My Dog's Knee Gave Out

Back in December, my dog Kodie was running along my fence line after the mailman when her right back leg went out from under her. I have never heard a dog let out a scream the way she did and I am so glad I was home to help get her back into the house.

I took her to the vet for their first available appointment and learned that she had completely torn her ACL and that she partially tore her medial meniscus. Obviously, this is an injury that has no chance of healing on its own, and as such, she had to undergo surgery. I was given two surgery options for her. The first was less intensive and typically has a faster recovery rate. In this option, they would take a thick wire that is also pliable, somewhat like a fishing line, and reattach the two ends of each ligament. The second surgery option was much more intensive and had a longer recovery time. In the second surgery option, a plate and a disk would be inserted into the leg and would basically replace the ligament.

After discussing the options with my vet and sitting down at my computer to complete some research, I decided that the best surgery option for my dog would be the second. As Kodie is a Rottweiler, she is a heavier dog and the more intensive surgery had a higher rate of success. Sometimes when the first surgery option is completed on larger dogs, the wiring eventually gives out under their weight and if that happened I would then have had to put my poor baby girl through a second surgery which I felt was not fair to her. Plus, it would have cost me a whole lot more financially.

The recovery for this surgery in its entirety is about 20 weeks. Based on this number, Kodie still has a few more months of post-op recovery. At the very beginning of the post-op home procedures, Kodie had to be iced and receive range of motion physical therapy every couple of hours. She was also on a pain medication, an anti-inflammatory, and on those days when she was feeling good and wanted to run around, she was given a calming medication.

During the first 3 weeks of post-op the dog is in intense pain and therefore must only be walked to use the restroom; the in and out as I like to call it. The dog must also be walked with a sling. The sling was actually different than I expected and instead of wrapping around the leg, it goes under their bellies so you can lift them off of their back legs and basically help support them as they attempt to walk and squat. It’s also there to help you catch them if the dog trips before they fall. When in the house, the dog must be confined to a single room which is carpeted and should have no furniture that they will want to jump on. When you are not home, and when it is bedtime, they must be crated.

As the recovery continues, the sling must be used for as long as possible. By week 6, Kodie was refusing the sling and it was actually making it more difficult to walk her. Since she was holding her own weight well, and I was beginning to slowly increase the frequency and duration of her walks, using the sling became counterproductive in her particular situation.

Kodie is now in week 11 of her recovery and she is doing phenomenally! I have increased her walks even more to 3-5 times per day and each walk lasts around 20 minutes. The way this type of recovery works is to very slowly reintegrate her back into her normal activities. As such, after receiving approval from my vet, I have started to run a few laps in my yard with her at the end of each walk. Next week her walks will increase by 5 additional minutes. By the end of her recovery she will be receiving 3-5 walks per day, each of which will last at least 45 minutes.

If you have a dog and your dog ever has to have this type of surgery, please do your research and follow the post op instructions very carefully. This is very common injury in dogs and many times when one knee goes, the other will go a few years later. It is so important to take things slow so they have the proper time to heal. If you take things too fast because they appear fine, sometimes the area of the bone the plate and rod had to be screwed into will split causing more pain and unfortunately the need for a second surgery.

In my particular case with Kodie, I am turning her more into a “house dog” than she was before. Kodie loves to spend all day outside with her brother, Balto, soaking up the sun, playing tug-o-war, and chasing squirrels. In order to lessen the chance of her other knee going as she ages, I have made the decision, that once she is fully recovered, to keep her in the house and only walk her on lead unless I am chilling outside with her.