Hi everyone, my dog had surgery ten days ago for a ruptured cruciate ligament.
She had an implant fitted.
The first few days of her recovery went really well.
Strict crate rest, only out on the lead for toilet breaks, no sudden movements—she seemed to be recovering quite well.
But then on Saturday night, while she was sleeping, she suddenly started yelping in pain. Her knee was bent despite the bandage and she seemed to be struggling to straighten her leg.
That episode didn't last long and the vet told me not to panic, but today when I got back from the shops, I found her lying down with her knee bent again.
And she was yelping at the slightest movement.
This time I actually went in and explained the situation to the vet.
He told me again not to worry and said it was just the implant settling, but he didn't even examine her... He just told me to come back on Monday to have the bandage removed and that was it.
She's still in pain every time she moves, and she's limping badly when she stands up—something she'd almost stopped doing over the last few days.
Has anyone else been through something similar? Could you give me some advice? I really feel like something isn't right.
Thanks
Translated from French
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I'm not sure if it's the same for you, but for us, the pre-op screenings, the pre- and post-op check-ups, and the follow-up X-ray two months later were all included in the price. It meant we didn't have to pay anything extra when we went back for check-ups or to have the stitches out, and so on.
The best thing to do is to keep insisting that he has a look...
To help her, you can loop a bath towel under her tummy to act as a wide sling and give her some support.
Hang in there.
Sometimes bandages can "pinch" or end up way too tight for all sorts of reasons.
You’ll need to take it off to have a proper look, though. Use blunt-ended scissors so you don't accidentally nick her or pull at the wound while cutting, then re-wrap it, making sure it isn’t too tight. If the knee is really swollen or if there’s a strange hard lump, it’ll be obvious once the dressing is off.
She’s on painkillers too, which makes it even more "bizarre". You expect some intense post-op pain in the first few hours as the anaesthetic and meds wear off, but a full week later... that’s definitely suspicious, especially since the pain seems so acute.
Did the vet say whether you could increase her dose to make her more comfortable?
I’m really tempted to have a go at that bandage and take a look, but I don't know if I'd find the cause myself as I've not got an expert eye.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to ring the vet back and insist again; I can’t bear leaving my girl like this and maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve got a real gut feeling that something's not right and it’s not just "the implant settling in".
Right now, as soon as she lies down, if she even bends her knee she screams. When she’s up and I take her out to do her business, she’s back on three legs or limping quite badly, even though there had been some real improvement since the weekend.
I don’t know him and I’m not a vet, so I can’t really say if he’s up to the job.
But to me, it still seems wrong not to take the bandage off to have a look when the dog is howling in pain right there in front of him. It just goes against common sense.
So, is the bandage still on and you can't see the state of the knee yourself? Do you have the kit to redo it? (In case you cut it off to check and then need to put a fresh one on).
Next Monday is a long way off when he's in that much pain. If the implant has shifted because of a wrong move... that could explain the sharp, constant pain.
You’ve got nothing to blame yourself for.
Is he on any painkillers at the moment?
I know, I really tried pushing him but he didn't do a thing.
He's my regular vet. It's so hard where I live to find anyone who would take her when she got injured, so he's been seeing her ever since because he was the only one who'd take us in as an emergency.
I’m sorry but that’s absolute rubbish. He should have cut the bandage off, actually checked it (!) and then re-dressed it. He needs to do his job, basically 😅 because without taking the bandage off and seeing it, how can he possibly know? Every case is different and surely it needs an exam? Especially since the first few days post-op went well...
Is this your regular vet or a surgeon (referred by your vet)?
Yeah, I’m really worried about this setback.
Yes, he told me it was normal, that the implant was just settling in and the dog had to get used to a foreign object, even though I told him things had actually been improving...
No, he said he couldn't see anything with the bandage on and didn't do anything else.
