Well, our shop dog, Hank, has torn his cranial cruciate ligament. The vet is suggesting we send him to an orthopedic surgeon for the TPLO, followed by acupuncture, low dose NSAID therapy, laser therapy, and PT. Admittedly, I am not sold on acupuncture, but I don't want to be closed to possibilities that might help.
The tear is partial so she said surgery didn't need to be immediate, but so far he is bearing no weight on the injured leg (right rear). He's a 70 pound dog, so if this doesn't change, a procedure will have to be chosen quickly. The injury wasn't noticeable until yesterday, and we have no idea how it occurred. A Google search of TPLO has results saying everything from "it's the best invention since cable TV" to "less effective and more risk-adverse than traditional method." Wondering if anyone has experiences with both procedures and what you folks would do if it were your dog. He's a 30 month old neutered male mutt, if that info has any bearing. Thanks in advance.

Hello, sorry to hear about Hank.

I did have a rott that tore both some years ago. The first knee repaired via suture tie - traditional and then the second was done TPLO. I have found that this topic is almost as bad as the to leave intact or alter but will offer my personal experiences.

The knee done via traditional method had a huge knot -- where the tie was. This leg bothered him the remainder of his life. The other knee repaired by TPLO had a much quicker healing time and he did not favor this leg as he did the other. We did the pain meds, PT and yes we did the acupuncture with adequan.

I have heard so many success stories, esp with partial tears, of not surgically correcting but adhering to extreme rest for 8-12 weeks. If the situation presented again, I'm not sure I'd rush into surgery.

Ask the vet's for references and ask the frequency of re-do's.

Thanks. If he starts to bear weight on it at all, I'll feel better about waiting as an option. Sorry to post a question that has been beat to death -I didn't even find any results searching the site for TPLO.

http://www.dogaware.com/health/arthritis.html

This article might help with some info and links, sugical options is also discussed.

http://www.b-naturals.com/newsletter/arthritis-joint-problems/

I'm coming from thevet world where TPLOs are not uncommon, and I've never seen any problems from them. Only major successes.

Sorry didn't mean that it had been beat to death, more like it can be emotionally charged. Some of the concerns with TPLO are cost for patented metal/teaching, invasive, increase risk of infections/cancer, increase risk of improper angle. Not correcting is painful and increases chance of tear to other side. Some feel too many are rushed into surgery unnecessarily.

I would certainly post for thoughts and take it all in to make a decision, as you did, to make the best possible decision.

I'm dealing with this right now with Kita, although I opted not to go the surgical route for now. One reason I didn't go with the TPLO is because although both my vet and the specialist think it's a CCL injury, neither could find any drawer movement or other instability in the joint upon manipulation, including while she was sedatated. But the other reason was that I didn't like the odds. The specialist said Kita would be 100% in 3 months after surgery, but the latest paper I could find in the AVMA manuals said only 10.9% of dogs are normal after surgery. 34% see improvement. It didn't say what happens with the other 55.1% of dogs, but I'm going to have to assume they saw no improvement or were worse off.

I've been keeping a diary online of her progress, rehab, supplements, etc with some photos and videos. http://www.dantero.com/kita_injury.php

I would also suggest you join the Conservative Management and Ortho Dogs yahoo groups. The first is more non-surgical oriented, the second is more surgical oriented. Both have good information depending on the direction you go.

Excellent links, Aimee, and love the info (and pics) of Kida, Kadi!

I stumbled upon this link while doing homework last night: http://www.tiggerpoz.com/id3.html . They are upfront about their bias against TPLO, but the information is consistent with what I've been reading elsewhere. Hard to believe that no surgery could (often) have the same results. He's bearing weight on the leg fine today, the hardest part is going to be two months with no running for a 2 1/2 year old pup. Thanks to everyone who has opined thus far.

Thanks for sharing that link. Restricting exercise is quite the chore, I do remember that .

The other lesson I learned from this experience was that majority of dogs are quite lazy with their rears. Since then all of my dogs rotate through exercises or we seek out uneven terrain with walks to make them use the rears with purpose and thought.

added: I also found a lic. pet massage therapist to teach me how to massage. That was particularily helpful and helped to decrease the frequency of NSAID's. Certainly am no expert at it, but did enough to relieve most of the discomfort and shifting of weight to another joint.