Those of us who have suffered knee injuries ourselves probably know that one of the downfalls of knee reconstruction can oftentimes be arthritis. The cause of this arthritis is due to the fact that when reconstructing the torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) or Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL), the surgeon must also cut away torn meniscal tissue. This torn meniscal tissue (meniscus) is the cartilage found in the knee joint that prevents bone on bone contact. As the meniscus is cut away in surgery, there becomes more opportunity for bone on …

This is one of the questions that I receive the most – “I have a very active dog, how do I keep him/her inactive during the recovery process”. To be honest, there is not a simple answer. Active dogs are like active people, they get stir crazy when they’re confined to a space for a prolonged period of time. I’m one of those types of people, so I can definitely relate and totally understand what our dogs may be going through during the recovery process.
In talking with our veterinarian, and …

When your dog tears its cranial cruciate ligament, that is bad news in itself, but what do you do when your dog ruptures both CCLs at the same time? How do you care for the dog? How do you decide what type of surgery to treat it? How do you afford it? Do you have the surgical procedure on both legs at the same time, or do you do one knee, let it recover, then do the other knee? These are all tough questions, and I’ll be the first to …

As a pet owner, one of the worst things that you could ever imagine happening is having your dog become injured to the point where it is painful for him/her to walk. When our dog tore her CCL (comparable to an ACL in humans) she couldn’t put any pressure at all on her leg. It was terrible to see, especially considering the fact that she was always such an active dog prior to her injury. The good news is that with dog knee injuries, there are many surgical repair options, …