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Joined: 08 Mar 2016 Posts: 120 Location: South Dakota

Anybody had any experience with the tplo surgery with their dogs? Took my 4 year old lab to the vet today she been limping for a few days and he said her ligaments in her knee are bad and this is probably the best option. Pretty bummed she is our best dog and does very well pheasant hunting for us.

There are several Vets that post here and hopefully they will reply for you. I have no experience with the surgery, but I would want a second opinion. Some of the Specialty Vet Centers do a good job with those types of injuries.

Good Hunting, and welcome to the board,
Mike

My old boy has arthritis and limps like he has displaisia . Local vet diagnosed same, recommended surgery. Second opinion diagnoses is arthritis ,and it runs in this line of Setters. Surgery was at least $1500.00 . Get another opinion for the sake of your dog.

Cruciate injuries are very common in labs, and the tplo procedure is the only technique that has proven to be able to restore the knee to normal function. It's a procedure that has been around for around 20 years and is the gold standard. It's a fairly specialized procedure and there's quite an extensive training course to learn it. ( it ain't cheap) I'd recommend you use someone who does it a lot. They'll take some fairly specific X-rays before the surgery so they can get the correctly-sized plate and also measure the knee so they'll know how much to rotate the tibial plateau .Good luck

Joined: 08 Mar 2016 Posts: 120 Location: South Dakota

Thanks for the replies. That is just what he told us. if I remember right they told us about this problem with labs on her first visit when she was a pup. But anyways there is a couple places that do the procedures around here quite a bit so hopefully all goes well.

Member Joined: 02 Sep 2010 Posts: 829 Location: SW Ohio

The ortho vets in my area prefer the TTA procedure, seems to have a faster rehab, one of the vets who does it competes with his lab so he is familiar with the needs of a working dog.
Nate

Joined: 08 Mar 2016 Posts: 120 Location: South Dakota

Thanks for the replies. I don't think the TTA was brought up but we go back Thursday to check on it and talk more about the surgery. I see the one place our vet recommended does the TTA surgery, although I don't want to cheat my dog in anyway just to get out cheaper money is tight with us closing on a piece of land in the next few weeks which is the same time frame the surgery should be. So I guess a few more questions will be in order at the next visit.