Dog Cruciate Ligament Disease ?
To clarify, this post and my previous few posts are all events which took place before Christmas. Whilst dealing with Dog Cruciate Ligament Disease all of my energy went into making Clover better, which is why I wasn’t posting about it on here at the time it was happening.
Following on from my previous post ‘my ruff reality- the vet saga’ (I’m trying to do these in bite size chunks so you’re not having to read entire essays at a time!), the words “disease” and “operation” made me well up. I also almost passed out at the thought of something serious being wrong with my perfect girl. I genuinely had to take my coat off and sit down on the nearest chair in the vet office to stop myself from blacking out totally. When I got a dog, I never imagined she’d have any issues at all, let alone a serious disease which potentially would involve an operation. I once again urge everyone reading to send this to anyone they know who is thinking of getting a dog.
What is Dog Cruciate Ligament Disease??
I had never heard of Dog Cruciate Ligament Disease before that vet visit. I was blissfully unaware and thought that the biggest issues I would face with Clover would be a bad tummy from time to time (turns out it’s a lot of the time as Frenchie’s have sensitive stomachs!).
Cruciate Ligament Disease is also known as a Cruciate Ligament Tear or Cruciate Ligament Injury. I prefer both of these terms because the thought of Clover having any kind of disease is hard for me to cope with. A ‘tear’ or ‘injury’ feels easier to deal with and to digest. Regardless of what you call it, it’s serious.
Cruciate Disease in dogs is a condition “where a dog’s cruciate ligament frays or ruptures. The cranial cruciate ligament is a tough ligament within the dog’s stifle (knee) joint which attaches to both the femur and tibia.” (According to Google). The Vet showed the ligament to us on Clover’s X-ray result and highlighted the slightly more grey looking bit which showed there was some damage to it. She explained that a ruptured or torn cruciate ligament can be very painful for dogs and that it needed to be dealt with quickly.
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How do you fix cruciate ligament disease? ?
So, once you know that your dog has cruciate ligament disease, how do you fix it?
With great difficulty would be the simplest and most accurate answer.
The vet told us that usually any larger dog weighing 15kg or more would almost certainly need an operation in order to fix it, due to their size and weight. She told us that the chances of larger, heavier dogs recovering without an operation were slim to none. The good news was that smaller dogs of less than 15kg are more likely to recover by themselves without the need for an operation, but it is a very long process.
The bad news was that at that precise moment, Clover was neither 15kg or less, nor was she a ‘larger dog.’ In true Clover fashion, the situation was not straight forward. Clover weighed 16kg and therefore fitted into the ‘will need an operation’ category. However, she was (and is!) classed as a small dog, thus fitting into the ‘unlikely to need an operation category’. So, we had a choice.
The vet genuinely had a look on her face as if to say ‘I don’t know what to advise here’ and I’m sure I saw her kind of shrug when I asked what she would suggest. She said that it was our decision and that we had two options. We either base it on Clover’s weight and therefore go ahead with the operation, or we proceed with the fact that Clover is a small dog and that her extra weight at that point was probably a result of only doing short lead walks and no running for the last few months. If we decided to proceed without the operation, it would mean lead walks of 5 minutes at a time, 3 times a day, for the foreseeable future. The vet also recommended hydrotherapy to help the muscle in the leg get better and stronger under the water and said she would prescribe Clover some anti-inflammatory medicine which she would need to take every day for the next 6 weeks. She said it would be a very long road to recovery, but that we should trial it for 6 weeks and if there was no obvious improvement in the use of the leg, and if Clover hadn’t gained muscle back around the thigh and knee by then, then we would go ahead with the operation. She also added the minor detail that the operation would cost around £3,000.
Now, I’m not saying that £3,000 bill was a deciding factor in my decision making here, I’m just saying given how much Clover has cost me so far (if you missed the blog post on this, it’s HERE), I wasn’t exactly enthused by the prospect of the additional expenditure. (Although, the cost of the x-ray, the two consultations and the prescription for the anti-inflammatory medicine was nothing short of a pretty penny!).
Of course, I would have paid it. If the vet said I needed to get the operation done there and then I would have done it. I’d have put it on my credit card, sold some clothes on vinted, lived off bread for a month and not turned the heating on for a year to help fund it. Literally whatever I needed to do. But the point was, the vet didn’t say that I needed to get the operation done. Not right at that moment. There was a chance she could heal it by herself, with love, patience and commitment from me. I owed it to her to at least try.
I also hated the thought of putting Clover through the operation. What if it went wrong? What if she was scared? What if she didn’t properly recover? The vet had said that it would be at least 12 weeks of crate rest after the operation, so I figured we may as well try the initial 6 weeks of rest and see how we went. If the 6 weeks were up and we hadn’t healed it, then I’d book her in for the operation. I just wanted to give Clover a chance first. She’s always been an (annoyingly) active, healthy, fit girl and so I figured, if any dog could fix themself, it would be her. Plus, I’d be by her side the whole way. We’d fix it…together.
If you missed any of my previous diary updates, you can find them at ‘the diary of my ruff reality.’
Alternatively, head to ‘nobody warned me about…’ to read about the dog ownership topics that I wish someone had told me about before I got Clover.
Thinking of getting a dog? Visit my ‘top tips page’ for important things that I probably should have considered further before buying my floppy eared hound!
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*Disclaimer- I have no animal related qualifications whatsoever. Which begs the question as to exactly how much of my advice you should take. This isn’t really an advice blog- not properly. It’s more of a ‘these are my experiences- maybe we can all learn from them’ type of blog. You should probably seek actual qualified veterinary/animal behaviourist/dog dietician advice if you genuinely have any dog related concerns. I’m just here to share the things I’ve learnt in my three years of dog ownership. Some of which may be useful- some not.*
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