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“Chloe”, a German Shepherd dog, is kept in excellent
body condition through regular exercise both in this area
and often when her owners take the trip to Wales. It was
after one of her regular sojourns that her owners noticed
her go lame on her right hind leg.
A cruciate injury was suspected and she was treated conservatively
with restricted exercise and medication. All appeared to
be going well when, after a particularly energetic burst,
her limp deteriorated badly. It soon became clear that her
cruciate ligament had finally ruptured completely.
Unfortunately for “Chloe” the increased movement
of her thigh bone (femur) meant that she went on to develop
an additional injury to her meniscus. This is a cartilage
“pad” on which the femur normally rests. Instability
allows the bone to “derail” and tear the “pad”
on which it normally rocks back and forth. It is vital that
the area of meniscal damage is removed at the time of surgery
to restabilise the joint.
Surgery of this kind is not straight forward and so is
expensive, usually in the region of £1000. This is
probably the most common problem referred to me by other
veterinary surgeons.
Fortunately, as ”Chloe” can testify, if everything
goes well the future remains bright for further energetic
forays to Wales!
Terry
Dunne BVMS, Cert SAO, MRCVS
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