After the trauma of Annie’s TPLO last year to repair the damage caused by the ruptured cruciate ligament in her knee and the long and achingly slow recovery process, we were nothing short of delighted the first time we saw her off lead, bounding through the woods like a normal dog.
We’re realists so we knew there might be times when she’d be a little stiff in that leg and of course there’s always the risk that the other cruciate could degenerate at some point meaning we’d have to go through the same process again on the other leg, but we were prepared for that as a possibility. What we weren’t so prepared for was for nearly 18 months later, her to have a bout of seemingly unexplained lameness on the TPLO leg.
It started after a normal and pretty uneventful walk in the forest. She came home, laid down and got up holding up her leg. That was six weeks ago and the vet has drawn a blank. The metal work is all in place, he’s manipulated and palpated and can find nothing seriously wrong. There are days when she’s absolutely fine, but then days when she’s hopping lame.
We’ve refused another XRay as even the vet is pretty sure that it won’t tell us much and with his support, have opted instead for chiropractics. Luckily, the McTimony chiropractor we see also treats horses and dogs. She had her first treatment on Friday and although it went well, she’s on house rest for three days. Have you ever tried telling a walk obsessed Labrador that she can’t go out for three whole days? I’ve been trying to sneak Little Bear out so that she won’t see but I feel so mean!
Hydrotherapy is also on the list so these dogs will be keeping us busy in the coming weeks and months. When I think about what they give us though, it’s a no-brainer – they’re worth every penny and every minute of our time. All I want is for my dogs to be happy and healthy and I’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen.
The Little Bear Dog Blog 
She’s our own little rollercoaster ride. 🙂
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Hi there, can you tell me as to what happened re Annie’s leg as my chocolate Labrador Jake is in exactly same position 18 months after he had TPLO operation??
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Graeme, sorry to hear that Jake is having the same issues, it’s so stressful isn’t it?!
We had Annie assessed by a Galen Myotherapist who said that part of her problem was her poor muscle tone. Even though she’s a very active dog now since we adopted her two years ago, as an ex-breeding bitch she has very poor abs and has developed with various compensations e.g. she’s powerful in the shoulders to make up for her weak abs and hips.
To complicate things, she’s periodically opened up the wound on her plate. There’s no rhyme nor reason to it happening; one minute she’s fine, the next she’s bleeding or licking her leg.
The first time it happened she screamed the house down and terrified us all, but since it genuinely seems to upset us more than her. She’s had a few courses of antibiotics but I was worried about the times we didn’t spot it as infection can be bad news with a plate.
A few weeks ago we took her back to Noel Fitzpatrick, the vet who did the operation. They assessed her and the good news is that she’s both very stable on the leg and pretty balanced between them. They did however recommend having the plate and screws removed now on the grounds that she no longer needs them and that the risk of infection is far greater than the very tiny risk of a fracture. In fact they said it was no greater on a TPLO leg than on a normal one.
The downside is the cost – £800, but they said our local vet could do it easily. We had a quote from them and it’s around £500 which is a bit better. Recovery time is nowhere near what it was after the TPLO either, just until the wound heals and the screw holes fill in so a couple of weeks I think.
We’ll be booking her in this week all being well. Once she’s fully recovered we’ll be able to take her swimming (not possible while her wound kept opening up) and do the physio the Galen lady taught us to strengthen her muscles which is just a few minutes a day really – think it’s like Pilates for dogs 🙂
Other than all of that, she’s a happy, bouncy, hyper ‘I love the world’ Lab. Touch wood, she’s not been lame since either, but I’m glad we had her assessed as they said long term the stronger her muscles are the better.
I hope that helps? Happy to answer any other questions as best I can.
Hang on in there though, it’s stressful but I’m sure we humans bear the brunt of it, the dogs just get on with it!
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