Ligament in dog - Page 1

Hello, I wonder if someone has had a similar experience before....

I have a 9 month old bitch, working lines big girl 61 cm, 32kg.

20 days ago she was playing up and down with my other 3 dogs in our garden. All of a sudden I heard a medium cry and the bitch returned back to me with a limb of her back right leg. She did not want to put any weight on it any more, she was limbing, foot was in the air most of the time and, when down, she did not put any weight, she used it just for balance. Checked the foot, no problem, pain whatsover. Checked the knee, hips with some extensions. Nothing.

Next day, same picture. Took her to the vet. He did not prescribe any NSAIDs as he said these would make her put weight on the leg and if there was a problem it would worsen. He suggested rest and confinment for 5 days and a revisit.

After 5 days there was no improvement so, we visited him again. He prescribed metacam 25mg for 7 days. On day 2 she started to put weight on the leg. On day 7 she would put about 20% more but that was it.

I asked him about the case of a cruciate ligament. He said the dog had to be sedated and perform a clinical examination of the joint relative movement to check for drawer like loose movement. We did. Nothing. He also conducted x-rays. In which he says he sees arthritic changes. However, I am not sure about their existence when I compare it with normal knee radiographs fro the net. We also did a hips x-ray. 

Both radiographs are attached.

Any opinions / syggestions would be much appreciated.

Thank in advance for any input.

 

 

 

Hi:  not sure on the knees as far as the hips go for 9 months old fair.  The right side of your screen (which is probably the left hip) correct me if that is wrong, the hip socket is a little shallow for my liking;  BUT really it should not be the problem unless she just bruised that whole area somewhat and still needs time to heal.  Could also be pano along with hurting herself;  that takes time and rest.  Hope she gets better soon and good luck  Nan

That really sounds like a soft tissue injury. I have had luck looking up cruciate ligament in online videos, and they show before and after surgery gait of the dog and such. As Nans gsd said, probably just needs time and rest. :)
Good luck hope she gets better and keep us posted.

Petros said: 20 days ago she was playing up and down with my other 3 dogs in our garden. All of a sudden I heard a medium cry and the bitch returned back to me with a limb of her back right leg.

See if you can find a veterinary chiropractor to have her evaluated further. If you can find someone that will also do cold laser treatments, they are extremely helpful for soft tissue and ligament injuries. There is also the option of looking for a Canine rehab professional: http://www.caninerehabinstitute.com/find_a_therapist.html 
http://ccrp.utvetce.com/practitioners.asp

 

If she strained any of the connective tissue associated with that limb--which is precisely what it sounds like from your description of how it happened AND how the situation has responded to NSAIDs--it's going to take a LOT longer than 20 days of rest to get her sound again...and if that 20 days of rest wasn't STRICT rest, you've been lucky to have gotten any improvement at all.  "Strict rest" means NO running/jumping, no wrestling and playing with the other dogs, no ball-chasing, no playing tug with her--basically, it's life on a leash for toilet purposes, leashed when indoors if she's not a dog with an 'off switch', and crated whenever you can't directly supervise her.  You can expect to need to restrict all of her activity for at least 2 months, and possibly as long as 6 months if the injury was substantial.  It requires a significant degree of commitment on the owner's part, because keeping any pup on restricted activity for any length of time is a real challenge--but if the situation can be managed using conservative measures instead of surgical intervention, both you and the dog will be better off for having toughed it out.

 

Another more experienced vet that saw the x-rays today, said it is partial cruaciate ligament (caudal) and dog has to undergo surgery....

Well, at least you've got confirmation to your initial suspicion of a cruciate injury...

Consider this, however:  if you can successfully limit her activity to being on-leash only when she's outside, restrict her from climbing stairs, running, jumping, wrestling, and so forth, and keep her mind occupied sufficiently that she doesn't drive you crazy, then giving the conservative route of long-term rest a try, with or without rehab/treatment using cold laser, hydrotherapy and/or other non-invasive methods [since those aren't available everywhere], isn't going to make things any worse as far as the state of the cruciate. If the conservative route isn't successful in getting her sound again, you will still have the option of surgery available for her. 

I'd be rather hesitant about doing cruciate surgery on a physically immature dog, personally; I've had two middle-aged [5-6 yr old] dogs with partial tears of the cruciate and opted for the restriction and rest conservative treatment instead, and was pleased with the results--while both dogs did retain a slight limitation in range-of-motion of the affected leg, they remained sound throughout the remainder of their lives and surgical intervention was never necessary. Key to this, of course, is keeping the dog VERY lean. Looking at the x-ray of her hips, she's either EXTREMELY heavily muscled in the hindquarters [especially for her age], or she's carrying a bit more fat than necessary--she's like the Nicki Minaj of GSDs...though I  Seriously, though, if that rump is all muscle, at just 9 months of age, it certainly could play a role in putting undue stress on the stifle joint, delivering more torque to the connective tissue there than the joint is naturally designed to handle.  If it's a mix of fat and muscle, you'd need to get her weight down, regardless of whether you elect to treat conservatively or go with the surgery right off.  Either way, I wish you the best with her, and hope she recovers uneventfully and is sound again sooner rather than later.