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Ruptured Cruciate (young age)

675 views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Jax08 
#1 ·
My GSD is going to be 8 months old on the 21st of January. She has been diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament first though the vet, and then through a specialist referral. The surgeon obviously recommended surgery, and said that a rupture this young is somewhat rare. He is not able to do the surgery recommended(TPLO) until the growth plate is closed. This means who knows how long she will have to suffer. She is able to get around and we are keeping her weight down, and supplementing with hip and joint as well as tumeric for inflammation. Frankly I do not like this 6 months plus diagnosis, plus recovery whenever a surgery does occur.
Does anyone have experience with this!!!??? After days and days of research of every surgery there is I stumbled across a procedure for young dogs called TPLP which is a simple procedure where they put a screw in the growth plate and as the bone grows it levels the joint (which is what the TPLO does by cutting bones and plating) meaning she wouldn't need the TPLO later. I can't find a heck of a lot of information on this. I only came across it on a missouri hospital site. I was debating calling them and asking about it.

I am just trying to not have the dog have to be conservatively managed for 6-8 months, before she even gets surgery. Then another 8 weeks plus after that. That is a long long time to suppress a pup. If it is my only choice then Ill do what I need to. I just thought in 2017 there would be other options. Please help.
 
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#3 ·
You can start with crate rest and letting it try to heal on it's on. It doesn't rebuild, it will encapsulate with scar tissue. that will give her a little time to finish growing. To keep her busy, try tracking. It will at least exercise her mind. My girl blew her ACL out young. It's hard on them. I did the conservative management (rest and healing) and still ended up doing the surgery when she reinjured it.
 
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