12 replies to this topic

[Tracy A.]

Hi everyone,

Well, I just got back from the Vet with Mettwurst and she told that he has an ACL partial tear or injury. They gave me 10 days of Rimadyl and told me to keep on light duty for 2 weeks.
Okay, this gal isn't my regular vet she's in the neighborhood and my regular vet is 25 miles away so I'll make a saturday appointment with Mett when we'er done with the meds for a 2nd opinion.

I'm wondering if it will be possible to avoid surgery, I mean obviously we don't know what degree he injuried the ACL at this point... but from those of you have dealt with this, did it heal or is it pretty much a surgical repair?

How do you keep a Male Cairn terrier quite? for 2 weeks? No walks, just bio breaks in the yard...... Mett is going to hate us... I can't punish Bratt with no walks becasue of his brother....
Oh man, this is not going to be easy.

Edited by Tracy A., 11 March 2010 - 03:58 PM.

[Nikki]

I don't have any experience in this! I just really wanted to say I am so sorry and I hope he feels better!

[sbeauty1313]

I just went through this injury with my bigger dog. First I will say. DO NOT WALK HIM AT ALL! If it is just a partial tear surgery may not be necessary. My vet told me that with little dogs they can heal up better due to their weight. My Chocolate Lab/Weimaraner mix who is 100 lbs. tore his cruciate ligament in his rear left leg and needed to have the TPLO surgery. It is a very expensive surgery and requires the dog to be completely still for 8 weeks. The only time he is able to come out of his crate is to go potty. I even feed him in his crate. Luckily my big guy has handled being crated very well. It is so important to keep him still. I don't have an adult Cairn but I do have a young one who is FULL of energy. So far we are 3 weeks into his recovery and he is doing great! Let me know if you have any questions about the surgery.

Once again keep him crated if you can for the next 10 days. You can't see it as the dog hating you. You could be saving him from a very long painful surgery and recover. If you would like to know exactly how they do the repair I will share the details. It's not pretty.

[Tracy A.]

sbeauty1313, on 11 March 2010 - 09:10 PM, said:

I just went through this injury with my bigger dog. First I will say. DO NOT WALK HIM AT ALL! If it is just a partial tear surgery may not be necessary. My vet told me that with little dogs they can heal up better due to their weight. My Chocolate Lab/Weimaraner mix who is 100 lbs. tore his cruciate ligament in his rear left leg and needed to have the TPLO surgery. It is a very expensive surgery and requires the dog to be completely still for 8 weeks. The only time he is able to come out of his crate is to go potty. I even feed him in his crate. Luckily my big guy has handled being crated very well. It is so important to keep him still. I don't have an adult Cairn but I do have a young one who is FULL of energy. So far we are 3 weeks into his recovery and he is doing great! Let me know if you have any questions about the surgery.

Once again keep him crated if you can for the next 10 days. You can't see it as the dog hating you. You could be saving him from a very long painful surgery and recover. If you would like to know exactly how they do the repair I will share the details. It's not pretty.

Hi:
Since he started limping late Monday, he hasn't had a walk in the neighborhood. If it's a tear,it's partial becasue he can bear weight on the rear leg. At this point, I am only taking him out in the yard for bio breaks and letting him walk around a small area and sniff a little bit before we go back in. In the house I have just been keeping him from jumping up and down on the couches, but have not been crating him.
My issue has been trying to keep him from pulling on the leash, it's nearly impossible... the only thing i've found so far to help is lifting up on the leash with his harness on so I get his legs a little bit off the ground... that seems to stop the 'sled dog' charge....
I'm not sure how much activity I should allow/not allow... right now i'm letting him walk around the house and the bio breaks... and that's it....and i'm wondering if that's too much activity?

[hheldorfer]

Just want to wish Mett the best and say that I feel your pain. Buffy is on 5 days rest for a hyperextended paw and it's been difficult to keep her from running, jumping, etc.. Buffy is NOT happy when we take Ziggy for his walks and she has to stay home. DH has been taking her for rides in the car just to give her some attention and stimulation. Keep us posted on Mett's progress.

[tk223]

Just went through this over the winter. Kooper had a complete tear and I opted for surgery. I kept him on a leash or in his kennel for 12 weeks. no walks, no playing, etc....He isn't even 2 yers old, so he is still young, it was not an easy 12 weeks! If you have a portable ex-pen try using that. I used one in the living room just so he could be around the action but couldn't be involved in it. Also, no stairs, I carried him up & down the deck stairs into the back yard--sucked when it was 10 below zero!

