I previously posted about our dog having arthritis (at least that is what our vet told us).
We decided just to verify we took her to a specialist who reported she actually has tears on both knees.

It will cost about $3K each knee.

She is about 11  years old and under 20 lbs which makes her a good candidate for alternate non-surgery resolution.

Has anyone had to have surgery on their dog to repair tears? If so, what were the results and how old at the time of surgery?

Has anyone gone through the non-surgical route? If so, what was the treatment and what were the results?

We have a few members here that are Vets.

cschelk2 is one of them and you may want to consider shooting him a PM with your questions or a link to your thread here. No idea how often he gets online here but the guy has a habit of giving very honest advice in my opinion.

In MY personal opinion - He is one of those Vets that cares more about the animal (and the owner) and less about the money.

Wish you the best of luck with your search for info and your dog.

Thanks techguy. In comes with the OP.

My 6 y/o Britt tore one, and while waiting for a consultation blew out the other. Vet suggested surgically repairing one and re-evaluate. This way she would always have at least one strong one if needed the support.
By the time rehab was complete (she had the surgery where the bone was cut and filpped 180), she had figured out how to walk with the other.  Can't tell which is the "bad" one. Over time  the amount of poping out of joint has diminished. I was worried about issues walking as she gets older due to joint wear. She is 9 now and slowing down a bit, and walks a little bowlegged, but doesn't seem to have any pain.
I'm not sure of what other non-surgical route there is other than letting them figure out how to walk to keep the joint together.  Mine walks more like a show dog now with her leg extended further behind her when under a load.

Does your dog just have  partial tears or are they torn? If I were you  with a light and older dog I would not elect surgery, but keep some pain meds flowing. The type of surgery my girl had  was not simple, and required  quite a bit of rehab (we did it at home, packs, working/full range of motion at the joint)[

She goes back on Tuesday for a more thorough exam which should provide more detail as well as the recommended surgery.

I have a female pit that has had both knees done.  Right knee when she was 9, left knee when she was 10.  It was about 3K per knee. The hardest part was keeping her from over doing it during both rest and rehab periods as she is an active dog.  She's 12 now and doing great, slowing down a little, but it's more due to her age than it is her knees.

It's a lot to spend on an older dog, but she's well worth it to me.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_154/1594114_Any_options_for_a_torn_ACL_other_than_surgery_.html

Update info :

We paid to have more thorough tests done.

The originally assumption of tears on both knees were wrong. Glad we did the extra tests.

Here is a summary of the results.
Arthritis in both rear ankles.
Very slight tear on the left knee which is insignificant at this time.
Arthritis and slight lumbo sacral stenosis syndrome in her lower back (L7) is the main issue.

Here are the potential treatments from which to choose:
Extracorporeal Shock Wave Technology (ESWT) (3 Treatments for about $1,000 total but requires the dog be knocked out each time)
These 2 other treatments would be together.
Laser (does not require sedation)  which will be about $810 total for about 17 sessions.
Adequin Injections (does not require sedation) will be about $200 total for about 6 treatments.


The cost is about the same. The first treatment is only 3 sessions.
The other treatments are many more sessions but the biggest factor is the dog does not have to be put to sleep each time.
The 2nd set of treatments do cover other areas like ankles.

We would be curious to know any feedback on these available treatments.
If we knew for sure that the ESWT would do the trick we would probably do it but we felt due to her age and heavy sedation for 3 sessions could be a bit much.

At the very least get her on supplements. Synovi G3 from amazon. Much cheaper than from the vet.

I am not a Vet and do not know crap about any of those treatments but I do want to comment about having a dog put to sleep for 'work' to be done on them.

Last time my girl Princess injured herself to the point that she needed a couple of staples the Vet wanted to put her to sleep for the procedure and I agreed. (I believe the Vet was concerned for THEIR safety more than anything but that is beside the point I am trying to make here)

It royally SUCKED watching that dog wake back up and try to get moving again. Took about 15 minutes before she could even stand up and even then she acted drunk as hell for a good half hour or so. Dog 'appeared' to be miserable the entire time due to the drugs they gave her (not because of the wound). All in all it took about 30 to 45 minutes before she was able to walk out of the exam room after she woke up. Her sister was there with us and actually came up and started licking on Princess and nudging her. That dog is the Alpha dog around here and NEVER licks anything or anyone that she is not about to eat...  Was very strange to see her acting that way in response to her sisters condition. I very much believe she could tell that her sister was 'jacked up' and that she felt bad for her or something.

