Labs ACLs

Tim B(tbrom)

Tim B(tbrom)

Active member
My five year old chocolate lab was having one of his best seasons. Mid retrieve this past January I noticed he looked some what distressed. He finished the retrieve and came back to shore. I noticed a little limp but wasn’t overly concerned but figured that was enough for the day. The next morning he was stiff and had a little problem getting up. I didn’t take him out figuring he would rest up and be ok. Well after a week without getting better I took him to the vet. He blew out an ACL. Knowing I would be off for the summer and with his size, 100lbs too big for the wife or kids to lift I opted to wait for surgery until I could better care for him. Well he went in today for the surgery and the vet said his other ACL is partially torn also. We are not sure if things would have been different had I taken him in sooner or if this was an injury that was caused by compensation. She said a very high percentage of labs that tear one will also tear the other. So he gets the other knee done in 10 weeks. I feel awful. We are hoping he will make a near full recovery. I don’t plan to cold weather hunt him anymore. Just though I would share!
 
Tim, I experienced very similar. Onyx was 4 when while earning his last leg for his Sr title was cruising through the test... you know when a dog has the game figured out.... he would heel to the line, know where to set up and look for each of the marks.... he was on pinned the marks, did the land blind like he had planted the bird... on the last series, he comes out of his crate with a gimp. I had some frozen waterbottles in his crate as it was hot, figured maybe he was laying on it and it was numb. I worked him out so that the limp was not noticed by the judges... as we just had the water series left. He made short work of the marks and blinds too, took just 2 whistles on the blind. I was so proud. Next day, still lame... a few days later we go tot he vet. Onyx is so muscled he can't feel anything, so we have to sedate to determine... even then he is not confident, so he sends me to an ortho guy... he agrees, that he will need to sedate, and likely inspect to know for sure. Sure enough Onyx tore the ACL. Lost him for the entire duck season. From then on, I never let my dogs jump up into the truck. I built a ramp and used it on all the dogs ever since. So the following August, we are giving a retriever demonstration, and I have Onyx off lead. We approach the truck and he automatically sits. As I put away his collar, and leads, and reach for the ramp, I get into a converstation, and inadvertantly said OK. With that Onyx, leaps into the bed, but falls short, and catches the down tailgate at his ribs. Rolls to the ground and is now lame on the other leg! Sure enough tore the ACL too. The ortho guy suggested that he sees a fair number of ACLs on working retrievers, especailly those that are well muscled and have tight "perfect" hips. He thinks that with no relaxation in the hips, and strong muscle, that the ACL becomes the weak link....

My advice, get them fix, and get him in the water.... I unfortunately did not have the ability as the water is cold or hard in VT in the fall/winter... but as soon as he is allowed to get wet, walk him on lead into the water until he can not touch bottom, and them work him swimming only. Don't let him run in and out of the water, never touching bottom.... best rehab you can do.

Sorry for you... good luck. What is the ACL cost these days? I paid $1200 each time in the mid-90s
 
He is home and it is going to be a long 6 months.
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Best of luck with his recovery. Watch the caloric intake with him being less active.
6 months will fly by and you'll both be back. :>) :>)
Best - Paul
 
Good luck, Tim. Keep us posted on his recovery. I would be interested in that. I can darn near relate to how that dog feels and what he is going through.
Al
 
Tim, my pup went through this when he was four. He tore the ACL in his left knee while we were doing pattern blinds over obstacles. I saw everything unfold -- high arcing jump, landing on uneven ground, and a buckling knee.

With fanatical PT, my pup was hunting in 11 weeks. As soon as he was able to bear weight, we started walking 2 - 3 times a day. We started with slow, short walks and each day I extended the distance. Three weeks later, he could walk about 2 miles at a slow pace. When the incision was healed I allowed generous water work in deep water taking care to prevent him from pushing off the bottom.

Heed to your vet's advice but I recommend getting him active ASAP before the 2nd surgery.

