Central Victorian Veterinary Acupuncture

If your dog has been diagnosed with a torn or ruptured cruciate ligament there are a few things to consider before you go ahead with treatment.

1. The cruciate ligaments are strong bands inside the stifle joint (equivalent to the human knee).
2. They stabilize the joint, preventing the upper and lower bones from moving backwards and forwards.
3. Tearing, partial or complete, is one of the most common hindleg injuries in dogs.
4. Soon after the injury, the pain will subside and the dog appears to improve
5. Unless repaired, the joint is still very unstable and down the track incurable, painful arthritis will become apparent.
6. There are numerous modes of treatment available and vary enormously in effectiveness and cost.
7. The current fashionable treatment is surgery such as TPLO, or similar, often costing $3500 to $5000. These do not repair or replace the ligaments but by cutting and re-aligning the bones, claim to remove the need for the ligament.
8. I have seen a huge number of dogs which have had the surgery repeated due to the failure rate.
9. The 3 months or more of intensive rehabilitation (usually involving 6 weeks or more locked in a small cage) involves a 50 page book of instructions on confinement, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy etc. 
10. I have been unable to find any research which shows that there is less arthritis lameness and pain after 3 years than if the dog was treated conservatively, for example given the rehabilitation alone, without the surgery.
11. Many of the dogs which come to me are to treat the severe pain caused by arthritis which results from the surgery itself.
12. I have now treated in excess of 300 dogs with cruciate injuries with acupuncture, minimal confinement and close to 100% recovery with no sign of arthritis and pain in the rest of their lives.