Out playing in the snow yesterday with our 2 adult dogs (left our pups at home as too cold) and they had an absolute ball.

Came home and they had their usual snooze following which my bully couldn't stand up. Got her going eventually but couldn't put any weight on her back leg. Had her to vets this morning and they think it's her cruciate.

All 4 dogs are booked into kennels from tomorrow onwards as we are supposed to be going to Mexico - Nightmare. Vet is recommending rest to start with anyway rather than jumping into surgery and said we should still go and put her in the kennels as it will make no difference whether we are there or not but I really don't feel comfortable putting that responsibility on the kennels.

So the choice now is do I put 3 of them in kennels and find a friend who will take her for 2 weeks for absolute cage rest or forget the holiday and stay at home??

Why do these things always happen at the worst of times?!?!

Rotten luck... my dallie starting yelping and limping in the snow was planning for the worst. On inspection he had ice and some grit between his pads...phew!

My rottie girl did exactly the same thing around this time last year, a couple of days before we were flying out to Kenya for just over 2 weeks. My vet said she would be fine to be operated on when we got back, and the kennels agreed to lead walk her on the exercise sessions rather than the usual letting her run wild with the other 2 in their paddock.

I was all for cancelling the holiday, but we didn't and all was well. She had completely ruptured the tendon, so we were advised that she wasn't in pain, the limp was because the joint felt wierd, and providing the op was completed within 4 weeks of the injury it would be OK.

THe only problem we had, was she ruptured the other leg 5 weeks after the surgery, that one took much longer for her to get over as the other leg was still weak from the surgery.

Oh...this brings back some horrendous memories. 

just over two years ago we were in the same position...my crossbreed ruptured his cruciate 2 days before we were due to go abroad to visit a friend.  It was his second rupture, having had the other one reparied 10 months previously.  Like you, I didn't want anyone else to have the responsibility of looking after him.  Our vet tried to talk us into going and dog would have had his surgery and stayed in the vets until we came home.  We weren't happy to do that as we couldn't bear the thought that something might go wrong and we wouldn't be there.  We were also reluctant to leave our other dog in case all of us being absent at the same time was too upsetting for her.  In the end, OH packed me off to visit friend and insisted on staying home to take care of things.  I really didn't want to go under the circumstances and I remember clearly sobbing my heart out in the check-in queue at the airport, surrounded by hundreds of holiday makers excited about catching the flight   I also ran up a huge phone bill calling home twice a day for updates on progress And although it was lovely to see my friend for the first time in 5 years, I spent the whole week just wanting to get home.   As it was, dog didn't come home from vets until after I got home so it would have made no difference if I was there or not.

So, sorry I can't offer any advice but I can empathise totally.  I hope you find a suitable solution and that your Bully makes a good and speedy recovery

My heart goes out to you on this one. One of my my mastiffs had a tplo done a couple of years ago. She had the op done 4 weeks after the rupture. In that 4 weeks I kept her as though she was post-op,-no walking!, only toilet breaks on lead, any wooden flooring to be covered etc. Had to be very careful about strain on other leg. Good luck whatever you decide. x

Well the vet put her on painkillers yesterday and she seems 10 times better this morning - Yesterday I could see on her face that she was completely fed up and in pain, she is happy again today!!

Spoke to vet again and he seems to think as there has been such an improvement that it's not a total rupture, just partial. I feel much happier about leaving her now that I have seen such an improvement in just 24 hours.

So, the other 3 are going into kennels and she and her crate are going to stay with the in-laws! At least I know I can phone them for updates without getting on their nerves!!!

she and her crate are going to stay with the in-laws!
That's a great idea if they can be strict with her.  So often, when they appear to be pain free, owners relax and let them do more and then the operation is necessary.
Again after op, complete rest is necessary.  An old neighbour's dog who lived on the 3rd floor needed the operation because the owner wasn't strict enough.  Once the dog was back home, 3 neighbours plus the owner would carry the dog (Dobe x Shepherd) up and down 3 flights of stairs in a duvet cover so that she could be toileted 3 times each day, only to find the owner allowing her to jump onto the sofa!  Needless to say she needed the second leg done before she'd completely recovered from the first op!  Grrrr.........

Jake our BC is limping front left this morning after a walk - pain!!!!

Oh no - Hope all is ok with him.

Can I just ask something about cruciate tears as several of you have experienced this first hand.  Did your dog start limping immediately on the walk when it happened or did the lameness first come on after rest? 

Ours came on after rest.......

Lameness usually came on on the walk back from the park or getting up after rest.  Another sign seems to be lifting the affected leg off the ground when standing.

Interesting.  I only ask because I was sure one of my bitches had done her cruciate, she kept her leg off the ground for about 4 days then gradually began to weight bear again.  The mctimoney said that if she had torn her cruciate I would have know about it immediately. Any thoughts?

My Rottie girls was noticed after rest. She did it running after a ball (and changing direction quickly) on frozen ground. No yelping etc to give any idea of a problem. SHe didn't limp walking home, it was only after a couple of hours - we'd popped out to the shops and came back about 1.5 /2 hours later and she was limping. Because she has HD we thought initially it was because she'd overdone it, so gave her some of her "emergency" painkillers, but as she was still limping 24 hours later we took her to the vet who diagnosed the rupture. Apparently this scenario is quite common.

Hi all, I'm so sorry to hear about all these problems, especially in these snowy conditions.  My girl did something similar on Saturday evening, she had been out for a  walk with the others, she was on lead, but my partner slipped and dropped the lead and she ran off dancing around us as if to say "you can't catch me".  She wasn't running free for long and we didn't see and slips or falls or hear any crys of pain.  Later that evening after a rest she couldn't get up, when we finally got her up she couldn't put her leg to the floor.  Due to being snowed in I gave her some emergency painkiller, my little girls medicine, on vet advice!  The next morning she could put her foot to the floor but was still limping slightly, of course once we reached the emergency vet that morning she walked in as if there was nothing wrong.  The vet said there was a little swelling around the hock joint and she could have twisted it, she has Metacam and is being kept quiet but is strutting around as if nothing is wrong when going out to the toilet.  Could this be a Cruciate ligament problem?
Jan

Jan,

I'm not an expert I can only go on what happened with my girl, but once my girl was limping she didn't stop. I don't think the limping is intermitent with a cruciate rupture, so it doesn't sound like she's done it. My vet knew straight away by manipulating the "knee".

Thank you Tadsy, I don't think it's Cruciate either, hers seems to be the hock joint, which could also be serious but as she seems to be walking normally, albeit on medication, I'm quietly confident (famous last words)!!  We have a vet appointment tomorrow to check how it is, fingers crossed.  By the way the reason she was on the lead in our garden was:  She in the past had a broken toe, it has finally healed and she has been sound for several weeks but as we have the equivalent of a championship show on Sunday we thought it best to keep her quiet!!!
Jan

Oh they do time things well don't they?! I'm sure she'll be fine by then, good luck for the show.

T