Hello All,

I am looking for a little advice. I have a 9 year old female husky. A couple of months ago we noticed her limping. After a visit to the vet she was put on anti inflammatory pills which seemed to help.

However, on Tuesday of this week we noticed the limp back again and due to Covid I couldn't get an appointment with the vet until today.

Thursday and Friday she would not eat and had difficulty in getting up when lying.

Anyhow, I took her to the vet this afternoon and she is booked in for a X-Ray Monday but the vet seems to think the Cruciate ligaments are gone in both back legs. They also took a blood test today to rule out other illnesses and I will have the results of these tomorrow.

I cannot understand how she has gone down so fast?

Also vet said surgery would be the only option getting on leg done at a time.

I am so worried about her and dread her going through surgery at 9 years old.

If anyone has ever had this problem with their dog did it put them off their food? I have tried hand feeding her chicken, beef etc but she won't take anything although she is still drinking.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Roberta

The antiinflammatories could be causing stomach upset.

I am calling the vet on Monday, one of my concerns is CCL injury. From what I've read, with a dog over 30 pounds, surgery is really the only option. I've known of a few dogs, online and in person, that have CCL problems, a local husky, older (like maybe 12-14) did not have hers fixed succi limited her quite a bit. She could walk on leash but was not allowed to play or run. As I understand it, if one goes, the other is likely to follow. Beyond that, I'm just starting to research more.

We had a sib who’s first TPLO surgery was at 2.5. Within a month of full recovery the second knee blew and her second TPLO was scheduled. We only walked on leash to potty for the better portion of 1.5 years as you can’t let them have any explosive exercise. It was a lot of work but she had an awesome quality of life after healing from her surgeries. She was able to run again and go on long hikes until 10 or so. By 13 she struggled with arthritis but had a good 14+ years. Your vet should easily be able to check for knee clicking to determine if an orthopedic appointment is needed. At 9 if they suggest TPLO I’d do it, your dog should have many more years.

Sierra had her knee done at 13 she was under 50lbs so we did the "shoe string" fix, 3 months later 2nd knee blew, we did that one, she passed just past 15 from cancer. for 2 yrs it was worth it for us.
I had a friend do both knees at once because the 2nd will always go.

I was hoping you'd respond, Jennifer. I remember Sierra having knee problems. Ami seems to be walking mostly ok on carpet/snow, more gingerly on slippery surfaces so it doesn't look like I'll need to do something emergently. But, I'm guessing this is a harbinger of things to come. I reread about the tool surgery and that seems rather drastic. But the suture surgery may not be enough for a larger dog who is younger and still runs powerfully (suspect it might tear those out.) Guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Well see what the vet says on Friday. I asked hubby if he could do a "drawer" test. He said sure, on a person, but I need the patient to assist and hold the quad still. Not sure how to do that on a dog

For the present, I'll continue to work on weight loss for him - though I can now feel his shoulders, ribs and spine so not sure that am issue any more. I hope it's that we've been successful in cutting his calories and not something systemic. I hate to see him not be able to run - he runs like the wind, with long flowing strides, stretched out full length with all 4 paws of the ground.

same problem with my dog, we just brought him to https://tplocity.com/ last Monday to get his surgery done.