Dog care, symptoms, health issues, and dog health advocacy from an owner's perspective. In loving memory of Jasmine.
Some breeds are more susceptible to CCL injuries and Golden Retrievers are, sadly, one of them. Thank you, Lindsay Stordahl, for sharing Brittni’s story. Brittni’s story I had never heard about knee injuries in dogs until my golden retriever Brittni tore her ACL at age 5. Now I know that anterior cruciate ligament injuries are fairly common in all dog…
Extracapsular Lateral Suture Stabilization (ELSS), or simply extracapsular repair is a surgical procedure that provides stability to a canine stifle after a cruciate ligament tear. A leg with an unstable knee is dysfunctional, painful, and arthritis follows fast. The available treatment options include surgical, regenerative and conservative solutions. The goal of any treatment for ruptured cruciate ligaments is restoring stability…
TPLO surgery is well-established and considered a gold standard for treatment of dog cruciate ligament tears. It is, however, invasive and does carry a risk of complications. The thing about Pitties is that they are loving, big, and energetic. The younger, the more energy they have. Though with Cookie, who is a Rottie and coming up on 7, there hasn’t…
Modern veterinary medicine is incredibly advanced and offers treatments nobody even dreamt of not so long ago. Veterinary surgery is an ever-growing field offering exciting treatments. Most of the surgeries are mostly safe with amazing results. That, unfortunately, doesn’t mean that things cannot go wrong. Nigel is an active dog, full of life and a drive for adventure. When he tore…
A [cranial] cruciate ligament (CCL/ACL) tear is the most common knee injury in dogs. Is the knee anatomy to blame? Is the fate of the knee literally hanging by a thread of the cruciate ligament? If you look at the anatomy of the bones, the knee joint does look like the most unstable conformation imaginable with the tip of the…