How are dog ACL injuries treated?
There are a number of effective treatments available for dogs diagnosed with an ACL injury. When determining the best treatment for your dogs injury, your vet will take your dogs lifestyle and energy level into consideration, as well as your dogs age, size, and weight.
What are the symptoms of an ACL injury in dogs?
Its important to note that, because people are accustomed to ACL injuries, it is common to refer to CCL injuries in dogs as an ACL injury.
The most common signs of an ACL injury in dogs are:
If your dog is suffering from a mild ACL injury, it is likely to become worse over time with symptoms becoming more pronounced. If left untreated a mild ACL injury will likely lead to a very painful tear.
Unfortunatly, dogs suffering from a single torn ACL typically begin to favor the non-injured leg during activity which often leads to the second leg also becoming injured. It is estimated that 60% of dogs with a single ACL injury will soon go on to injure the other knee.
Why So Many Dogs Tear Their ACL:
What is most important though is how to prevent the same injury to your dog’s OTHER hind leg. We will touch on this in a later section.
Pet owners often report hearing their dog “yelp” in pain and then start limping after their dog injures the ACL. But in many cases, the pet owner never hears any cry and all of a sudden notices their dog limping or not putting any weight on the hind leg.
Here are some simple guidelines to follow:
For the best diagnosis, you must seek the advice of a veterinarian who is familiar with diagnosing dog ACL injuries. Diagnosis is based on the demonstration of a specific test, called the cranial drawer test. This is best performed with the dog lying on its side in a relaxed state. Because it is so important that the dog is relaxed in many cases slight anesthesia or sedation is needed for the best results. Your veterinarian will perform a proven test to determine if an ACL tear is the source of your dog’s pain and if the tear is partial or full. This is crucial information when moving forward with a recovery plan.