I 'thought' I was doing the right thing at the time by having her knocked out and perhaps sparing the dog a little bit of discomfort during the cleaning and stapling but actually accomplished the exact opposite. She was miserable the entire time those drugs were wearing off as compared to not being bothered at by her injury in the first place. If I could go back in time and do it over - I would have declined the drugs and asked the Vet to get a muzzle instead if she was uncomfortable doing the work with the dog awake. Would have only taken a few minutes to clean that wound, staple the stuff up and be done with it as compared to 45 minutes of 'drunk' dog.

Wish you nothing but the best of luck with whatever you decide to do here Sir.  

Very much appreciate you and the time you share here.

What additional tests were done and how did they decide there was a slight tear and it was insignificant?  How did they decide there was lumbosacral stenosis?  Without doing an MRI on each area you are really just guessing.  Was this a specialist? A real specialist will have  a Diplomate of American College of Veterinary Surgeons (or DACVS or ACVS) behind their name

Taking into consideration I have not seen your dog I would be very surprised if the arthritis in the ankles is causing the problem, the LS stenosis could be causing this but again without an MRI you can't say for certain.  I'm not saying that the information your were given is not true- however it's pretty uncommon to have these things causing the lameness and it's really, really common to have a torn cruciate or two torn cruciates.  As far as the treatment options you have been given- they are palliative in nature.  I don't know of any specialist that advocates shock wave treatment and in fact I've never heard of anyone doing this- granted I don't stay current in these unproven treatments.  The laser may help some but it's not going to "fix" the problem.  Adequan may help some but again it's not going to fix the problem.  You've been given a big bunch of treatments that may or may not help.  I don't want to rain on your parade but that money would probably be better spent saving for the surgery for the insignificant cruciate tear that is going to be a problem in the future or surgery for LS stenosis if this is truly the cause.  

Being that your dog is under 20lb you may be fine without doing anything but exercise restriction and NSAIDs- maybe some physical therapy +/- adequan.  Personally for the costs I'd skip the shock wave and laser but I'm a skeptic when it comes to these alternative treatments without a lot of supporting evidence they work.

Can you post the x-rays of both knees, the ankles and the spine?  You can post the mri images too but I'm not sure I can read them unless the problems are quite severe.

Thanks for the reply.
The specialist who did the extended exam is the one who recommended the shock wave and she does have ACVS at the end of her name and actually taught abroad, at two highly acclaimed universities and even trained some of the other local vets.

To fix the problem would require more than one surgery which means she would have to be put out multiple times which is our concern.

Our primary care vet who received the results knew our concerns and suggested the cold laser treatment and Adequan to treat the back and both ankles. The shock wave would have only treated the back.
The cost is going to essentially be the same either way we go so we opted for the laser and Adequan.

She just started Dasuquin today.

When you mentioned NSAIDs, how much and what brand? Is this an OTC or prescription when it comes to dogs?

Although you mentioned this is palliative type treatment, is it one that could still keep her happy for what time she has left?

Oh, one more comment, the vet commented she is able to tell a difference between the two rear legs. The leg showing the limp has noticeably less muscle there.  I am unable to notice but I don't do this on a daily basis.

The specialist is smarter than me and has seen the dog do I'll go with their diagnosis.  

I'm surprised they didn't put her on an nsaid- maybe there is some reason I'm not aware of.  Sometimes for neurological stuff they use steroids instead like prednisone.   For nasid I prefer rimadyl or the generic.  It will be prescription.  Don't try to give your dog aspirin or any human meds.   I think that your plan will keep her comfortable the unknown is going to be the lumbosacral stenosis.  I'm still not sure about the shockwave business but it sounds like you're not going that direction anyway.