[OwnedByJezebel]

This was my experience with Jezebel:

On a Sunday, she started carrying her left leg, but would put it down occasionally. I knew she had LP, but had never seen it affect her in any way.

On Monday, I got her an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for Wednesday. In between the injury and the time she saw the surgeon 3 days later, she was using it 98% of the time, and carrying it the rest of the time. She was indeed improving, but since I had the appointment I really wanted to know what was going on, especially since I already knew she had LP. I wanted an expert opinion.

On Wednesday, the surgeon manipulated it and took x-rays. The manipulation showed that there was a lack of sturdiness. This was in addition to the LP, which is evaluated using a different manipulation. The x-ray showed that the tibia and fibula (bones of the lower leg) were shifted over and not aligned properly under the femur. Both of these observations indicated a torn CCL. An x-ray cannot show the CCL, there is no way they can see it until they actually go in, but an experienced surgeon knows based on the things that were observed in Jezebel. We scheduled surgery for the following Tuesday, just 9 days after her injury.

During the consult, the surgeon left the door open, and Jezebel is a "bolter." She took off, and the surgeon took off behind her. It's a large hospital, and he had to chase her quite a ways to catch her. She was quite functional!

In between the consult and the surgery date (6 days), she would have entire days where she never limped or carried her leg. Then, it would happen again, usually when she was getting up from laying down.

The day after surgery, when I went to pick her up, I was shown the pictures from the little arthroscopic camera they use during the surgery. I saw how it looked from outside the joint, working it's way into the joint, and into the center where the CCL is. There was some redness (they said that was from the injury), and then there was that CCL. Imagine what a rope looks like, with strands side by side. It looked like a rope with some of the strands intact and others broken and floating around in the synovial fluid. Clearly a partial tear. It also showed that the meniscus was still intact and undamaged and there were no signs of arthritis. (Yay! That was great news to me!).

My point is that she had a partial tear, and within a few days she had improved and was using it normally most of the time. She even had a fun escape from the exam room at the hospital and she wasn't easy to catch. It can be very deceiving, they can hide a lot.

I am very happy that I had her surgery when I did. With that squirrelly knee and a partial tear, the wear on the knee would have been very quick, damaging and wearing down the meniscus. After that, it's bone on bone, certain arthritis, pain, and lameness. Surgery at that point would stabilize the knee, but it wouldn't fix those issues. It also would not have taken much to completely rupture the CCL.

If I had gone by her outward signs and thought that I should take a conservative approach because she seemed to be getting better, her prognosis would not be as good. As you can see, there are many that have had limping dogs and it turned out to be something else that healed on its own with time and rest (I hope your pup is in this group!), but there is just no way to know without going to an expert.