Dog Knee Surgery & CCL Ligament Repair » anti-inflammatory medication

Dog Knee Infected After CCL Knee Surgery – Infection Caused by Surgical Hardware

Kenneth — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 07:09:49 +0000

The following story and questions came from reader Nina through our Contact Page. I haven’t had any experience with these problems, so I’m hoping that some of our readers can help answer some of Nina’s questions.

My Boxer mix had tight rope surgery on his knee April 2010. I did all the slow rehabilitation like the vet requested. His knee still gave him problems and after several more vet visits has been placed on anti-inflammatory and antibiotic medications which do not seem to help. Recently a digital x-ray showed that two things may be the problem:

The hardware is causing an infection that will not go away unless the hardware is taken out

The cushioning in between the joints is damaged

Either way I was told the hardware must come out. Then the possibility of repairing the knee with the top of the line hardware with all the metal may be needed. How can the hardware cause an infection that no antibiotic will help and if its the hardware causing the infection how can another piece of hardware be different? Also is there anything else I can do to help this poor dogs knee besides another costly surgery and more hardware?

My guesses were as follows: the only way that the hardware could cause an infection is if the hardware that was placed inside the knee during surgery was not sterile. If that were the case, then the veterinarian would be responsible for cost/replacement/etc. Other than surgery, the typical options are conservative management, weight management, drugs and medications, and/or dietary supplements.

Diagnosing a Ruptured Cruciate Ligament in a Doberman Pinscher

Kenneth — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:13:04 +0000

The following story comes from Jan in the United Kingdom. Though most of our readers are from the United States, I thought that it’d be great to offer information for those readers who are overseas and Jan agreed to share her story about her Doberman named Fiel. I hope that all of you all find Jan’s story helpful (this will be released in 3 parts).

Jan’s Doberman Pinscher CCL Story (Part 1)

My 6 and half year old Doberman called Fiel (means Loyal/faithful in Spanish) was just recovering from a hematoma of his ear and lying on his sofa when Millie my cat decided to walk past and wave her tail his way for the daily ritual of chase. Except this time Fiel jumped off the side of the sofa and landed awkwardly and yelped straight away. I had heard a sort of dull crack noise so I knew this wasn’t good. He cried and couldn’t put his back leg down. I rang my vet immediately and his first thoughts were the cruciate ligament. As Fiel was already on Myloxidyl for pain relief and inflammation for his ear, he suggested to carry on with that until I could get him to his office for an evaluation. This took two days as Fiel was in some pain and the joint was not stable so he had to learn a different way of walking and getting in and out of my car.

My vet confirmed that he had the drawer movement of his knee joint which confirmed to him that he had ruptured his cruciate. He booked us in with a Orthopedic Surgeon not far from us who has a fantastic success rate with this particular operation and went to meet him two days later. Sure enough, he had completely ruptured the cranial cruciate ligament (dog ACL) and he explained the tightrope procedure to me and how it is less invasive than other types of surgery but it is likely that arthritis will be a problem in the future because of the nature of the injury. He also mentioned that his knee might have been weakened before and this time its completely snapped. Looking back I suspect he was correct as I do remember Fiel sliding badly on my laminate flooring when he was younger and limping a bit but he healed and I thought nothing more about it.

So he’d had the accident on the Monday, saw his Vet on the Wednesday, the Surgeon on the Friday and the operation was scheduled for the following Tuesday. Eight days from injury to operation. It perhaps would have been quicker but between my Vet and the Surgeon, they were running tests for Von Willibrands disorder and other clotting tests as well as checking Thyroxine levels as he has an under active thyroid. That incidentally was picked up because of a research study on Dobermans as they have a high rate of death due to heart failure, so he has quite extensively tested. Thankfully all of those tests came back negative!

Be sure to come back to read the remainder of Jan & Fiel’s story – Read Part II.

Conservative Management as a Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) Treatment Option

Kenneth — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 07:14:20 +0000

Though this wasn’t our first choice when dealing with our dogs ruptured cranial cruciate ligament, Conservative Management (or Conservative Treatment) is a non-surgical option of CCL treatment that should be considered by all dog owners prior to surgery.

Consider the human knee for example, you’ve all probably heard of torn or ruptured ACL’s (meaning the ligament is entirely severed), and you’ve also heard of partially torn ACL’s (meaning the ligament is still intact, but has definiate damage. Now, let’s consider a pro athlete, surgery will be necessary for either case – torn ACL or partially torn ACL. However, let’s say we have a 40 year old man with a desk job who doesn’t do too much physical activity. Surgery would be the best bet for a torn ACL, however he could probably get through the rest of his life with a partially torn ACL, and using a brace and conservative management in situations where any further damage to the ligament could occur.

The same hold true for dogs, however, the unfortunate thing is that we don’t have the option of giving a dog an MRI, which will actually show the extent of ligament damage. With dogs, we can have an x-ray, and we can have veterinarians check for instability (drawer movement), but we will not not for sure if the ligament is completely torn, or just partially torn. This is where conservative management comes in. Depending on the size of your dog (conservative management is typically not an option for large dogs – 40+ lbs), the amount of instability (drawer movement) in the stifle (knee) joint and the amount of lameness your dog displays in the injured limb, your veterinarian may recommend conservative management rather than a surgical procedure.

For conservative management, these principles must be strictly adhered to, otherwise the stifle joint will be unable to recover naturally:

Weight management / Diet control – Here are some weight management dog foods
Complete restriction of movement in the beginning, along with rest
Use of anti-inflammatory medications

Weight Management is not only something that will be recommended in the case of conservative management, but it will often be recommended following surgical procedures as well. Our dog dropped 1/3 of her body weight after surgery through diet control and weight management.

Rest & Restriction is required to allow the knee joint to heal in any way if its going to. This process can take 4-8 weeks, and at the end of this period, if the dog is still exhibiting lameness in the limb, surgery might be the best option. During this period, it’s a good idea to keep your dog in a crate or pen. We actually ordered these two plastic pens for Roxy during her recovery.

Anti-Inflammatory Medications can be used in combination with weight management and rest & restriction to help remove the swelling in the limb and let it recover. Here are some natural and over the counter anti-inflammatories that can aid in conservative management.

Before beginning a conservative management regimen, it is always best to contact your veterinarian and have the CCL injury professionaly diagnosed. After seeing a friend of mine try conservative management with a Labrador, I’d recommend seeing a vet ASAP after the injury.