I took my dog, Diego, to the park on Wed and after less than a half mile of walking I notice he is limping. We head back to the truck and his limping is
































 

One of my boxers tore her ACL on a Sat night, by Monday when we could get her to the vet the other had gone as well. She had surgery that Monday to repair both ACLs using the "fishing lline" method. Rehab was a bear, 4 weeks with NO weight on her knees then 4 more of gradually increasing weight. She's at about 90% now.

My vet warned me that is extremely common to tear another one due to extra weight being put on the other legs. It is damn near impossible to get my dog to stop being my shadow!! Why won't he just relax and quit trying to go up and down the stairs  

 

Twenty years ago I had a dog with a torn ACL that was misdiagnosed as arthritis. He was prescribed Rimadyl and Glucosamine. Six months later, when he stopped putting any weight on the leg, I took him to a different vet that diagnosed the torn ACL and recommended surgery.
edit to add:
Not long after the surgery, the other ACL blew out. Vet said it was probably from the added stress of walking 3-legged, when the first leg was injured.

My friends Malamute blew one out to the tune of $4k. Right after that was fixed the other one went. So now he has an $8,000 bionic dog. She's about 140# and sweet as ever.

My Lab completely torn his ACL and had to have the Tightrope procedure. It's very expensive and involved a lot of rehab. He fully recovered in after about 8wks. That was 2 years ago and he has since lost 30 pounds to prevent him from tearing his other leg.

How is your dog now?   My boxer tore an acl, and our vet recommended the stitch surgery.  She was supportive of our effort to rehab vs surgery though.  Unfortunately, the acl tore completely and the other suffered a partial tear when she fell on the stairs a few weeks later.  We ended up having bilateral TTA surgeries at Cornell, done at the same time for about 5k.  She was only 3 at 5he time, so a pretty young a d active dog still.  She has had no long term issues post op.

  A few things to know.  Either surgical or rehab, it is a LONG and painstaking process.  Your dog's life, and yours by association will suck for the next 5 or 6 months.  Dogs with acl injuries may walk and run like nothing is wrong for a bit, but they always come up lame again.  That is very common.  Don't fool yourself into thinking the injury isn't serious.  TTA is better than TPLO, but hasn't been around as long.  Both are more invasive than the stitch, but recovery time is usually quicker.  Good luck!

My dog tore her ACL in January of 2013.  We opted for the tight rope surgery (least intrusive surgery option) which was ~$3k.  The first few weeks are tough. She couldn't put any weight on her leg and we had to carry her outside and support her with a towel while she did her business.  There's rehab involved with hot pads, ice and range of motion and weight-bearing exercises.  After two weeks she could walk around, but wasn't putting real weight on the leg.  After a month she was walking around, but couldn't do stairs.  After 2 months, I'd say she was at 80% and jogging and being her general playful self.

In October of 2013, she blew out her other leg.  The vet had warned us that once one goes, the other usually follows.  We did the same surgery and now she is full recovered.  She still goes up and down stairs, but not near as fast as she did when younger. I'm not sure if that's ACL related or father time catching up with her (she's approaching six years old).  Still has lots of energy and loves running around.  We give her MSM & Glucosamine on a daily basis, but we end up buying from horse supply places which costs us about $40 per year, vs from the vet which was $80 per month.

My Giant Schnauzer was diagnosed with a torn ACL. He seemed to limp on it briefly a few different times and then after playing ball we noticed he was putting no weight on that rear leg. After visiting a few pet orthos and doing some reading on my own we decided to try restriction and supplements before putting him thru the ordeal of surgery.
He was around 130lb so 2 of the 3 orthos said we absolutely needed TPLO vs the fishing line. TPLO is much more invasive as it roughly involves sawing off the top of his tibia and rotating it and screwing it back on. Look up the procedure for a better description.
This is also a good read http://tiggerpoz.com/

These are the supps we put him on:
http://www.amazon.com/DVM-Synovi-Soft-Chews-120/dp/B000ALI5H4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419284132&sr=8-1&keywords=synovi+g3

After several weeks of restriction he was walking normally and he would even run around in the yard like a big dope hopping and jumping at me while trying to entice me to play.
After he was better I had to find other ways to play with him as I was afraid he would reinjure himself playing fetch since he would run so hard after the ball.
We may have gotten lucky or been the exception to the rule but the way I see it is with the fishing line acl repair they know the artificial acl is going to fail but by then enough scar tissue has formed to stabilize the joint. Restriction accomplishes the same thing.

my Giant tore his left acl in Febuary of 2013, he had the TPLO shortly after and now he is 100%. He is still very active considering he will be 10 in may.

I got back from the Vet yesterday for his follow-up and he said the scar tissue is building up nicely and to keep doing what I've been doing with him. As of now, surgery is not on the table. He does still limp when getting up after sleeping for a while and he tends to sit down a lot more which he didn't do before.

My last dog, a Westie, tore his ACL. They gave him some sort of painkillers IIRC and he was fine in a few weeks.

Now I have a Rott/GSD/Malinois mix who as you can see in my avatar looks like Diego's twin!