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Originally Posted by OwnedByJezebel  My Jez had it done a little over a year ago at the age of 3. I used a board certified surgeon that specializes in orthopedics who practices in a 24 hour hospital.
They need to stay overnight for this surgery, and most vet practices have someone check up on the patients at 10 pm or so and then the animals are alone all night until someone opens up and checks on them the next morning. I would not feel comfortable knowing mine was left alone overnight after surgery, so be sure they have someone there throughout the night.
TPLO surgery is very specialized. It's not easy to describe in words, but I'll try. When viewing the tibia from the side in an x-ray, a cut is made from the top of the bone over to one side in a perfect little simicircle, separating a little piece of bone that looks roughly like a quarter of a pie. That piece of bone is then rotated downward and set in place. They explained to me that they take very precise measurements so that they know exactly where they make that bone cut and exactly how many degrees in needs to be shifted to stabilize the joint. No two dogs are the same, it has to be based on the structure and measurement of each dog. Ask if they are capable of making these exact measurements.
Our surgeon has done thousand of these, has written books, and many published papers. He gives lectures across the world, trains other vets for board certification, and is an adjunct professor at Texas A&M vet school.
If you want to look into a board certified surgeon, you can start here: https://online.acvs.org/acvsssa/rfls...VENDOR_TY=VETS
The two most important things here are to choose the best surgeon and the recovery.
You are very close to a vet school, too. You've got a lot of great options. |
Jezebel, you and I use the same surgeon and I too will only use board certified as others have said.
To the OP: You won't find a general vet who practices in ortho surgery who does TPLO surgery as it is highly specialized with a steep learing curve. That said, not all pups need TPLO but I would only go to a vet who does them because that vet would be the best imho to determine which surgical repair would be best for your pup.
Best wishes to you in your decision making for your pup. Please keep us posted!