I have a general question for anyone whose shepherd has undergone Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy. Our 2 year old shepherd tore both ACL's in February. We weren't aware of anything unusual other than he was a bit stiff getting up and warmed up in a minute or so. But I was worried so we checked into it. Both ACL's are torn (left 2/3rds, right 1/3rd). We just completed 4 weeks into a 12 week rehab on his left leg surgery. He's doing great and doesn't seem to realize he's had major surgery, but we can now see that the 1/3 tear in the right leg is causing stiffness as well. So, on Dr's orders he will have a second TPLO around 4 mos. after the first.

X-rays and MRI show no conformation issues in hips/spine/elbows, etc. For that we are very pleased! Dr.'s say his injuries don't appear to be related to breeding, but to injury alone. He is large for a sheperd and the Docs think this is the sole reason for the problem. We are't quite sure how he grew so large as none of the rest of his sibs are this big or leggy. Docs tell us that neutering him early had nothing to do with the ACL problem or long leg growth. I'm not so sure.

We were told he had great chance of returning to full working activity. Have any of you had experience with TPLO's and how did your dogs recover? Were they able to return to full function?

Thanks for the help.

I don't know if you read this or not. Hope it helps.

http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/showf...true#Post264478

Thanks, Kevin. Good to see some folks had it work out well. We had our TPLO surgery completed at Washington State University Vet. School. We are following all Dr's orders so hope all turns out well

We wish we had some other dogs to compare him with at nearly 4 weeks post surgery. Some days he doesn't limp at all on the operated on leg and on other days, like today, he is stiff and sore. We have a long recovery to go on this leg and then the next one must be done. Sigh.

Thanks again.

Neutering early causes them to be a bit taller, but nothing substantial.

My female is 6 months post TPLO on the first leg and 4 months out on the second. You're in for a long haul!! She did very well on both. At four weeks they usually have varying degrees of stiffness/soreness. What worked for us was to just observe the dog and if she was a little sore, we'd back off for a day or two on activity. Then re-start where we left off. For us we felt it best to err on the side of caution and stick to the protocol from the vet. Four weeks is still very early.....your dog may want to be more active that he should be. The bone is still not healed. The next four weeks will be difficult because the dog is basically bored out of his mind, but you really can't risk re-injury! My vet told us a few horror stories that were basically the owners fault.....too much to soon. Good luck! PM me if you have any questions. I'd be happy to help.