Border Terrier Has Ruptured Her Cruciate Ligament

[Sayly]

Our Border Terrier was at the vets today with a limp in one of her back legs. The diagnosis was probably a ruptured cruciate ligament. We are to keep her quiet and on pain meds and if she isn’t better in three weeks to take her back and they will operate.

Does that sound right? To leave it that long before doing something about it?

I’m a little bit shaken and really quite worried, I just hope the vet knows what he is doing.

[morgan]

Shouldn't be a problem - if there is any chance of the ligament only being strained and not ruptured you really don't want to put the dog through unnecessary surgery. As long as the dog is kept quiet is should be fine.

[SpikesPuppy]

Our pet shop Shih Tzu X has had both CLs replaced, the first one was torn and before operating we kept him quiet, on pain meds etc for 2 weeks before having it replaced. Then when he started limping on the other leg, we just had it replaced straight away.

General rule is apparently if one goes- the other will go too.

Your girl should be fine for a few weeks, just don't let her do any jumping or strenuous excercise. As Morgan said, if it is just strained, then you don't want to operate uneccesarily. With our dog, his was torn and wouldn't repair on it's own.

Edited November 3, 2007 by SpikesPuppy

[Sayly]

Thank you both, you have both made me feel alot better about it. My worry is she has a luxating patella (not bad enough for us to notice but the vet picked it up) on the other leg and so I don't think limping would do that much good.

Took the other two dogs for a walk today and Gracie adores her walks, I thought it mean to leave her home so I carried her the whole way! LOL After a couple of kms a 8.5kg Border Terrier is HEAVY! Was worth it to see her happy about being out. And yes we know she is overweight but she is on a diet, and has been losing weight. She's the kind of dog who simply has to look at food and she's gain the kilos.

ETA: Thanks to ness too for the support through PMs and MSN, very much appreciated.

Edited November 3, 2007 by Lyndsay

[Mizzi]

She's the kind of dog who simply has to look at food and she's gain the kilos.

I know exactly what you mean. I have an 8 year old BC like that.

He ruptured a cruciate ligament about 4 years ago. The vet wanted him to lose a bit of weight before he operated, so we just had to keep him quiet and on pain killers for a couple of weeks.

Since he's a really big boy anyway, the vet was worried that a synthetic ligament would stretch after a while and he might have to operate again, so he did a double procedure. As well as the synthetic ligament. he removed some sinew from Calypso's thigh, and also grafted that in place.

Four years later and Clyp is going great. He has a glucosamine capsule with his meal every night to help his joints. He still gets a bit stiff some days but nothing serious.

As for his weight problem, he's on a diet yet again!

I hope your girl won't need the op, but if worst comes to worst, I'm sure your vet will have her up and about and back to her old self in no time :-)

[Sayly]

She was kept very quiet today (laundry or crated) and when she was out on piddle walks she actually put weight on it! Yay! So we will see how she does. She was my little study buddy today, I had her crate in the study with me while I studied for my exams. She's such a sweetie pie.

[jillybean]

I'm saying this on the assumption that a ruptured cruciate ligament in a dog is similar to that of a human, but if it's already ruptured then waiting won't do any further harm. If it's already torn, it can't possibly tear any more. Plus once the swelling and inflammation go down she won't be in pain anymore. People wait months for cruciate ligament repairs, and if you're elderly or not overly active chances are you wouldn't even bother with surgery. You can functional perfectly fine without it as long as you don't intend to do alot of sport.

So with that in mind I'm sure waiting 3 weeks is fine.

But like I said, I'm not too familiar with anatomy of a dog, only that of humans