[107barney]

I didn't do Rehab with my dog who had a MPL repair at age 2. This same dog now age almost 14 has a grade IV MPL in the other leg that wasn't recommended to be repaired. Over the years when she had some lameness, the recommendation still was to see if conservative rest brought her back around. Since she has been diagnosed with liver disease, anti-inflammatory meds were not appropriate so we used rest, warm heat at times, and tramadol for any pain. She recovered each and every time. Just last year, she again was limping and I took her to a surgeon who is board certified for an opinion and he said that the benefits of the surgery at this stage in her life were clearly outweighed by the risks to her given her age and other medical concerns. I didn't have faith that she would pull through but after a good 4-6 weeks of rest she is 100% again. So I think one should proceed cautiously with surgery in an older dog for this problem. I had a discussion wih our dr at the time and he said he would have fixed her leg as a pup, but that others are divergent on that opinion. Her surgery was done by another boarded surgeon who I mentioned does over 4,000 of these a year and he said no. He may have decided differently in recent years as my friend's puppy had surgery with him. She was unable to stop limping. I think my Daisy being light and small has worked to help her with this problem.

Anyway we didn't do rehab and my friend didn't either. I did do it with my other dog who had a CCL tear and complications and I can tell you that it cost a lot. I think they bounce back a lot on their own like LJ said.