Good luck and give him a biscuit for me.
 
Thanks for the well wishes. The pain patch comes off tonight and he wants to move around more. Trying to keep him inactive for the next couple of weeks is the one aspect of the whole deal I dread.

 
This hits me close to home too. After 4 surgeries on each knee my choc lab Moose had to be retired from hunting at 9 yrs. old. You'll have to get used to sneaking out of the house to hunt this fall and loading the decoys, boat, etc. up without your pal by your side. I feel for you and wish him a fast recovery. Moose also tore one then the other and had complications with both due to his size(100+) and pain tolerance. My only advice is to take it slow during recovery. Keep him out of the blind this year and triple your field work preseason next year. If I had done this my lab would still be hunting, he definitely still wants to go. Best wishes.

- Mark
 
ACL dogs will develop arthritis in the affected knee over time faster than people after ACL repair. Every seriously injured joint in every species will develop some level of arthritis over time. A good repair will slow the progression. As a continuation of Mark's comments, I'd suggest a lot more water work than dry land work. He's a 5 y/o dog, so he should be solid with his basic dry land work. I'd work him on dry land just enough to keep him honest, but wear him out in the water. Try to set up retrieves so that he can't launch himself, ie start him in 2' of water so that he just starts swimming instead of launching off the dock or boat. You have to keep that knee cycling through its range of motion to keep the knee comfortable and develop/maintain the muscle needed to support the joint, but you want to limit the cumulative impact the joint experiences over time.

Human knee docs manage to get linebackers back up to professional football performance levels after ACL reconstruction. However, the ACL is not reconstructed in dogs. In large dogs like labs, we change the geometry of the joint to stabilize it. This is called a TPLO ($1500-$3000) and it is a great procedure, but it isn't as good as the cadaver graft or auto-graft ACL reconstructions that are performed in human athletes (can't remember exact costs, but expect >$30,000). Extracapsular repair is the classic fix, but it does not hold up in large or athletic dogs, so a TPLO is the preferred route even though it is significantly more expensive. Dogs should be able to return to duty, but because the arthritis develops faster, some forethought is necessary to keep them working as long as possible.

Good luck.

Nate
 
The best pheasant lab I ever owned tore an ACL at 5 months of age. Had it repaired/rebuilt with nylon similar to fishing monofilament at the Vet school at Iowa State University in Ames (at that time they had one of the best veterinary orthopedic surgeons in the US, plus they charged about 30% less than going through my own vet. My own vet set it up, as he was a classmate of this surgeon and was trying to get me "the best"). Our lab was kept in a kennel box for 6 weeks following the surgery to allow the joint and sutures to heal with only being allowed out on a leash for bathroom breaks. His leg was kept pretty immobile in a soft cast of cotton and tape. Rehab after healing was was swimming, swimming, and more swimming. For the rest of his life, every time he stumbled or his legs went out from under him on the ice, I feared the worse. BUT, he lived to over 11, with no problems with that leg, and hunted well (if a little slow) even when he was 10. In fact, the leg with surgery had no arthritis or other problems right up to the end. I hope your dog's surgeries are as successful. One other note, this surgery was in the early 1980's, and I am sure they are even better at it now than then. They probably use a much smaller incision now, and have improved synthetic ligaments as comapred to then. My dog's incision was at least 12 to 16" long, and if joint surgeries on people are any indication, vets have found a way to drastically reduce the size of the incision and the healing time.

Again, best of luck on your dog's recovery and rehab.

Mike
 
Thanks for the well wishes everyone. He wants to go and is much better than the weeks leading up to his first surgery. At 4 weeks and he is still limited in his use. He can only go out to relieve himself. He has some cartilage damage in the un-repaired knee. You can actually hear popping when he walks. It scared us at first we thought he had done something to the repaired knee. I have actually woke up with nightmares of him reinjuring the knee. Six weeks and we do the other knee and start all over.

 
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