Injury

[Robin Hoyt]

Has anyone experienced a torn ACL in their goldendoodle ?

[Karen and Bridget]

Our lab tore both ACLs within one year when he was 3-4 years old.  He had surgery on each knee and recovered beautifully.  He's now almost 10 and still runs around chasing our doodle.  

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

There are several of us here that have been through it.  We have with our Lucy.  Jarka has with Monty and Scrappy just went through it as well.  It is a long recovery, but they come out good on the other end.  Hopefully you have Pet Insurance.  If you have specific questions feel free to post them and we will be happy to help.

[Willow and J]

My vet didn't want to do the surgery if it's not a complete tear and she didn't think it was the case with Willow. She didn't recommend x-ray at that point saying it's only going to prove what we already suspect (partial tear).

On the other hand, we spoke to a surgeon at a vet hospital, and she was much more aggressively approaching ACL tear issues and was more than ready to perform a surgery even if it was a partial tear. We decided to hear our regular vet but we weren't sure until we saw complete recovery. This happened twice when Willow was 2-3. She just turned 5 and she's a fast runner with no sign of injury.

I don't know how exceptional our experience is. It looks like a surgery is more standard course of treatment. If it's a complete tear, then surgery might be unavoidable?

[Sheree Small]

Hi, I just got a partial ACL tear diagnosis for my 14 month golden doodle. The vet said the same thing, partial tear, no X-ray and no surgery. 4 weeks and she still limps. Am I understanding right, you didn't have the surgery and things turned out OK?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Our Springer's CCL tears were complete so we had surgery.  I don't know if we 'had' to or not, but he was unable to put any weight on the injured leg either time.

[Stella]

The problem with not having surgery, even with a partial tear, especially in a larger dog is that they will go on to develop arthritis of the joint much sooner than if they do have surgery.

[Robin and Libby Louise]

Libby tore hers late last summer and had surgery (tightrope procedure) in early September.  Then she tore her meniscus in the same knee and had to have more surgery in January.  Happily she is fine now, but I do live in fear of her tearing the other one.  It's a tough few months but worth it.  She had had periods of soreness and limping before it tore completely, and they only did the x-rays after she wouldn't put any weight on it at all.  I can't see how a vet would not recommend surgery for a completely torn ACL on a medium or large sized dog.