Anonymous wrote:What would the option be if you didn’t do it? A limp?

Leg would ruin, and destroy the joints of the remaining legs.
Gangrene possible as well.

Anonymous wrote:My 11 year old dog has been diagnosed with a torn ACL. A surgeon estimated $6k to fix. Has anyone gone through this with their dog? What surgeon would you recommend? What was cost? How was recovery, especially for an older dog? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Had it done to a 12 year old collie, who tore his chasing a cat. Takes about 2 weeks to get them moving around well enough without assistance again, give or take.

He lived another 4 years and got around great after it. Well worth it to give him another 25% of lifetime.

Know this is a few days old, but we had the procedure down on our now 12 yo Jack Russell/Beagle mix.

She's recovered well. She complete torn the CCL (Canine Cruciate Ligament) in her rear left leg. She didn't put any weight on it at all when walking/moving. Maybe a little when standing.

I wasn't a huge fan of the cost, but was voted down and it was down. I'm glad I did now because her quality of life is much like it was before the tear.

We did therapy post op which included water therapy sessions (walking on a treadmill with water suspension). That helped quite a bit.

The surgery was about $4000ish and the therapy another $500 or so. We are in the Richmond VA area.

Hello! I checking to see if there are more recent recs for ACL repair for a small dog. We are on Capitol Hill and our vet doesn’t do this surgery. Happy to drive a reasonable distance for surgery and PT, weighing savings versus lost wages for the extra time driving back and forth… some of the highly recommend places have vastly different yelp versus google reviews. Obviously we want our adored little dog to have a successful surgery and get back to her active life. Thank you!

https://www.mdvss.com/

If your dog is larger you may want to also look at swimming rehab near you. That has helped our dog recover faster even just doing it 1xweek. It helped strengthen and gave her more extension, she was guarding it still 6 weeks post-op. That is an additional cost but its maybe 250 for 5 weeks. I would budget 5k total.

Anonymous wrote:Not doing the surgery is an option too. WHen our dog tore hers we looked at all the possibilities and one was just doing nothing.

It depends on the size of your dog AND how much pain they are in. Our dog was in significant pain, was swollen, etc.

Anonymous wrote:My 11 year old dog has been diagnosed with a torn ACL. A surgeon estimated $6k to fix. Has anyone gone through this with their dog? What surgeon would you recommend? What was cost? How was recovery, especially for an older dog? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

Just went through this with our 9.5 year old dog. Dr. Walesby in Catonsville. It was 4k. Shes wonderful. We had to carry our dog out for the first 2-3 weeks because she could not manage on three legs. She is heavier than she should be but her other leg is at 80% torn so its not super stable.

Ours had the same 3-4 years ago at 10 yrs old. Forget who we used but the cost was $4,400. Be warned though, that the recovery takes a couple weeks. And for several days you will have to help your dog go outside etc using a towel to support their body weight. Which isn't easy with a 85 lb lab. It's short-lived, but I remember feeling as though I underestimated how hard that first week of recovery was going to be. No regrets though.

What would the option be if you didn’t do it? A limp?

Anonymous wrote:My 11 year old dog has been diagnosed with a torn ACL. A surgeon estimated $6k to fix. Has anyone gone through this with their dog? What surgeon would you recommend? What was cost? How was recovery, especially for an older dog? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.

You need to know how torn, to know whether no surgery as an option. Agreed to look into the place in Richmond.

Do a Google search there’s a place in Richmond that does surgeries for half.

Our 10 year old had the surgery. I don't recall cost, but she recovered fine.

Not doing the surgery is an option too. WHen our dog tore hers we looked at all the possibilities and one was just doing nothing.

Yes!
Twice

VRA in Gaithersburg and Chesapeake Veterinary Specialists in Annapolis, Columbia, and Towson.

Common surgery. He will be fine, but he has to lie low, not a lot of activity or stairs afterward while healing. 11 is def not too old.

My 11 year old dog has been diagnosed with a torn ACL. A surgeon estimated $6k to fix. Has anyone gone through this with their dog? What surgeon would you recommend? What was cost? How was recovery, especially for an older dog? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can provide.