enginegrunt

I have a 7 year old lab. Great hunter and excellent friend. She just hurt her knee this last week and the vet recommends a surgery called TPLO. Has anyone heard of it and I guess I'm looking for some advice. Quite spendy operation and I have considered putting her down. Please lend me some advice. Cost of surgery around 2300 dollars

Doc E

TPLO (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy) is the best CCL (ACL in a human) surgery for cruciate tears (ruptures), but along with it being the best, it's also the most expensive. Only qualified Vets are allowed to do TPLO's. Regardless of what kind of surgery you go with, you MUST follow rehabilitation recommendations precisely, orhe'll blow it again. ALso you need to know tht the odds are over 20% that the CCL on the other side will rupture within a couple years.

For me to be able to help you out with more advice, I really need for you to answer these questions:
1. Did this happen from a known injury?
2. Was your dog neutered at less than 14 months of age?
3. Does your dog jump in or out of a pickup bed (or similar)that is over 3' high?
4. Do you have your dog on a high quality Glucosamine supplement? (If not, you better do it NOW in order to protect the "good side").

enginegrunt

Known injury from hunting last december and snow goose hunting this spring. Thought is was a muscle sprain. Vet seems to think it happened from a tramatic injury during hunting
Yes she was fixed at the normal pup age
Yes she did jump in and out of pick ups Not anymore
I have her on a msm glucosamine supplement

Doc E

There is mounting evidence that spaying/neutering at "the normal puppy age" (6 months) leads to a markedly higher incidence rate of CCL rupture. This is due to the lack of correct hormonal influence on the growth and growth rate of long bones --- which has a negative effect on proper tibial plateau angle which leads to undue strain on the CCL.
I believe that 14 months of age is the very youngest a dog should be spayed/neutered.


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enginegrunt

Going to have the surgery on the 20th of June. A local Vet here in Sioux Falls SD is going to do. He's done around 80 of them and would have gotten her in this week but he has 2 or 3 that he is doing this week. He seems to think that cause of her age and when she did it,, that the other one should be alright. If not I probably will not get it done on the other. I don't know if I'll hunt anyway. Good hunter,has lost very few wounded pheasents on the run., but a better family friend.

enginegrunt

Thanks for the advice. She's never given up on me or herself, So I'm not going to do that to her

enginegrunt

Ended up getting the Surgery done about 8 weeks ago. It turned out so far a success. The vet said she should be ready for hunting this year and right now we in the rehab mode. Her last x-ray was healing much faster then expected and is walking on it normally with an occasional limp. Just needs to get strength now. Recommend the surgery, but find a vet that has been doing them for a while.

springerDIVA

If your vet will allow, swimming (in a swimming pool)under closesupervision can be an excellent way for range of motion and muscle conditioningto be restored.
Glucosamine and Chondrotin are very helpful too.

enginegrunt

Thanks. The vet did mention the swimming, But wanted me to get a couple of weeks in of 15 minute walk 3 to 4 time daily and then to swimming. Good Vet here in SD. Great job he has done

Doc E

New research shows that a GOOD Fish Oil protects the "good knee".



This study shows that Fish Oil is very beneficial for the "good knee" following CCL repair.
For clarity, "AA", "MMP", "uPA" are the bad guys and "TIMP" is the good guy.
What I found interesting was that the beneficial changes were ONLY in the "good knee" and no changes at all were found in the repaired knee.

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Fish oil decreases matrix metalloproteinases in knee synovia of dogs with inflammatory joint disease.Hansen RA, Harris MA, Pluhar GE, Motta T, Brevard S, Ogilvie GK, Fettman MJ, Allen KG.
Department of Health Promotion and Human Performance, Weber State University, Ogden, UT 84408, USA.

This study was designed to determine whether dietary fish oil affects the expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), tissue inhibitors of MMP-2 (TIMP-2) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) in synovial fluid from dogs with spontaneously occurring stifle (knee) instability in a single hind limb resulting from acute cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) injury. Two groups of 12 dogs were fed diets from 1 week prior to surgery on the affected knee to 56 days post-surgery. The fish oil and control diets provided 90 and 4.5 mg, respectively, of combined eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)/kg body weight per day. Plasma and synovial fluid, from both surgical and nonsurgical knee joints, were obtained at start of the diet (-7), surgery day (0) and 7, 14, 28 and 56 days post-surgery. Plasma total EPA and DHA were significantly increased, and plasma total arachidonic acid (AA) was significantly decreased by the fish oil diet. In synovial fluid from the nonsurgical knee, fish oil treatment significantly decreased proMMP-2 expression at Days 7 and 14, and proMMP-9 expression at Day 56, and uPA activity at 28 days and significantly increased TIMP-2 expression at Days 7 and 28. There were no differences in MMP expression or activity, TIMP-2 expression and uPA activity in the surgical joint synovial fluid at any time throughout the study. These results suggest that dietary fish oil may exert beneficial effects on synovial fluid MMP and TIMP-2 equilibrium in the uninjured stifle of dogs with unilateral CCL injury.

PMID: 17531456 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]



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