[bailster]

I have a nine year old labrador retriever who had a cruciate ligament repair on July 3rd, 2006. Three days after surgery, he developed an infection and his leg swelled up. That set him back for about two weeks. He seemed to be doing a lot better but then , as time went on, he progressively got worse. The doctor thought that it was the sutures, which he said some dogs don't tolerate well, so he suggested removing them, since five months had passed. He removed them on December 8th of 2006 and said he observed that the sutures had pulled away. He immediately started stepping on his foot, which he hadn't done in awhile, so we thought the suture removal was the answer, which I think it was to some degree. Two and half months has passed since the second surgery, and he still holds up his leg from time to time and sometimes just touches his toe to the floor when he is standing in place. We've also noticed recently that his leg will shake. We bring him to the doctor who did the surgery every month and he tells up that the knee seems to be OK, there is no infection (which he's checked for) and that for some reason he is taking longer to heel than usual. We keep thinking that something else must be wrong. In the last few weeks , he seems to have gotten worse instead of better.

We don't know what to do and we are hoping that the dog is not in pain. The doctor thinks that the knee is just weak and that he is not in pain.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much.

p.s. We are bringing him for water therapy in an underwater treadmill and he also swims.

[labman]

Unfortunately dogs don't always recover fully from injuries. Our friend went through a possible torn ACL on her dog guide. After the local vet diagnosed it, she was given some rather bleak statistics on how many dogs are able to continue their dog guide work after an ACL repair. Fortunately after an examination at the dog guide clinic, and a couple months of rest, he is back working. But no more coming out here on his days off and running with our puppy in our fence.

You could try a second opinion. Remember, it is hard to tell just what is happening with a dog. You may also have to accept him having somewhat of a limp. The cruciate is different from an ACL, but the outcome may be the same.