On of the more common causes of lameness we see in dogs is a
ruptured cruciate ligament.
Many people would be familiar with cruciate ligament rupture
after watching a bit of footy. It is quite a common injury in football players
when they land awkwardly or have a bad knock to the legs.
In dogs, ruptured cruciate ligaments are often what we
consider a degenerative condition. That is, rather than the ligament rupturing
with significant trauma, there is a weakness in the ligament that leads to it
rupturing with normal activity.
Because of the underlying weakness in the ligaments, if a
dog ruptures the ligament in one knee, they have about a 70% chance of
rupturing the ligament in the other knee.
The normal sign of a ruptured cruciate ligament is the dog
becoming suddenly lame. This may be when chasing a ball, or even undertaking
gentle activity such as walking around. We can confirm cruciate ligament
rupture but checking for instability in the joint combined with xrays.
In people there is often no need for surgery as our legs are
straight so the cruciate ligament doesn’t have much use in gentle, day to day
life. Of course for athletes or very active people surgery is often indicated.
Because a dogs leg is bent the cruciate ligament is used in
every step, so for most dogs surgery is required. This normally involves
cleaning up the damage within the joint, then creating a prosthetic ligament to
stabilise the joint. We use the Ligafibre Iso-toggle Technique. We prefer this
technique as it gives consistently excellent results while still being affordable.
We are lucky to have Dr Joc Bunny at the Bunbury Vet Clinic, who has her
Memberships in Surgery, meaning she has undertaken extra training and
examinations in surgery. With Dr Joc performing these procedures we find the
dogs return to good function quite quickly.
Early surgical treatment of cruciate ruptures gives much
better results as the damage to the knee joint is minimised, so any back leg
lameness in a dog should be examined quickly to help minimise arthritis in the
future.
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