Lab Retrievers

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snocat_02

New member
I havea 7 yr od male Chocolate. Great dog. November 22 he will be going into surgery to fix a ruptured ACL in his back ight leg. April 09 he ruptured his back left ACL. The surgery performed is TPLO. If your not familiar with this surgery, they take away the need for the ACL with a few plates and screws that limit the range of the joint.

I was curious if anyone else has had to do a double TPLO surgery or that surgery in general. I know its common in labs and a few other breeds of big dogs.

Recovery time on the first surgery was about 3 months. Hopefully this will be speedy too.

Thanks

Rob
 
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zrgrl

New member
I have not had personal expierence with my own dogs and this problem but I work in a vet clinic and 9 times out of 10 if a dog injures one side they will injure the otherside usually within a year or so. The dr's I work with usually explain this to our clients ahead of time that a year or two down the road we will more then likely be doing surgery on the other side. Have you had success with the TPLO surgery?
 
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willey

New member
Sorry to hear about your pup. I have a 12 year old Golden Retriever that has had both back ACL's worked on. I opted for the cheaper surgery that replaces the ligament with a sutcher type. The name of the procedure escapes me. I know some vets do not offer the TCL as it is quiet involved. Wes my Golden had his first at 4 years old and the second at 8. He is not a hunter but non less he is a member of the family and I had to do the surgery's. He took about 3-4 months to recover both times. Good luck!!!
 
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sixball

New member
We had a Golden blow out his right rear ACL and had the TPLO surgery done at Michigan State Five years ago. It all turned out very well he recovered 99 to 100%. Its not an over night recovery and as they heal you need to be careful the dog does not hurt the other leg. We did lose Corky to cancer two years later. Dammer one very bad day!
Good luck I hope all goes well.
 
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snocat_02

New member
I am going to the same vet that operated on Reese in the first operation. He was great. Recovery was 100%. I asked the vet about the cheaper surgery and they dont perform that one. He said the recovery time is extended and that it was not as successful on a dog to dog basis as TPLO.
 
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tequilamonsta

New member
I had a yellow lab get the TPLO done at the U of MN. The dog was 3 or 4 at the time. Recovery was slow, but maybe I was just being extra cautious not to re-injure the leg at what it costs.

Dog recovered 100%, hunted and played the same as a pup. Never did injure the other leg.

Last Dec. the dog started carrying the leg again. Many trips to the vet later, and now into Feb., it was diagnosed as bone cancer in the leg, probably as a result of the surgery. He made it till the first week of May, and he was only 8.

My vet said it wasn't all that common for this to happen, but certainly possible, for what its worth.
 
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toddspolaris

Member
I have a black lab about 11 yrs old and one weekend her back end just started falling out from underneath her. when she walks her legs sometimes don't do what she wants them to do and she stumbles over her back feet thus causing small cut and wounds on her bottom legs. Took her to the vet and they say she has a spinal cord injury, they have put her on some high doses of prednisone which had helped her for the time on the meds but now coming off the meds she just fumbles around not knowing what the heck. She wants to run but can't. We also have her on gluecosimine for joints and what not. Does this diagnosis seem correct? Its hard to watch her fumble around, mentally she wants to go. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks Todd
 
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choc_lab

Member
my Choc Lab had both rear ACL's done about 3 years apart .The first was the old way and the second was the TPLO . The last one was 2 years ago when he was 10 years old. He is doing Great you can't tell if he lost any rang of motion .The recovery is very important and slow . Once he can after the recovery period the best thing to do is lots of swimming. Lucky for me I have insurance on my dogs the surgery is around $3500.00. .I had Bud's surgeries done at the fox valley animal referral center in Appleton WI and they did a great job.
 
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matman

New member
We just had the suchure method done to our 10 year old Nova Scotian Duck Toller Retriever-Macgyver.
He was limping around for about a week and we just thought he caught a burr in his paw or something. Went to the vet said -ACL left rear leg. It has been about 3 weeks now since the surgery-he had a cast on for a week. Now thats off and stitches were removed last weekend. He wants to play but we have to say no for now. He still lifts and hops around some but he is definitely starting to put weight on it now getting back to normal behavior. The hard part is keeping a real active dog somewhat inactive as possible to allow the healing process. My vet says he does about 35 of these procedures a year. He says in about 3 months you won't know what leg was the problem. What can I say, if you love your mutt, you just do it for them.
Matman
 
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zrgrl

New member
The suture method is where they use a strong suture much like fishing line to try to properly align the knee and replace the cranial cruciate ligament, which in human terms is the ACL.
 
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willey

New member
zrgrl said:
The suture method is where they use a strong suture much like fishing line to try to properly align the knee and replace the cranial cruciate ligament, which in human terms is the ACL.
Click to expand...

Yep what she said!

I think I have about $2k in both rear legs not to mention all the x-rays. The TPLO is almost triple the cost, but it tends to be more successful for dogs that are more active. The biggest thing I see with retrievers and labs is that they love to jump and it is so hard on there joints, especially the back end. My vet says don't let them jump out of the truck!!!

We also started seeing a Chiro about 8 months after his second surgery. He is now 12 and gets adjusted about every 6 weeks. It has made a world of difference. He is one of the happiest and healthiest 12 year old goldens I have ever seen. I guess I am a little partial. I almost take better care of him than I do myself.
 
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