Cruciate Ligament Rupture
Submitted by MegM on April 24, 2011 - 10:52amWe have an 8 y/o bulldog and our vet told us he has a cruciate ligament rupture and should have surgery. My concern is- he has full use of his "bad leg" and very rarely even limps - so is it worth the stress and danger of surgery? His leg is definitely not at 100% and I can see where the vet says he has a little different walk, but I wanted some feedback from others who may have faced the same issue.
My concerns also go beyond the surgery - the extensive recovery time and the stress of being isolated in an x-pen for multiple weeks, would really have an impact on his life. If it is possbilbe for a dog to have OCD- he has it. So disrupting his pattern would definitely add stress to his recovery.
FYI- He has been on glucosamene for the past year and it seemed to help a bit - little to no limping.
Any feedback is appreciated.
Thanks! Meg
If he were my dog...
at 8 years old and not limping or showing pain, I would leave it alone. Keep giving the glucosomine and try to limit his activities, i.e. jumping on and off furniture, racing around, etc. Our Ollie had a partial miniscus tear when he was a pup and we rested him, did the glucosomine, and he's never had a problem with it since and he's 7 years old. Surgery can be hard on older guys and if they don't absolutely need it, I wouldn't do it.
CCL Surgery VS Arthritis
You are definitely at that age where you have a very difficult decision. It all has to do with the long term quailty of life.
My Norbert was 7 when he had an almost complete CCL tear and he had a ruptured meniscus. He already had arthritis but we decided to do the surgery. I'm glad we did because I think he would have had a much harder time getting around and his arthritis would have advanced more had we not done surgery. He was never 100% after the surgery but he was able to get along well over the next 4 1/2 years without being on anything but an aspirin 2x daily and joint supplements. I think surgery was very hard on him and I do remember thinking that I wouldn't put him through another one if he blew out the other knee.
So at age 8 I would probably not do surgery and would do everything possibly to make him as confortable as possible. The muscles around his knee will strengthen to support the looseness. He will get arthritis if he doesn't have it already and you may at some point need to use aspirin or even something like Rimadyl. Limit jumping or stairs and if he is over weight take some weight off of him. Continue somekind of exercise program (leash walking), but limited to what he can do and controled so there isn't alot of running, jumping, quick turns, etc.
Typically they say that knee injuries at an advanced age are due to degeneration and the likelyhood of his other knee going out is 50% or maybe even higher now. If you don't have surgery on this knee, you need to do whatever possible to keep him from injuring the other knee.
Best of Luck!