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  1. #1
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    Ugh.... Knee issue, second opinion?

    So back in February like the week of the 15th, we ran Boomer(who turned 1 on 2/27) one day and the next morning he'd have issues bringing his back end up when going from laying to standing. Some side information.... my gf works nights at the hospital and is off 4 days a week. Boomer would get wild in the apartment so she'd throw a tennis ball for him up to maybe 3 times a day every day for a half hour. Yeah this is way too much, I wasn't aware how often, I thought it was once a day and twice every now and then.

    Well I let him rest a week and the weekend of the 2/27 I had my friend run him at the club while I was out of town. He said that he noticed boomer wasn't taking full strides during his marks, he was running hard and strong but he could tell something wasn't right... Then I started watching boomer jogging around and noticed he'd favor his right leg. I freaked, thought it was his hip... got X-rays done, perfect hips, did range of motion and he only winced when the vet hyper extended his right knee. They gave us pain killers and said to come back in 2 weeks if it wasn't resolved and let him bed rest. Yeah, lemme explain to boomer he can't run or jump, even in the apartment.

    Well we went back after 2 weeks, fortunately they didn't charge me. He did full range of motion again and got him to yelp this time, a more dramatic response than the first issue. It was determined it was in his knee, I can her clicking in his knee when he stands up. They said knees are 5-8 weeks till they heal and to give him 4 more weeks. He said it's not an ACL tear but it could be a partial tear and if he doesn't heal in 4 weeks then it's a partial tear and we'd have to do an MRI. He said he wanted to save me the cost of an MRI by not jumping straight to conclusions and said it's most likely not an ACL tear, just a sprain type of thing. If you saw boomer now and watched him get up and walk you'd think he's 100% fine but as soon as he starts running if you look close enough you can see him favoring it. It's nowhere near as noticeable as it was a couple weeks ago.

    Now this is a small town vet, should I go into the city and see a vet at the OSU (ohio state) vet clinic where they have the MRI. The president of my club told me to see a doctor there, he's 1 of 3 doctors in the state that can do i think it's TPLO which is an ACL repair surgery. I'm kicking myself to pieces seeing boomer so bored out of his mind, we've had to drop out of a hunt test in february, this month and two next month because of it..... I'm just mad at myself and feel absolutely terrible for him cuz all he wants to do is run.

    Thanks guys!
    T.J.

  2. #2
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    He said it's not an ACL tear but it could be a partial tear
    This doesn't make much sense. Is it an acl (partial) tear, or is this another problem with the knee joint? Acl tears are diagnosed via the "drawer test", when the dog is under sedation, to check the stability of the knee. I've never heard acl tears being diagnosed with MRI! How weird is that?
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  4. #3
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    I don’t know much about knee issues, but in your case, since CCL tears do require surgery in a young dog, I don’t know that I’d “waste” the time on crate rest (and rest means NO running whatsoever - leash walks only or in a crate) if surgery might be required anyway. But if it isn’t a tear, and requires rest, be aware that soft-tissue injuries can take several months to heal completely.

    I know how hard it is to rest a young dog - we’ve been going through it with Sassy. There was a suspicion that it could possibly be elbow dysplasia but the vet thought an injury more likely, and after watching her recovery we are fairly confident it was a soft tissue injury, not her elbows. She is mostly recovered and back to full activity, but we do still have to the amount of rough-housing she does with her sister as that can still make her limp for a bit, especially if they go at it on a slippery floor (running outside doesn’t seem to be a problem). We had the option of taking her immediately for an ortho consult where they would do a CT scan to get a better picture of the elbow, but part of our reasoning is that while they can do surgery for the elbows, the outcome isn’t always any better than conservative treatment. If surgery were a necessity like it seems to be for knees we would have been quicker to see if it was the right thing to do.
    Annette

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  6. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Berna View Post
    This doesn't make much sense. Is it an acl (partial) tear, or is this another problem with the knee joint? Acl tears are diagnosed via the "drawer test", when the dog is under sedation, to check the stability of the knee. I've never heard acl tears being diagnosed with MRI! How weird is that?
    He said the knee is stable so it's not a full ACL tear, but there could be a partial tear which would keep the knee stable still but it'll smart em. And i dunno about the MRI part, medicine isn't my field lol

    He thinks it's just a strain of the knee, but said in worst case scenario it could be a partial tear.

  7. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    But if it isn’t a tear, and requires rest, be aware that soft-tissue injuries can take several months to heal completely
    that's reassuring, I really just hope that's what it is and it's just taking a while to heal up. I mean he's shown great progress from looking like a dog with arthritis trying to stand up to barely limping while running.

  8. #6
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    I agree with Annette. If it were me I'd get him to an ortho vet ASAP to either confirm or rule out some type of CCL/ACL tear.

  9. #7
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by teej89 View Post
    He said the knee is stable so it's not a full ACL tear, but there could be a partial tear which would keep the knee stable still but it'll smart em. And i dunno about the MRI part, medicine isn't my field lol

    He thinks it's just a strain of the knee, but said in worst case scenario it could be a partial tear.
    Partial tears still show on the drawer test because with partial tears the knee joint is unstable too. However, if the dog wasn't sedated during the drawer test (muscles should be relaxed) he may not have gotten the drawer movement.
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    I would definitely do what you can to get a correct diagnosis so you can provide him with the appropriate level of care. If you're running him, doing field work, etc. you'll want to get this under control. You could be doing this rest, run, limp, rest, run, limp thing for a very long time (I have a friend whose been doing it for five years with her dog!) and it's pretty common for the other leg to go out due to compensating for the "bad" leg.

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  12. #9
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    Just got set up with a good ortho for next week, his wait was 8 weeks but I just got a call back and an opening popped up for next wednesday. Lets hope this is just a soft tissue injury...

    Thanks for the input guys!

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  14. #10
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    Hopefully the ortho vet has some news for you. Back when our dog blew out his knee, our vet who was GREAT, didn't even say torn CCL in all the possible things wrong with the dog. My trainer took one look at his movement and said CCL, see an ortho. Experience will teach you when to not bother with a regular vet and go right to an ortho.

    When the dog walks normally, is there any limp? Is he toe touching like there is a problem with the foot? Typically that's a sign of knee problems...

 



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