[Dailydrool] Gracie has torn ACL

[Kay, Nancy K *HS]

Our Sarah, ATB this past November, had a similar experience when she was around 10 years old. The vet thought she'd torn her ACL because she was limping on her rear right leg and was in pain and quivering. The vet wanted to do an x-ray to find out, and when she told us what that meant, we immediately decided to go the "pain management" route instead. The x-ray procedure would have involved knocking Sarah out, and then the vet pulling on the joint to see if it "moved apart". If it did, then that would indicate a torn ACL; if not, then it was stretched or sprained. OUCH, in any case! Well, Sarah was already in pain, she was 10 years old, the ACL surgery is expensive, the recovery period is fairly long with lots of crate rest, Sarah was terrified of going to the vet -- all those things added up to the fact that we weren't going to put her through the surgery.

The vet put Sarah on Previcox (similar to Rimadyl, a pain med), and Sarah took that most of the rest of her life. We tried not giving it to her from time to time, but on those occasions she'd start the limping and quivering again, so eventually we just kept her on it full time; it made a huge difference.  She got 1/2 pill in her breakfast bowl for over 3 years, and generally did just fine. She was always first in line for the morning walk routine, and went for a mile-long walk with no problem, every day.

Hope that helps,

Nancy, owned by Uncle Frank the Tank
And Sweet Sarah ATB