Angus' story

Owner: Liz Date posted: November 14, 2000 Angus is a ten month old Curly Coated Retriever. When he was 4 1/2 months old, we were throwing tennis balls for him in the yard. He twisted while jumping for a ball, landed hard, started yelping and refused to stop. He refused to bear any weight on his left hind leg. We took him to our vets the next morning who, after several x-rays, determined that he had a partial tear of his ACL. They suggested we contact the University of Minnesota Veterinary Teaching Hospital to discuss his treatment options. When we met with the vets at the University of Minnesota, they recommended TPLO surgery based on Angus's activity level (high) and his eventual size (75-85 pounds). Unfortunately, the surgery could not be done for several months, until he was at least 9-10 months old. The reason for this was that the growth plates in his legs had not closed, and if the surgery was done too early, Angus might end up with a short leg. For the first week or two after the diagnosis Angus heavily favored his injured leg. Eventually he started using it well enough that you could not tell it was injured unless you knew what to look for. Twice, he reinjured the leg, yelping a lot, and favoring it for a few days. On November 9, 2000, at exactly ten months of age, Angus went in for his TPLO surgery. He came through the surgery fine, and is currently begging for attention in the x-pen in our living room. His leg was not wrapped, and they gave us a week's worth of painkilers. The staples are gruesome to look at, but (knock on wood) he has not worried at them too much yet. We have built a ramp for our front stairs so we can get him in and out, and he begrudgingly uses the ramp. So far he has taken to his confinement fairly well, and we are hoping this continues. We are concerned that once the pain becomes less of a factor he will be less compliant with the confinement given his age and previous activity level. The total cost of the surgery, with a few visits to the vets, and x-rays was about $1,600. I have absolute faith in the surgeons at the University of Minnesota, and my only complaint is their poor aftercare instructions. Literally all they said was to keep him confined for six weeks, no running, no jumping, no playing. There was no mention of physical therapy, no warnings about stairs, no discussion of gradually increasing his activity level at the end of the six weeks, etc. Fortunately we have a pretty good idea of what we should and should not be allowing him to do. UPDATE: March 9, 2001 Angus is generally doing great after his surgery. He has resumed normal activity levels, however he occasionally pulls up lame on his bad leg if he has been roughhousing with other dogs. It is our hope that this will stop as he continues to regain muscle tone. Unfortunately, two weeks ago, 3 1/2 months after his surgery, he somehow managed to shatter a toe on the same leg as his surgery. As a result, he is casted for the next 8-10 weeks. The good news is that they x-rayed his knee at that time and said it looked great. In addition, we will not have to learn from scratch how to keep him quiet -- poor pup. We are concerned about what another 8-10 weeks without activity will do to the muscle tone in his leg, and how this will affect the healing process. We will keep you updated.