TPLO surgery & recovery on dogs

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Anyone here have their dog shred their knee and have to have a TPLO surgery done? My dog Louie (the one in my avatar) tore up his knee and he had been limping on and off for about 6 weeks. Took him to the vet and they confirmed he tore tendons in there.

He just had surgery on the 14th and we are on day 3 of being on the mend. He just shit and pissed all over the room I am keeping him in about an hour after having rejected pissing and shitting outside. We gotta get a schedule worked out.

Anyhow, just wondering if anyone else here had dealt with that, what it looked like for you, how the dog is doing now, and roughly how much it cost ya.

TIA

[dlphg9]

Do you have him in a brace?

[Sassy Squatch]

Yep. Had it done on my border collie 2 years ago. Cost me a bit over 3 grand. He's doing great now on it although there will be some days he's more ginger with it than others.

[Sassy Squatch]

I also took the extra step of having him professionally rehabbed out in Grandview, so that was another 1k or so on top.

[Sassy Squatch]

The fact he's even shitting at all is a great sign. I'd give him a couple mulligans on doing it in the house.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by dlphg9

Do you have him in a brace?

The vet said nothing about a brace nor did she suggest I get him one. She gave me a sling to wrap around his belly if he needed it.

[Demonpenz]

hope it gets worked out

[Sassy Squatch]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

The vet said nothing about a brace nor did she suggest I get him one. She gave me a sling to wrap around his belly if he needed it.

Yeah, never ****ed around with a brace. By far the most important thing is keeping them away from that wound until the stitches get out. Then you focus on physical therapy for the leg.

Edit: also no stairs or jumping for quite a while of there's any feasible way to manage that

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by Sassy Snatch

Yep. Had it done on my border collie 2 years ago. Cost me a bit over 3 grand. He's doing great now on it although there will be some days he's more ginger with it than others.

Same here... $3,400 out of Excelsior Springs Animal Hospital. How old was he when he got it done? Louie is 4.5 years old which puts him at halfway to semi-retirement as the lead coyote chaser offer. I'm hoping the surgery holds out at least that long until he goes into retirement and becomes a full time baby goat nanny.

Originally Posted by Sassy Snatch

I also took the extra step of having him professionally rehabbed out in Grandview, so that was another 1k or so on top.

Tell me more. Were you there during the rehab and can you share what they did? Or was this a convenience thing where it needed to be done but you were not in a positiion to be able to do it yourself?

Originally Posted by Sassy Snatch

The fact he's even shitting at all is a great sign. I'd give him a couple mulligans on doing it in the house.

For sure. Washing sheets and cleaned up the carpet. The one I'm gonna have issues with is the couch cushion he pissed through... but those are old cushions from the last couch and they could just get tossed though they make wonderful emergency bedding.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by Sassy Snatch

Yeah, never ****ed around with a brace. By far the most important thing is keeping them away from that wound until the stitches get out. Then you focus on physical therapy for the leg.

Edit: also no stairs or jumping for quite a while of there's any feasible way to manage that

My house has two steps to get into it. I asked the vet about it and she said she was not even remotely concerned about those steps.

That said, my bedroom is upstairs so for the next however long I have moved into the office with him. It works out... as my computer, biggest tv, and a couch to sleep on is all in there.

I've started moving his ankle and knee around gently and he lets me do it.

[Sassy Squatch]

It's been a bit, but they mostly just ran him through typical rehab exercises at Grandview. It usually took an hour and I tried to leave him there on his own since he's not going to mind anyone as long as I'm there usually. Neatest one was an underwater treadmill that I'm sure helps the dog get back to a relatively normal gait with almost no impact on the surgically repaired limb.

[jerryaldini]

My visla has had both knees done two years apart. Came home heavily bandaged which was removed after three days. She didn't try to jump on anything for a few weeks. Just did short controlled walks on level ground ( she wouldn't walk in sling and did well on three legs), building up over time as she could gradually put more pressure on it. Back to normal activity after about 10 weeks each time. Recovery wasn't as big a deal as I expected.

[Shag]

My lab has had TPLO on both her rear legs, around $4k for each - the first at 2yo, the second at 4yo. The recovery process sucked for a high energy dog, but I was very diligent with the early activity restrictions, as well as the manual manipulation therapy. She recovered well from both, and didn't need any followup therapy, though I hear great things about the water treadmill.

In both cases, after about 6mos or so, she was back to normal, you'd never know she had a repaired knee. She's 10yo now, still moving well, but I think arthritis is setting in a little (unavoidable) - she gets sore after any heavy running, but it passes within a day. I have had her on joint supplements for years now (omega3, antinol, started Adequan injections in the last year), which I believe have helped.

Good luck! Be diligent, follow the protocols closely, and the end result should be good.