Dog TPLO surgery

[BaggerRyder]

My lab Riley just had her right knee operated on on Friday, and I picked her up Saturday. Poor girl. She's drugged up and miserable and last night was a long one. Very restless dog makes for a long and sleepless night.
Anyone else have a dog that has gone through a TPLO surgery or any other type of major surgery with a long recovery time and any tips on how to make it a little easier for owner and mans best friend? Recovery on her knee is 8 weeks, with full recovery around 4 months.
I absolutely consider her my kid and am very sensitive to her being as comfortable as possible.

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[Stomper]

We LOVE labs over here @ our house & we have two, Dan & Millie. I know dogs generally like beer, maybe put some of that in her bowl to take the edge off for her?

 

[Sgt Nambu]

So sorry for you're Lab! That's a tough surgery, we looked into it for our Rottweiler. We decided to not put her through it, but that's a different dog and time!
One of the gems I remember was, "Don't let her charge the door!" Well ok, I could stop her during a door charge, no problem, but if there was a door bell chime she was just as quick as I! So how's that work!
Our Vet and the surgeon recommended a harness with a handle to control her and help her up and down stairs. At 220lbs and older us, not able!
Our best wishes for Riley, we hope she has an easy recovery!

Oh heck! Forgot the advice, our last dog, Lilly, a 235lb Bullmastiff developed a terrible fear of going to the park. She was also terrified of the Vet and crowded venues! It's harder when you get an 11mo old friend instead of a puppy.
At any rate we used doggie Xanex to get her through these bad times, and it helped a lot! 1/2 tablet would calm her and give her a nice 24hr nap! Might help Riley!

 

[BaggerRyder]

Ha Stomper. That would mean less for me... And thats how I'm relaxing.
She's got some nice feel good drugs from the vet. But I think the loopy feeling they give her is what is making her restless.

It's definitely a hard decision Sgt. Nambu. And I debated for a long while whether or not we were up for it. I consulted many Veterinarians before making the decision. Hard one not only financially but knowing that she was not going to like the recovery process.
I disconnected my doorbell, put a sign on the door to knock softly, and she is on sedatives to keep her calm for the most part. Crate, e-collar, leash, and belly support strap all part of the process.
She's still really sore, but keeping fairly calm, but come week 2 or 3, I know she going to be a hand-full.

 

[clearconscience]

I have a friend with a 4lb toy yorkie that had knee surgery.

$2k for surgery on a 4lb dog.

Crazy.

 

[BaggerRyder]

Yeah it's not cheap.
The cost also depends on how the procedure is done, who does it, and the aftercare.
I could have bought A LOT of ammo, a couple Springfied 9mm 1911's, a couple nice custom knives, and re-sodded my backyard for what I dropped Friday. But as I said, she's my kid, so as anyone would do with their child, within my means, no expense spared.

 

[Stomper]

It IS truly tough being emotionally attached to an animal that is indeed your FRIEND, and tough choices need to be made one way or the other.

 

[Rick4070]

Our Dalmatian, Murphy had double TPLO surgery around two years ago, both legs, same time, poor guy...
The recovery went fine, crate, belly strap to help him out into the back yard, leash at all times, cone for awhile, etc.
We even set up a "doggie cam" for a few weeks so we could check up on him while we were at work.
No jumping, stairs, etc. as per surgeons instructions.
He is doing great, running, jumping, frisbee, etc.
It just takes time, and if you can, some swimming therapy is helpful, although we didn't do that.
The main thing is keeping them calm and not allowing them to be too active while they are healing, and that is hard, for an active dog.
We had pet insurance, which paid about 80% or a little more.
He also has had bladder stone surgery, is on meds and special low purine food, for that, and a while back, we noticed that his hair was getting thin, so had blood work done, and he has hypothyroidism, so he is on meds for that, too.
The pet insurance helps pay for meds, and the food, too.

 

[Joe13]

I could have bought A LOT of ammo, a couple Springfied 9mm 1911's, a couple nice custom knives, and re-sodded my backyard for what I dropped Friday. But as I said, she's my kid, so as anyone would do with their child, within my means, no expense spared.

Every now and again as I'm looking at pics of a younger dog we lost to cancer recently, my head goes back to hindsight and I have no regrets dropping 1k in a couple days to not only keep her comfortable but also to absolutely verify there was nothing more money would fix.

I'm now selling guns and ammo to help make up for money we didn't really have but it was worth every penny - I just wish the outcome had been better.

Kudos to you for going to the great lengths you are for your furry family member.

Never had that particular op done to a dog but it is summer so maybe frozen rawhide bones or something similar to keep her occupied and still.

Maybe a cheap above ground pool for assisted swimming for low resistance excersise on the knee once she can have it wet.

I know that both my knee surgeries could have gone better in the recovery and therapy stages and regret not taking it a bit easier when I should have been.

Best of Luck!

 

[BaggerRyder]

Thanks Joe. I don't regret the decision at all. Sorry to hear about what you went through with your pup. Hard decisions to make.

The plan is to get her into some water therapy sessions once the surgeon says it's ok to do. Underwater treadmill and swimming tank to build up the muscles and strengthen the leg back up.

