Has anyone got any experience with torn ligaments in the hock/ankle joint in their dogs?

Mish, my 8 year old husky was tumbled over by Sarge, Cane Corso, and has been lame for the last few days. After X-rays, the vets believe she's torn her ankle ligament and has referred us to a specialist.

I'm worried because she's already torn her cruciate ligament (ACL) in that leg and had it repaired with a TPLO. She also tore the cruciate ligament in the other leg which was repaired with the regular procedure - so she has some weakness in the leg that's supporting her rear weight. The regular vet also isn't sure about how they'd fix it, she's not an orthopaedic surgeon, and I have a to wait a few days to see the specialist.

I've already seen the specialise for the TPLO surgery and he said that cruciate ligament tears are often the result of an underlying inflammatory disease, believed to be genetic. So I'll take a second to tell anyone who's breeding dogs with cruciate issues... don't! It's too bloody expensive! And on that note, insure your dogs! Mish isn't, and it's costing us a bomb - even with my vet nurse discount.

On another topic - I was playing tug with Sarge today. I released him after he sat and he grabbed hold of the tug... or so I thought. I pulled back hard and punched myself in the nose. It didn't stop bleeding for like 30 minutes and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a black eye.

All round... not a good week for Jackie and the pack

Jackie, have you seen the specialist yet (about the ankle ligament)?

Doing that today - Mish's booked in for tentative surgery as well. I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with their own dogs. My vet was pretty astounded that she managed to tear her ankle ligament, apparently that's not easy lol

Please let us know.

Ok well, she's having surgery next Tuesday. She's getting an artificial ligament attached to her bones. $2500 later....

We're getting a friend to build Sarge a cart, so he can pull Mish around on walks because she'll be unable to exercise for months. The idea being - it's stimulating for Mish, and Sarge should be tired enough not to bother her for a play during the day.

Will she be able to have any exercise at all? That is, is there a protocol to help prevent muscle loss, atrophy?

I don't know much about this surgery.

Can passive range-of-motion be done? That is, you do the moving of the limb while the dog is lying down?

How is your black eye?

Yes and no - she'll be in a restrictive bandage for a few weeks (3 I think) so I won't really be able to move anything apart from her hip. Once the ligament has fused properly to her bones I can stretch out her leg a bit - if she'll let me.

Apart from that, she's going to a dog pool for some swimming after a few months. She'll also be going for very short walks with this new harness I'm getting that supports her back end.

I don't actually have a black eye I couldn't breath out of my nose the past few days and I had some swelling but it's all ok now lol. I was thinking about starting a new thread on tugging accidents, I'm always managing to hurt myself