[SWIPER]

Can anyone give me any info on how their dog is doing after surgery.
How training is going after the surgery?
How the dog responded after surgery?
And what to expect after surgery.

 

[Maxs Mom]

My dog was not a hunting dog but she made a better than 100% recovery. She was older and I thought she had some "age related" issues. She was T boned by my lab and there went her knee. Surgery went smooth, recovery 8 weeks, then slowly return to activity. She came back great. However, depending on the reason you need the TPLO....often times the second knee goes within one year. Yup we were back for TPLO #2. After her second surgery, she never needed one NSAID for the rest of her life. Her second surgery was at age 9 1/2, and she passed away this past Oct from cancer. She never limped again.

She was not a "performance" dog but she was a highly active dog up until the last two months of her life. After her surgery she started a dock jumping career, multiple titles. She learned how to do agility too. Our surgeon told us "if the dog could do it before, they can do it after but be realistic, if it could not jump the fence before, it won't now either." My advice is follow the vets post op instructions to the letter! Most surgeries of this type, fail due to the owners not following instructions. Our surgeon let our dog start swimming at 4 weeks post op. She was not cleared to walk yet, but swimming was ok.

Good Luck! Sorry your pup needs this done.

Ann

 

[BonMallari]

Same here with the two surgeries..we had the grand dame of the Idaho household Starbuck (named after the place my brother patronized the most)with twin TPLO surgeries She is now 12 yrs old and rules the sofa which is by her invitation only..before the surgery Star was easily one of the fastest and sleekest animals. ever to grace our kennel, she was hard to slow down after the rehab and soon she needed the second operation and was retired to a well deserved life of luxury. I cried the second time she got hurt because I thought that was the end, arthritis has set in and she walks with a slow almost painful to watch stride but gosh how I love that gal...

 

[Richard Fuquay]

My Chessie has had both knees done. After the first he seemed to recover close to 100%. After the second (last June) we have recently encountered a little problem which remians unsolved. After returning to training for three months, and running two hunt tests (four passes), he came up lame when we got home from training one day. He has recovered to a large degree but continues to not want to put full weight on his leg when standing. His vet has consulted with the surgeon, taken x-rays, run blood tests and taken cultures. As it stands now there is apparently no infection and no structural problem at the surgical site. The surgeon who did both TPLOs is four hours away and now I have to go back and have him examined again and probably have the plate taken out. I think that generally dogs return to near 100% performance after a TPLO, but things do not always go as planned.

 

[Doc E]

Click here and scroll down just a little for the article ----> http://www.strideaway.com/strideaway/index.php



.

 

[Janet Kimbrough]

Wagars had his first TPLO in Sept '07 and recovery went well for about 8 weeks he started favoring the leg again as two of the screws started backing out so in Jan 08 he had the plate removed and by the spring was back to running hunt tests and in late April while training for the Grand, he completely destroyed his other knee. Had his second TPLO mid May of 08. His recovery from the second one was totally different. From walking out when I went to pick him up from his surgery and he pulled the vet tech and jumped up on me and walked out pretty much putting weight on both legs.

Wagars has been running hunt tests since the fall of 08 and we have never looked back. He is a little slower than he was prior to the two surgeries but he is also 2 years older.

Good luck.

Janet

 

[Doc E]

Wagars had his first TPLO in Sept '07

and in late April while training for the Grand, he completely destroyed his other knee. Had his second TPLO mid May of 08.
Janet

This study shows that Fish Oil is very beneficial for the "good knee" following CCL repair.
For clarity, "AA", "MMP", "uPA" are the bad guys and "TIMP" is the good guy.
What I found interesting was that the beneficial changes were ONLY in the "good knee" and no changes at all were found in the repaired knee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fish oil decreases matrix metalloproteinases in knee synovia of dogs with inflammatory joint disease.Hansen RA, Harris MA, Pluhar GE, Motta T, Brevard S, Ogilvie GK, Fettman MJ, Allen KG.
Department of Health Promotion and Human Performance, Weber State University, Ogden, UT 84408, USA.

