Partial knee tear (shepherd, vet, wound, black)

[nomnom]

My one year old Aussie was diagnosed with partial knee tear a month ago. The vet prescribed one week of rest without walks and leashed potty breaks. She got better but was not fully healed. By the second week, I called the vet and she said some dogs can take longer to heal and since she is using her leg, we should let her rest more.

We did keep her confined for 2 weeks but after that, I couldn't just crate her all the time. After the 2nd week, she was running like a maniac, flying up and down the stairs and just acting like a crazy Aussie inside the house here and there. After 3rd week, she seemed fine so I took her for a walk around the block. She started limping for that day. After that day, she went back to being crazy. It's been really stressful for her as she went from exercising 1-2 hours a day to never spending more than 5 minutes outside at a time. Even though she goes crazy inside the house, I end up stopping her and confining her to a small room.

It's been 5 weeks since she has been injured and 2 weeks since I took her for a walk. How can I tell that she is all better? I am so scared to take her on a walk because I am afraid she will start limping. I am also noticing the decrease in her muscle mass on her thighs. Another thing is that I noticed that she slips off the stairs sometimes which is something she never used to do. Granted she is flying off the stairs but she never used to slip.

[Katie1]

Restrict her exercise! Don't let her run full out or jump around. Stop walking her on Hard services like cement & blacktop!

[CALGUY]

Take it from someone going through similar circumstances.
My Shepherd tore ligaments in his hind leg about four months ago.
No operation, but a lot of attention I had to give to make sure the leg would heal.
A few rules you must strictly follow if you want the leg to heal on it's own:

Limit activity.
If there is swelling, ice pac twice a day(15 minutes) for a week.
No swelling, use heat once or twice a day(15 minutes).
A hint about heat, and what to use;

Take a small towel, run it under the faucet to get it wet.
Ring it out slightly(not much) you want it wet, but not dripping.
Place the towel in the microwave for about a minute, on high.
Remove it, and wrap it in a thick towel.
Place it on the knee, and leave it on for 15 minutes, checking often to see that the heat is not to hot next to the skin.
The best is to stay with the dog while the heat treatment is in progress because you will need to check the amount of heat so that the skin does not suffer an unintentional burn.

I no longer need either ice, or heat, but when using it, I found the heat worked best.

No climbing stairs at all.
No jumping up on furniture.

Most important, give the dog gluecosamine and chondroitin daily.
That is one of the best anti inflammatory medicines you can use.
There are others, but I have found mass improvement using it.
My Shepherd is almost fully cured.

Early on, he couldn't put any weight on the injured leg, and now he doesn't limp at all.
I still stick with the regiment he is on, and as a precaution, will continue for another three months ,just to make sure he is completely healed.

You mentioned your dog is active, and a few times seemed overly active.

Do not take that as a sign the dog is better, or healed.

These tears take a long time to heal, and if strain is put on them through activity, they won't heal.
Scar tissue needs to build up to strengthen the wound, and that takes months.

In my case, I removed the steps to the rear deck, and built a 16 foot ramp so the Shepherd could get back up on the deck easily without straining the leg.
He liked looking out the window while laying on the bed, so I took the legs off the bed so he doesn't need to jump up on the bed.
I made a ramp so he doesn't have to jump up into the pickup when we are going to the park.

All these things were to get the leg to heal, and it has been worth it.

Again, this tear your dog has, will not heal quickly.
Don't stray from your plan just because it appears the dog is healed.
You are looking at a minimum of 8 months for recovery, some even longer, depending how bad the tear is, and if the dog re-injured it by excessive activity.

Bob.

[nomnom]

Thanks for your reply. Sorry to hear about your dog but am glad to hear that he is doing better.

I don't know why my vet made it sound like a no big deal. At first, he suggested a WEEK.

How can I tell that she is fully healed? She is overly active every day. She doesn't walk outside. She runs and runs during her potty break. If on leash, she pulls. She jumps into the car before I get a chance to lift her up. My house is funny that I could only put a baby gate on the top of the stairs so she will stand on the stairs to open the baby gate.

There is no swelling so it's hard to tell.

I just started giving her glucosamine today. I am running out of dog ones so I am thinking about giving them human ones from Swanson.

8 months seem really long. For a partial tear?

I tried confining her for longer periods of time but she gets really stressed and throws up.

[hiero2]

Nom - yeah, it could take months to fully heal a soft tissue tear. Calguy gives pretty good advice in this circumstance. I would add that the way to strengthen soft tissue injuries is through LIGHT use. Low load, lots of reps. Or very controlled load.

