 3.5, had her second TPLO surgery 3 weeks ago. Glad to share all I have learned about this in past 2 years. PM me for details. (i think that can be done through this.) Also, if it is a partial tear, it will not heal. You can just hope it does not tear more. Good luck and glad to help as able. In a word, it sucks. Ok....2 words.

[GSP4ME]

if you get on the Retriever Journal Magazine board and google it you will come up with some good information on it as well. Good Luck

[John478]

Sorry to hear about your dog. My 9 yr old Lab also tore her ccl hunting this fall. Sorry but this cowboy cannot afford to have surgery done on a dog. So I’ve done a lot of research for alternatives. So I would have to disagree with hern that a partial tear will not heal. Also if his dog is on his 2nd surgery (assuming it’s the same knee) that don’t sound to promising either.

I found this web site to be interesting http://tiggerpoz.com/

[srfishin15]

Herm is my dad, our dog tore her left acl last spring and her right one this fall. So no, not the same knee.

[herm]

John478, perhaps I should clarify. When I said "heal" I meant the torn ligament will not "grow back together." As I understand it, scar tissue certainly will form, but ligaments never "regrow" themselves - like tissue/skin do. Thus, the only thing keeping it from tearing even more will be muscles, conditioning and likely limited use. (Remember, though, I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV) As for your views and that web page, I reviewed that approach. For starters, I have a real problem when a supposed expert hides behind anonyminity. More so, though, considering the age of my dog, I opted for surgery, yes, twice. (Ouch$$$$) If my dog was halfway or more through her hunting career, I would not have chosen that route. The bottom line: Every dog owner needs to decide for themselves what is best for them and their dog. Again, jhol, glad to share details here or via PM. One more thing: I changed vets after the first surgery because of "customer relations." As part of that, I talked to several other vets. So it's not like I'm a one-trick pony. ...or lab.