When you hear about people or athletes sustaining leg injuries, you usually hear that they had an issue with their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Dogs can sustain something similar, but it's called the cranial cruciate ligament. Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) surgery is the ideal way to handle that. If you have a dog and live in Columbus, OH, bring them to Hamilton Rd. Animal Hospital. Our veterinarian can perform this form of pet surgery.
What Happens During This Surgery?
The goal of the surgery is to change how much your dog's tibia moves forward when it strides. The vet will make a semicircular cut through the tibia's top, rotate it, and then put a bone plate there to let the tibia heal.
How Does This Help?
By doing this, your dog will have more stability while it strides around and it helps keep its joints from being inflamed and prevents osteoarthritis.
What Is The Recovery Like?
Your dog will likely be able to start walking on its injured leg after 24 hours. He may not be able to put full weight on at first, but that changes after two weeks or so. Within 10 weeks, any limp will likely have disappeared. In four months, your pet can play at close to a normal rate, but some activities will be limited. Six months in, he should be able to do everything he did before the surgery.
You just need to be on the lookout for any signs that the area has become infected or if your dog isn't recovering like it should. Then you can bring him back to the vet. This is usually very rare, though. Just always be monitoring how your dog is doing.
If you're weighing your options, you should know that TPLO surgery is considered one of the safest available approaches to this kind of injury. Also, if you don't do anything, your dog could get a severe case of osteoarthritis, which will greatly limit its ability to get around.
Any kind of surgery for your dog can seem like a lot, but you will be doing him a great favor. Just follow your vet's instructions on how to help him rehab and you will have a happy, healthy dog again.
Do you live in Columbus, OH, and need a vet for your dog's leg injury, among other things?
We're ready to help here at Hamilton Rd. Animal Hospital, the best animal hospital in the area. Contact us today to make an appointment.
