Woody came to see us at Hollybank because he had hurt his right hind leg. He was very sore, holding his leg up, and very tense to examine which can be a sign of pain. There are lots of injuries a dog can do in a back leg. They can get strains and sprains but they can also problems within the joints themselves, whether with their bones or with the ligaments that hold everything in place. Therefore although lots of lame dogs can improve just with some pain relief and rest, in these cases we need to do more to solve the problem. Because Woody was painful we gave him some pain relieving anti-inflammatory drugs and planned to see him back the next day as we were concerned something more may be going on.

As Woody was still very lame the next day we sedated him and took some x-rays. Once he was relaxed from his sedation we could feel that his knee was unstable and would move forwards and backwards. This was because Woody had actually damaged and torn a ligament that held his knee together called the Cruciate ligament. Sometimes it will tear or rupture due to a traumatic injury but this alone is quite rare. Often there is underlying ongoing breakdown and degeneration in the ligament over a period of time, that makes it weaker. Most of the cases we then see are because the ligament has then given way. It also means that a dog that has a problem in one knee may well get a problem in the other knee at some point.

For Woody, this injury meant that he needed surgery. To stabilise his knee we put a suture around his knee to replace the action of the Cruciate ligament. He then had to go home on two weeks of cage rest to allow his knee to heal following the surgery. This took lots and patience and persistence, both from Woody and his owner. Thankfully Woody did really well, walking back in to Hollybank after just 5 days on all four legs.

After two weeks we then started to build up Woody’s exercise. Unfortunately he had a bit of a setback as he had to come back in to Hollybank to get over a bad case of vomiting and diarrhoea. However he is now back on track and making the most of his new found freedom again.