Diagnosing a Torn/Ruptured Cranial Cruciate Ligament in Dogs
When our dog tore her CCL, she imediately came up lame and was unable to put any weight or pressure on her right hind leg. She had minor hip problems previously, so at first we thought that she just overdid it while playing at the beach, so we took her home, gave her some MetaCam and let her rest overnight. When nothing had changed the next day (Sunday), we decided to take her to the pet Emergency Room.
At the ER, they told us that to diagnose the problem with her knee they were going to have to do 2 things:
- Take x-rays of the stifle (knee) joint to make sure that there is no bone damage and/or arthritis.
- Manipulate the joint while the dog is sedated to check for instability (drawer movement)
So we left our dog at the emergency clinic so that they could sedate and diagnose her injury, and when we next heard back from them, they told us that she most likely has a torn cranial cruciate ligament (CCL; misspelling: cranial crucial ligament) and that we should take her to her primary care veterinarian to discuss repair options.