It's pretty difficult to manage this with a dog. No question. So I really relate to your difficulty! Maybe you can limit the dogs activity, while still giving the dog some activity. No sprints - no sudden take-off / launches. But the dog can run, just not all-out speed. It might help to splint the injured limb - this will tend to slow the dog down. Just like people, a little warm-up before exercise is good. Warming up the injury area using heat-packs, before exercise, can be useful. Ice the injury area down for 15-20 minutes after exercise to slow swelling and speed recovery. It works. Hard to do with a dog, but it does work.

As for the healing time - it really depends. Most dog injuries of this sort, in my experience, will heal well enough in a week or two. But it certainly is possible to have an injury that could take months to properly heal. It is hard to know, since the dog doesn't talk, eh?

Be conservative. Force the dog to be conservative. Take it easy should be your mantra.

Good luck.

[CALGUY]

You stated the dog is quit active.
You might want to give the dog a light sedative.
Vets have them for pets that get frightened at fireworks, and thunder.
They are safe,and do a great job at calming an over active pet.

Now, a couple of things you mentioned in your latest post.
The dog lunges if on a leash.
Lunging puts strain on the injury.
The way to stop that is buy a gentle leader, and teach the dog to walk by your side.
It is very effective in teaching the dog to walk correctly.

Another thing you can do is never let the dog out of the house without you holding the other end of the leash, even for potty times.
With the leash on, the dog won't be jumping into the car, you will be responsible for lifting him/her into the vehicle.
If the dog is too heavy, you can purchase a dog ramp.
Just google dog ramp, and many will come up.

In escence, you are now the doctor, and caregiver for your dog.
You will have to do things differently, and may have to re- arrange your schedule to accommodate the dogs needs.
Unfortunately our pets don't know the seriousness of some injuries, and we have to show them how to behave while injuries are healing.

One more thing, the poster above mentioned allowing the dog to run "slowly."
I would strongly advise not to allow the dog to run at all.
Running will put a lot of strain on the injury.

It is not an easy task taking care of our pets when they get injured, but it is something we do out of love for our pets.

Above all, be patient, and in time if you are a good care giver, the dog will be back to it's old self.
I wish I could give you a time table, but each dog is different when it comes to healing.

Bob.

[TFW46]

CALGUY has given you excellent advice in both posts. The suggestion about a sedative is especially very good. If your dog is active at all and you dont restrict her activity 24/7, she will pay for it with lifelong pain and limp.

[hiero2]

Nomnom;

For some reason I found myself back at this post. You know, all our advice about hot and cold and restriciting activity - is all good advice. But this is an Aus, and an active one. And you have stairs in your house.

Her energy is your and her enemy. She is beautiful, BTW! At this moment, I'm thinking you might have to resort to splinting the joint to restict that leg, since she isn't likely to be kept quiet. It struck me that we were missing the high need level for her for activity and stimulation. I would also keep her off stairs entirely, if possible, and no jumping anywhere. (Even though that is probably a "Good luck with that!" sort of suggestion, eh?)

Since it is the knee, is it a cruciate ligament tear? I had a hound with a completely blown-out cruciate ligament. She still went running and built her miles up on her own accord. Never used a brace, either. Braces are available for dog's knees. They aren't exactly cheap, although, when I was researching them, the ones I thought were probably the best were not the most expensive. But we're talking $500 - $1,000 - a chunck out of your pocketbook.

A lot of people's dogs resist all activity when they have a blown cruciate ligament, and they HAVE to have the braces to be active. My hound didn't. She didn't put her weight on that rear leg so much, but she still used it. Sometimes stairs were a problem.

How can you tell something like that is healed? The only thing we have to go on is if the dog limps or not. Or if the dog favors the leg - or if the dog resists activity that they once adored. When my hound's knee started going, I missed the symptoms - she just didn't want to run. That could have been because the running we were doing was boring to her - after all, we weren't chasing critters, and we weren't stopping to smell, we were just running. But she was slower than I thought she "ought" to be. Sometimes she limped, and we let up for a week or two, but I truly missed what she was telling me. So, we ended up after a couple of years with a blown cruciate, but she adapted like a trooper, and still went on daily runs for the next several years.

[Legion777]

What a beautiful girl.
How horrible for you (& Calguy) & your dogs. Restrict an Aussies activity? Like asking it not to breathe.
I was also thinking a knee brace, like those made out of wet-suit material. If you're handy with a sewing machine, I'd check out elbow/knee braces for little kids to see if you could adapt one to fit. (around $50)
If you can't find reasonably priced braces, I'd try wrapping with an elasticised bandage during the day, ensuring off-course that it's not too tight.

I'm also wondering if hydrotherapy/swimming would help. Does anyone know for sure if that would be helpful or not?
I ask because I have heard that hydro/swimming can make certain more serious canine injuries worse.

Good luck & hope your pretty girl heals quickly : )