[Hawkeye]

Just want to wish you and Mett the best. Hopefully he will not have to have the surgery and please keep us posted.

[Tracy A.]

I called our regular vet this morning and wasn't sure if I should have him looked at by our normal vet tomrrow or if they'd just refer us to a specialist... good news is that my vet does specalize in the ACL surgery and it only runs 1,000.00... which is a turn of luck for us... I was hearing 2k from others in my area.... and I was in the process of figuring out how much we were short in savings just incase he did require surgery... and was in full contingency planning mode to make sure i'd have the resources... but I already have that on hand...

so my normal vet is going to call me tonight, gal in the office didn't think Mett needed to be seen until after the 10 days of meds and bed rest to see how it looked. I'm kicking myself now for useing the neighborhood vet instead of makeing the 30 mile drive to our regular vet... could have saved myself some grey hairs... becasue the neighborhood vet did give me the worst case, and freaked me out with the 2-3k price tag if surgery was needed... and the long recovery.... and the stories about crippling arthritis if surgery isn't performed...and the whole nine yards.

Edited by Tracy A., 12 March 2010 - 07:06 AM.

[carolinaila09]

Our family lab has torn both of her acls. it is not easy to keep an active lab quiet either...especially in a house where the only access to inside is stairs!

she was able to barely put her weight on her back leg. she would ususally just hold it up but when she walked she would tip toe almost on the hurt leg. she was put on rimadyl until surgery. hopefully it is only a partial tear and it will heal itself! i dont have any experience in little dogs with this, knock on wood, but since there's less weight to bear, it makes sense that it may be able to heal itself! i pray thats what will happen!

do not let him run around, it might be best to keep him crated..I'm sure the other dog is going to be confused and not happy that his brother is kept quiet. It is a long recovery for a big dog, i don't know how long it would be for a little dog. dixie was on rest for 8 weeks...no running, jumping, or going up and down stairs.

good luck and hoping for a quick healing!!

[Tracy A.]

carolinaila09, on 12 March 2010 - 07:04 AM, said:

She was able to barely put her weight on her back leg. she would ususally just hold it up but when she walked she would tip toe almost on the hurt leg. she was put on rimadyl until surgery. hopefully it is only a partial tear and it will heal itself!

Met is able to put weight on it, so i'm am really hopeful that it is just a partial, I am assuming that if it was compeltely that he would not be able to use the back leg at all..

[sbeauty1313]

Tracy A., on 12 March 2010 - 07:12 AM, said:

carolinaila09, on 12 March 2010 - 07:04 AM, said:

She was able to barely put her weight on her back leg. she would ususally just hold it up but when she walked she would tip toe almost on the hurt leg. she was put on rimadyl until surgery. hopefully it is only a partial tear and it will heal itself!

Met is able to put weight on it, so i'm am really hopeful that it is just a partial, I am assuming that if it was compeltely that he would not be able to use the back leg at all..

My big dog had a complete tear & he was able to use his back leg still once we started Rimadyl. I would encourage crating him now if you can until you get in to see your regular vet & they can take xrays or do an ultra sound to see what is exactly going on. If you have to do the surgery keeping him contained is super important!

I hope Met doesn't have to go through the surgery.

[cairnsby3]

Spike had ACL surgery and in little dogs it's not that bad. There are several types of surgery and fortunately the less invasive, less expensive one works well for little dogs. Spike didn't like to be crated, but didn't mind being tied, so he was tied to the doorknob at night, the coffee table, whatever to keep him away from furniture he might jump on. Talk to your vet, but tears don't heal, the leg builds scare tissue around the tear. There are people who don't have surgery, but do the physical theropy (slow walks to build scar tissue) but this sometime takes as long as the recovery from surgery and is basically the same program.

[2crazycairns]

Hey Tracy- We just went through something similar with Gus. We thought it was a broken tail but after doing massage and the same meds for 2 weeks, he's good as new! I noticed when I did the massage that it wasn't his tail he was snappy about....it was his rear hindquarters and it must have been a tendon or ligament that went up into his tail. Weird, but true. It took the full two weeks to get his tail back to vertical and for him to even wag it again. It's made us both feel a whole lot better watchin' that flag fly again! Here's hoping Mett gets better VERY soon and avoids the whole surgery thing!