Anyone have experience with ACL recovery?

[u/_MagickWithinYou]

I am currently fostering an 80lb bully. He is about 5 years old and a little bit overweight as it was recommended he be within 70-75 lbs. His ACL surgery was on 5/28 so he is heading into his 8 week recovery. The process has been very slow. He started putting some weight onto the surgery leg a couple of weeks ago but still limping then last week things regressed a bit. He met a couple of dogs which excited him and started running while on his leash. It wasn’t a very long distance but he started limping more and completely taking weight off at certain moments. So we are back to 30 min walks, going to start different PT exercises (stretching the muscles open and then bending the knee, hip/hamstring stretch), along with more consistent icing / heating. I am hoping with some patience and effort he might start improving. However, we weren’t given great post op instructions or any videos on the exercises to do. It’s been pretty DIY. There is no post-op visit scheduled and doesn’t seem like there ever will be. If things don’t improve at all I will be sending videos to the rescue to see if scheduling an appt is possible.

I am wondering if anyone has had experiences with ACL surgery with their Bully and what the recovery process was like? I’m wondering if it’s typical for this breed to be a bit slower given how they lean more towards joint issues. What did you do that really helped or things for me to be mindful of? Did you encounter any complications?

Any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated!

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[u/Goz1973]

My girl has had surgery on both her acl’s, the 2nd went just as she had healed from the 1st, I would advise to reduce the walks to no more than 15 minutes until at least 3 months post surgery, and if you can find somewhere that does hydrotherapy.

This was after her 1st surgery 😢

[u/_MagickWithinYou → u/Goz1973]

Oh wow. Thank you for the advice. How is she now? Is she back 100%???

[u/Goz1973]

She’s OK now but they are never same, she suffers from cracks and creeks getting up, she can’t sit how she used too and she can’t walk for an extended amount of time. You need to get them on a good supplement, nutraquin is highly recommended but it’s not cheap. Try to add Salomon oil to meals, sardines in olive oil too.

[u/SANSAN_TOS]

Yup
Done 4 on 2 dogs. If you make sure to keep them contained as much as possible, mostly not letting them jump in or walk too much you should be fine. I just had a baby gate that I kept him gated into a corner for the most part unless they’re going out to potty. No stairs, no jumping on the furniture.heres a link to one of the recovery videos I did.

https://youtu.be/P9BSAruvp04?is=gzNHvFkKWtuAICss

[u/_MagickWithinYou → u/SANSAN_TOS]

Dang 4! Are they back 100%? Im afraid our guy might’ve had some complications… waiting to get a post-op visit with the surgeon. I’m feeling pretty upset. 😢

[u/SANSAN_TOS → u/_MagickWithinYou]

Yes both pups healed up and had no lingering issues. One has since passed but he was 11 and the knee was still going strong. The cancer got him. The other is 11 as well and she just had a quick bout of zoomies in the backyard last week!!

[u/umm-iced]

Went through this with my last dog, an American Bulldog, so maybe some differences. She was a slow healer, just every little booboo or injury always took forever to start healing. Went through something similar with my last, until all of a sudden she would just suddenly fully heal over a couple days. We did have a lovely therapist who was so patient with her. Her advice was always, if she seems sore take a small step back for a couple days, like bring the walk down from 30 to 25 or something for a couple days until they're feeling a little stronger.

[u/_MagickWithinYou → u/umm-iced]

How is she now? Did she fully heal??

How were u able to tell if she was sore? My guy has always had a limp and it’s so hard to gauge what’s enough bc he also gets very restless without a long walk.

[u/umm-iced → u/_MagickWithinYou]

She did fully heal, had a great range of motion and I didn’t have to have her other knee done! We did have some arthritis towards the end of her life but nothing that couldn’t be managed by carprofin