Post ACL surgery - recovery & therapy
 

Hi all, I need an advise please.
My 7 year old Yorkie had a luxating patella & ACL surgery 4 weeks ago.
Basically she fell 2 years ago, got a stretched ligament. About 2 months ago no one saw anything, but we came home seeing her lifted up one of her rear legs. Got x-rayed and examinations from 2 different vets. We opted for surgery since she was diagnosed with luxating patella and ruptured ACL.

It has been 4 weeks now since, she still would not put her leg down at all. We did laser therapy within the 1st week. The vet rechecked a couple of times, he said it's more like habit than pain. He recommended a physical therapy for dogs.
- We message her legs multiple times a day
- we also do bicycle motion therapy on her legs
- we tried to put her in bathtub to swim which seems to help, she would use her leg to paddle, but she is afraid of swimming.

1) Do you have any advise/suggestion how to make her use her leg again?
2) What is the time range of recovery for ACL surgery? The vet says by week 2 they should be able to use the leg, since it is now 4 weeks he recommends us to for professional physical therap fearing a long term effect of not using her leg muscle.
I am wondering if there's anything we can do before spending another thousands of dollars for a therapy.

THANK YOU

Here is a PDF document that describes what can *typically* be expected following ACL/luxating patella surgery:

http://www.twincitiesveterinarysurge...cl-mpl%202.pdf

Although your dog is not supposed to be anywhere near back to normal for a few more weeks, she probably should have started putting her leg down at least a little by now. I would follow the recommendation of your vet and get the recommended professional physical therapy.

I have had multiple CCL surgeries done on my pups and not one needed physical therapy. They each recovered well. Yes, they did use the leg sooner than this ... I am just a bit concerned here about what has been done. I might seek another opinion before I went to therapy.

I also would never do any sort of exercises prior to the 6 - 8 week mark where they are released from crate rest,.

I only use a board certified surgeon and nothing is done prior to that time period and they all use the leg in due time.

I surely hope your pup will be ok....I don't know that I would be putting her in water to swim or do massages and exercises. But,that's just me.