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 …

The stifle (knee) joint in dogs, is very similar to the knee joint in humans, in that there are ligaments that run through the joint providing stability, and just like in humans, there can be many varying degrees of injuries in the stifle joint which makes it very important to have it properly diagnosed prior to rushing into surgery or treatment.
The injury could be something that happened suddenly as the result of a stressful event, or the injury could develop over time through normal “wear and tear”. Injuries that develop …

The Lateral Fabellar Technique, or Extracapsular Technique, is a common surgery performed on dogs to stabilize the stifle (knee) joint after a tear or rupture in the cranial cruciate ligament (CCL; misspelling cranial crucial ligament). Normally, the cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) prevents backward-forward movement (drawer movement) of the stifle joint. Untreated instability in the knee/stifle joint due to a turn/ruptured CCL can result in a tearing of the meniscus as well. When it tears/ruptures, the stifle joint becomes unstable and the dog suffers lack of mobility, lameness or loss of …

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 …

When it comes to caring for our pets, we all want the best possible option, however, most veterinarians will have a single method that they prefer to perform, thus leaving you to find another vet if you do not agree with having a specific CCL surgery. Prior to committing your dog to a surgery, you’re going to want to find out what option your veterinarian will perform, the recovery time, what percent of normal activity level will the dog return to when fully recovered, etc. Of all the surgery options, …