TPLO or Sutcher for ACL Repair

I just got back from the doggy surgeon. Zoe, my 8 year old, 35 pound
beagle mix needs to have surgery to both knees. She appeareds to have
torn her ACL in her right knee and has arthritis in both knees. I
thought the problem was just in the right leg because that is the one
she favors. Since the arthritis is worse in her left knee he suspects
an ACL tear in that knee as well. Choices he gave me are a TPLO or
putting a sutcher in both knees to stabilize them.

The vet really made the TPLO sound like the way to go. But actually
cutting the bone and repositioning it seems to be extreme as is the
price tag of $4,000 per knee. The other method is about $2,000 each
knee or $3,000 if I have them both done at the same time.

My girl is usually a couch potato, but she does love to wrestle with
her sister, chase the ball and we take her on one or two walks a day so
I'd say she's on the low end of moderately active. She loves going to
the dog park, but we haven't been taking her because she's in so much
pain afterwards.

What are people recommendations and experience with either of these
surgeries?

TIA,
Caroline

I would not have these done at the same time unless you want to carrying
your dog everywhere for the first 14 days. It was almost 2 weeks before
Barney would put full weight on either of his legs when we had them
repaired. I would never have them repaired at the same time. It's a lot on
the dog and you at the same time

I think the price quoted is a bit much but it depends upon where you live as
to the price I would check around. When I had Barneys done the first was
$900.00 and the 2nd was $750.00. I went with the repair rather than the
tplo and he was fine. The only difference is where the vet suggested
letting him off leash after 8 weeks I waited until about 16 weeks. I took
it much slower with his recovery because I didn't want him to injure it
again.

Also I wouldn't let any vet do this now some may yell when I say that but
when it comes to this type of surgery I feel it's better to have vetenary
orthopedist do the surgery. They do more of these than anyone else and are
much more experienced.

Celeste


wrote in message
oups.com...
I just got back from the doggy surgeon. Zoe, my 8 year old, 35 pound
beagle mix needs to have surgery to both knees. She appeareds to have
torn her ACL in her right knee and has arthritis in both knees. I
thought the problem was just in the right leg because that is the one
she favors. Since the arthritis is worse in her left knee he suspects
an ACL tear in that knee as well. Choices he gave me are a TPLO or
putting a sutcher in both knees to stabilize them.

The vet really made the TPLO sound like the way to go. But actually
cutting the bone and repositioning it seems to be extreme as is the
price tag of $4,000 per knee. The other method is about $2,000 each
knee or $3,000 if I have them both done at the same time.

My girl is usually a couch potato, but she does love to wrestle with
her sister, chase the ball and we take her on one or two walks a day so
I'd say she's on the low end of moderately active. She loves going to
the dog park, but we haven't been taking her because she's in so much
pain afterwards.

What are people recommendations and experience with either of these
surgeries?

TIA,
Caroline

Spot wrote:
I would not have these done at the same time unless you want to carrying
your dog everywhere for the first 14 days. It was almost 2 weeks before
Barney would put full weight on either of his legs when we had them
repaired. I would never have them repaired at the same time. It's a lot on
the dog and you at the same time

I think the price quoted is a bit much but it depends upon where you live as
to the price I would check around. When I had Barneys done the first was
$900.00 and the 2nd was $750.00. I went with the repair rather than the
tplo and he was fine. The only difference is where the vet suggested
letting him off leash after 8 weeks I waited until about 16 weeks. I took
it much slower with his recovery because I didn't want him to injure it
again.

Also I wouldn't let any vet do this now some may yell when I say that but
when it comes to this type of surgery I feel it's better to have vetenary
orthopedist do the surgery. They do more of these than anyone else and are
much more experienced.

Celeste

Thanks Celeste,

How much does Barney weigh and how active is he?

Vet never mentioned the problem with walking when he suggested getting
both done at the same time, but now that you mention it, it doesn't
make sense, other than saving $1K to get them both done at the same
time.

Being in the San Francisco Bay Area seems to automotically put a
premium on the price of anything. The vet I spoke to is a specialist
and he's done about 700 TPLOs. I'm coming to find out from the people
I've spoken with that the group has a reputation for both being
extremely good as well as pricey. I'd like to do the best for my
precious darling, but the timing is really bad with one kid in college
and the other one going next year.

BTW, happy Thanksigiving to all!!

wrote:

Spot wrote:

I would not have these done at the same time unless you want to carrying
your dog everywhere for the first 14 days. It was almost 2 weeks before
Barney would put full weight on either of his legs when we had them
repaired. I would never have them repaired at the same time. It's a lot on
the dog and you at the same time

I think the price quoted is a bit much but it depends upon where you live as
to the price I would check around. When I had Barneys done the first was
$900.00 and the 2nd was $750.00. I went with the repair rather than the
tplo and he was fine. The only difference is where the vet suggested
letting him off leash after 8 weeks I waited until about 16 weeks. I took
it much slower with his recovery because I didn't want him to injure it
again.

