Comments on: How Our Dog Ruptured Her Cranial Cruciate Ligament

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:31:30 +0000

Entirely up to you. At 11 years, I’d say that surgery might be an unecessary expense, but if you think your dog will live a healthy active life for a number of years to come, then it may be something that you want to consider. The problem with a torn ligament is that it can’t be “healed” on its own. Ligaments won’t grow back. They need to be surgically repaired if you ever want it to be better. The reason that your dog may have been better while you were helping him/her out is that with inactivity, scar tissue will build and this will give the dogs knee a false sense of stability/security, but upon any type of activity, the scar tissue is likely to break down leaving your dog back where it started.

Best of luck, and I’m glad your found our site. Please let us know what you decide!

By: Brigitte Owens

Brigitte Owens — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:45:58 +0000

Hi my dog is a 11 year old Schipperke, about 3 month ago he started walking on 3 legs and just putting his toes down at times. I was told by my Vet through xray that he had a torn ligament. I was trying though lot of research to help him heel himself. Just do not want to put him through surgery at his age. It seemed to work goo by just restraining him.. But every time he runs and tries to jump he is right back where we started.. He walked so well on all four till her run down the hall and slipped. Now he is keeping his leg up again. I was getting ready to have the surgery scheduled till I talked with my vet and found out he would have operated on the wrong leg. He had the right one down and all along it always has been the left leg..
I am thinking of taken him to an orthopedic surgend. Any suggestions?

By: Denver

Denver — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 02:35:31 +0000

Hi we came back from vacation and our dog was only standing on 3 legs we looked in its paw and there is nothimg you can move it any way u want and it does not hurt him but he will not walk on it but some times he will put only his toes down do u thimk he has clr

By: caine the dog

caine the dog — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 03:09:43 +0000

we appreciate the advice author.

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:33:14 +0000

Caine -

Sounds like the joint has stabalized itself, from the best of my understanding, this is often times through the buildup of scar tissue on and around the injured area, in this case the ruptured CCL.

Its hard to say whether or not the joint is actually “healed”, but if it doesn’t affect your (or the dogs) quality of life, I personally don’t see the reason or need for a surgery. If Caine were limping all the time, then obviously, that’d be another story, but as long as he gets around fine and is able to make it through daily routines without pain, I’d just keep doing what you’re doing. One other thing to keep in mind is that the pit bull breed is very loyal and has a very high tolerance for pain, so just keep an eye on Caine and watch for any signs of discomfort, even if they seem minor.

I hope this helps, best of luck to you and Caine.

By: caine the dog

caine the dog — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:01:19 +0000

My dog’s name is Caine. He is a pit bull and bull terrier mix and he ruptured his CCL about 2 months ago, he has been on Daramaxx the past 2 months and i too got him x rays and i did not realize what the author said about only seeing bones in x rays not ligaments. Caine goes everywhere i go and has been to all 48 states since i rescued him 7 years ago. a lot of walking traveling and camping is a pretty much daily routine for us. Caine never actually tore his CCL but the vet said it was clearly ruptured. when he recommended that i rest caine for 6-8 weeks over getting the surgery i told him about our routine lifestyle. luckily weve been traveling by truck this past fall and this winter. it has been 7 weeks and he jumps into and out of the truck no problem and playing and not showing any signs of weakness, or been favoring any of his joints. does that seem normal for it to have been healed on its own that quick? i also keep Caine on gluclosamene for his joints.

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:23:47 +0000

Hi Pam -

Our dog used to do the same thing prior to tearing the ligament, the only difference is that she didn’t do it immediately. We’d notice her limping a couple hours of after returning from the beach. She’d hold her leg up when walking, then after a few hours she’d be back to normal.

My best recommendation to you would be to have her stop playing fetch, and also go ask the vet to take a look at the leg.

Hope this helps.

By: pam arabia

pam arabia — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:44:00 +0000

I have a 6yr old Aussie, he is very active at are shop since he was 6 weeks old customers play fetch with him all day and he loves it, Question is in the last 2 weeks this has happened 3 times, he will be running after the ball and he will all of a sudden scream and will hold up his back left leg, I can touch his hips but if I touch where his knee is he reacts, he will hold it up for about 2hrs and then he starts to put weight back on it, when he has been lying down for a while he gets ups slow and is really stiff for about 10mins then fine, do you think he has a torn ligament.

Thank You

By: Kenneth

Kenneth — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 05:42:26 +0000

Typically, you’ll want to take your dog in ASAP. We rushed our dog to the Emergency Clinic… If I could go back in time and do it again, I would have waited a couple days until we could get her into the regular vet.

By: ROBERT STACY

ROBERT STACY — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:21:57 +0000

HOW LONG SHOULD I WAIT TO BRING MY DOG IN AFTER THE LRG INJURY. HE IS NOT IN PAIN AND DOES NOT MIND ME MOVING THE LEG. HOWEVER WILL ONLY PUT VERY LITTLE WEIGHT ON IT AND IS LAYING AROUND MUCH MORE. THANKS YOUR INFO HAS BEEN VALUABLE.