This study was designed to determine whether dietary fish oil affects the expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP), tissue inhibitors of MMP-2 (TIMP-2) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) in synovial fluid from dogs with spontaneously occurring stifle (knee) instability in a single hind limb resulting from acute cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) injury. Two groups of 12 dogs were fed diets from 1 week prior to surgery on the affected knee to 56 days post-surgery. The fish oil and control diets provided 90 and 4.5 mg, respectively, of combined eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)/kg body weight per day. Plasma and synovial fluid, from both surgical and nonsurgical knee joints, were obtained at start of the diet (-7), surgery day (0) and 7, 14, 28 and 56 days post-surgery. Plasma total EPA and DHA were significantly increased, and plasma total arachidonic acid (AA) was significantly decreased by the fish oil diet. In synovial fluid from the nonsurgical knee, fish oil treatment significantly decreased proMMP-2 expression at Days 7 and 14, and proMMP-9 expression at Day 56, and uPA activity at 28 days and significantly increased TIMP-2 expression at Days 7 and 28. There were no differences in MMP expression or activity, TIMP-2 expression and uPA activity in the surgical joint synovial fluid at any time throughout the study. These results suggest that dietary fish oil may exert beneficial effects on synovial fluid MMP and TIMP-2 equilibrium in the uninjured stifle of dogs with unilateral CCL injury.

PMID: 17531456 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

 

[choch2odog]

Max had the surgery at age 7 was healing well at 6 weeks, at 12 weeks a screw had broken and the osteotomy healing was worse than at six. The screw was removed and a new one was placed a bone graft was performed to accelerate healing. At 12 more weeks he was released, three weeks later he tore his medial meniscus and had the hardware removed. The meniscus/hardware removal recovery was the slowest of all. In all total I lost a year with him. He is nine now and did run several Q's and Masters after and due to age surgery isn't the fastest dog out there anymore but still knows where the birds are. He is now semi-retired.

Sam tore his at about 4 months of age. Actually he alvused the tibial insertion. Had to wait until he was 10 months old for skeletal maturity. He is 11 weeks post TPLO. At 9 weeks his osteotomy was functionally healed. Clinically he still does not fully extend the leg when walking, but its improving. He has been able to passively extend the leg since the third week post surgery. The quadracep atrophy has been minimal compared to the older dog. I have him walking a quarter mile per day with harness and 5' of 3/8" chain. I have run him on a few lining drills and did throw him a hand thrown double this week. The water is a bit cold to do enough swiming to be of benfit. I intend to continue increasing the distance and weight of his harness walks over the next five weeks and to ease him into training. The biggest restriction at this point is not allowing play with other dogs and avoiding him jumping/launching. His recovery has been unremarkable and I feel like I'm just about out of the woods.

 

[EdA]

use the search feature (TPLO) and you will find more than will you choose to read

see my thread TPLO One Dog's Experience

 

[chesaka]

I had a 4-year-old Chessie that had both knees done. She was not a hunting dog but a show champion. Her gait was not the same, not as fluid so we retired her from the show ring. However, she recovered well from both surgeries and I swear those knees were rock solid until the day she died at 12 1/2. No limping, etc. They now have water therapy to help dogs recover. I hear the recovery is faster with therapy. Hers was quite slow as I remember, taking months.

 

[Guest]

Have had two dogs with double repairs...

Dog A -- BLF, first at 13 mos traditional repair (it was just when TPLO was becoming mainstream), 2nd at I think 5? Did tplo. She's now just over 10. Some arthritis, esp on the first knee. But overall doing great. We keep her on antiinflammatory.

Dog B -- BLF, first in spring 2007 just after qualifying for master national. Surgery May, heavy rehab, took her to MN and it was totally my fault in the timing of the 2nd one two days before the MN started... I overdid her pre-MN training. But I'm sure it would have gone anyway.

First thing is to find a great surgeon. Second is to do great rehab. If you do the rehab on your own, it takes time and you have to be diligent and careful. Or you can pay a rehab facility to do it; normally approx the same cost as the surgery.

Both of ours have done very well.

-K

 

[davidvanryn]

If any body has had or is having acl/or knee replacement surgery on there dog I Make acl braces for dogs. you can reach me at 860-413-9189 or send me an e-mail to davidvanryn@sbcglobal.net

 

[SWIPER]

Thanks for everyone's input. Has anyone done the TIGHTROPE or TTA procedure.