Also I wouldn't let any vet do this now some may yell when I say that but
when it comes to this type of surgery I feel it's better to have vetenary
orthopedist do the surgery. They do more of these than anyone else and are
much more experienced.

Celeste

Thanks Celeste,


How much does Barney weigh and how active is he?

Vet never mentioned the problem with walking when he suggested getting
both done at the same time, but now that you mention it, it doesn't
make sense, other than saving $1K to get them both done at the same
time.
snip
I don't know if it's the same situation or not, but a friend of mine
needed both knees replaced. In spite of the fact that doing both at
once made for a more major operation, her doctor said that in her case
he preferred to do both at once. He said no matter which knee he did
first (if they were to do one first and the other later), the additional
strain placed on the non-bionic knee during recovery would probably lead
rapidly to total failure.

Afterwards she said that she suspected that his real reason was that if
he did only one, once she found out how bad it hurt he'd have never got
her back into the OR to do the other one.

Kathleen

Well a human is different than a dog with a human you can use a wheel chair
if you need to. Like I said unless she wants to carry the dog around for
about 10 to 14 days I wouldn't have both done at the same time. With a
small dog 30 lbs or less it's not much of an issue but when you are talking
50lb plus it is.

Celeste

"Kathleen" wrote in message
...
wrote:

Spot wrote:

I would not have these done at the same time unless you want to carrying
your dog everywhere for the first 14 days. It was almost 2 weeks before
Barney would put full weight on either of his legs when we had them
repaired. I would never have them repaired at the same time. It's a lot
on
the dog and you at the same time

I think the price quoted is a bit much but it depends upon where you live
as
to the price I would check around. When I had Barneys done the first was
$900.00 and the 2nd was $750.00. I went with the repair rather than the
tplo and he was fine. The only difference is where the vet suggested
letting him off leash after 8 weeks I waited until about 16 weeks. I
took
it much slower with his recovery because I didn't want him to injure it
again.

Also I wouldn't let any vet do this now some may yell when I say that but
when it comes to this type of surgery I feel it's better to have vetenary
orthopedist do the surgery. They do more of these than anyone else and
are
much more experienced.

Celeste

Thanks Celeste,


How much does Barney weigh and how active is he?

Vet never mentioned the problem with walking when he suggested getting
both done at the same time, but now that you mention it, it doesn't
make sense, other than saving $1K to get them both done at the same
time.
snip
I don't know if it's the same situation or not, but a friend of mine
needed both knees replaced. In spite of the fact that doing both at once
made for a more major operation, her doctor said that in her case he
preferred to do both at once. He said no matter which knee he did first
(if they were to do one first and the other later), the additional strain
placed on the non-bionic knee during recovery would probably lead rapidly
to total failure.

Afterwards she said that she suspected that his real reason was that if he
did only one, once she found out how bad it hurt he'd have never got her
back into the OR to do the other one.

Kathleen

Carolina,

Barney weighed 52lb and recoved from the surgery just fine. Most all dogs
develop some arthritis from this thats pretty much normal but it's not as
debilitating as it would be if you do nothing. In Barneys case he had
arthritis starting at age 4 and had luxating patellas from birth. It was
inevitable that it would get severe in his case. Even with the arthritis he
was a very active dog as long as I kept him on Rimadyl or Deramaxx.

Up until the day he died he was bolting through the yard chasing rabbits.
To watch him run you would never known that he had surgery on both his legs.
He would sometimes limp but it was only after a long day of playing and
running.

Celeste



wrote in message
oups.com...

Spot wrote:
I would not have these done at the same time unless you want to carrying
your dog everywhere for the first 14 days. It was almost 2 weeks before
Barney would put full weight on either of his legs when we had them
repaired. I would never have them repaired at the same time. It's a lot
on
the dog and you at the same time

I think the price quoted is a bit much but it depends upon where you live
as
to the price I would check around. When I had Barneys done the first was
$900.00 and the 2nd was $750.00. I went with the repair rather than the
tplo and he was fine. The only difference is where the vet suggested
letting him off leash after 8 weeks I waited until about 16 weeks. I
took
it much slower with his recovery because I didn't want him to injure it
again.

Also I wouldn't let any vet do this now some may yell when I say that but
when it comes to this type of surgery I feel it's better to have vetenary
orthopedist do the surgery. They do more of these than anyone else and
are
much more experienced.

Celeste

Thanks Celeste,

How much does Barney weigh and how active is he?

Vet never mentioned the problem with walking when he suggested getting
both done at the same time, but now that you mention it, it doesn't
make sense, other than saving $1K to get them both done at the same
time.

Being in the San Francisco Bay Area seems to automotically put a
premium on the price of anything. The vet I spoke to is a specialist
and he's done about 700 TPLOs. I'm coming to find out from the people
I've spoken with that the group has a reputation for both being
extremely good as well as pricey. I'd like to do the best for my
precious darling, but the timing is really bad with one kid in college
and the other one going next year.

BTW, happy Thanksigiving to all!!