Rick4070 that must have been rough doing both legs at the same time. I couldn't imagine doing them both. Although I know that they say there is a 40-60% chance that a dog will blow out their other knee once they have blown out one. That happened years ago to my families Rottie. At 2 she blew out one knee, at 7 she blew out the other.

 

[oknow]

Ha Stomper. That would mean less for me... And thats how I'm relaxing.
She's got some nice feel good drugs from the vet. But I think the loopy feeling they give her is what is making her restless..

My dog had the same surgery. she looked like she was tripping out all the time. we ended up cutting her amount down and it made all the difference she was comfortable but not starring out into space.

 

[tlfreek]

Costa Dog had his done last year - a few days of discomfort a month or so of healing and back in action. You need to really control her if she likes to run or chase tennis balls on leash at all times when outdoors, she can do damage if she jumps or twist etc. in addition to the pain meds he took and is still taking (I apologize I cannot spell this ) glue co so mean every day. it seems to help.


if you dont mind me asking what did it cost?

 

[tlfreek]

sorry about the duplicates - it's obvious new feature I was unaware of.

 

[BaggerRyder]

Tlfreek,
That pretty much is how Riley looks like she feels, although they didnt wrap her leg in a cast. Just a freshly shaven, swollen and bruised leg.
I had several consultations on the diagnosis and two estimates. One was $3,350, with no overnight post op care, the other $4,275 with overnight post op care. I work in the Veterinary industry and after speaking with several doctors I work with, I went with the later to ensure all went well after surgery and post op visits etc would be thorough.
Concensus is that this type of procedure is anywhere between $2,500-$4,000, depending on multiple factors including who the surgeon is, him/her being board certified in orthoscopic surgery, number of radiographs done pre and post, whether they scope the knee during the procedure, etc.
I know the results would have been just fine with the lower estimate but I really wanted to know that her first night post surgery was 100% monitored and the best way to do that was for her to stay at the vet.

 

[tlfreek]

right on. I had a rottweiler before and she really needed the surgery done. I never did it and regretted it ever since. She made it to 14 years and struggled through most of it. She could walk fine and you would never know there was a problem, but I knew. I still feel the guilt. I'll never do that again. you did the right thing.

Tlfreek,
That pretty much is how Riley looks like she feels, although they didnt wrap her leg in a cast. Just a freshly shaven, swollen and bruised leg.
I had several consultations on the diagnosis and two estimates. One was $3,350, with no overnight post op care, the other $4,275 with overnight post op care. I work in the Veterinary industry and after speaking with several doctors I work with, I went with the later to ensure all went well after surgery and post op visits etc would be thorough.
Concensus is that this type of procedure is anywhere between $2,500-$4,000, depending on multiple factors including who the surgeon is, him/her being board certified in orthoscopic surgery, number of radiographs done pre and post, whether they scope the knee during the procedure, etc.
I know the results would have been just fine with the lower estimate but I really wanted to know that her first night post surgery was 100% monitored and the best way to do that was for her to stay at the vet.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Ha Stomper. That would mean less for me... And thats how I'm relaxing.
She's got some nice feel good drugs from the vet. But I think the loopy feeling they give her is what is making her restless.

It's definitely a hard decision Sgt. Nambu. And I debated for a long while whether or not we were up for it. I consulted many Veterinarians before making the decision. Hard one not only financially but knowing that she was not going to like the recovery process.
I disconnected my doorbell, put a sign on the door to knock softly, and she is on sedatives to keep her calm for the most part. Crate, e-collar, leash, and belly support strap all part of the process.
She's still really sore, but keeping fairly calm, but come week 2 or 3, I know she going to be a hand-full.

I'm sure your right! Sounds like she's doing good so far.
Good sign! Best wishes for you all!

 

[Rick4070]

Thanks Joe. I don't regret the decision at all. Sorry to hear about what you went through with your pup. Hard decisions to make.

The plan is to get her into some water therapy sessions once the surgeon says it's ok to do. Underwater treadmill and swimming tank to build up the muscles and strengthen the leg back up.

Rick4070 that must have been rough doing both legs at the same time. I couldn't imagine doing them both. Although I know that they say there is a 40-60% chance that a dog will blow out their other knee once they have blown out one. That happened years ago to my families Rottie. At 2 she blew out one knee, at 7 she blew out the other.

The surgeon said that he had about an 80% tear on his left, and about a 50% tear on his right, and that we seemed to be good candidates as owners, for surgery on both at the same time.

He seemed to think that we were going to be able to handle his recovery, and that he seemed to be a good dog for it.

He also said that by doing both at the same time, he was less likely to favor just one leg over the other, and he wouldn't put too much pressure on the one not operated on.

So, he used both legs about equally, and seemed to handle it well.

We still had to lift him regardless.

Also, no bandages or casts, just internal sutures, he didn't seem to lick or chew them after he got his cone off.

 

[oknow]

One other thing that made a world of difference that we got is trp-tri-cox from Chewy.com
it was recommended by the vet and we saw an improvement in less than a week.

 

[BaggerRyder]

One other thing that made a world of difference that we got is trp-tri-cox from Chewy.com
it was recommended by the vet and we saw an improvement in less than a week.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out.
She has been on a glucosamine supplement for a long time, and eats Royal Canin Labrador formula dog food so she gets some added joint supplements already, but every little thing will help.

I appreciate all your suggestions and support guys.

 

[BaggerRyder]