ACL Tears in Labs

[FairWeather]

Just wondering when this became such a "normal" injury. I know a good amount of people that have labs, black, yellow, chocolate all from different breeders and different blood lines.

1. My brothers yellow lab has torn both of hers. Goes in for surgery on the 2nd one today!
2. My dads black lab tore hers about 3 weeks ago
3. A Good friend of mines yellow lab torn hers about 6 months ago.
4. Another friends chocolate lab tore his about a year ago.

And now it seems that my older yellow lab might be going to down the same root.

They say the sign is when your dog won't put any weight on her leg and holds it up in the air when they walk. My isn't holding it up in the air and she still wants to run like a nut, but is just walking gingerly on it, and this has been going on for 6 months. I have had 3 different vets look at it and I have gotten different answers each time.

1. Slight Tear - Try to keep her calm and it will grow back.
2. It's done Surgery Now!
3. I really can't tell if it's tore we would have to line her up for surgery and sedate her and then if she needs it done we will do it, if not we will wake her up.

It's not a cheap surgery but I can tell you money is not the issue, I would spend any about of $$$ on these dogs to keep them around as long as possible. It's more or less just the through of her having to rehab it that makes me sad..

Anyone else have any experience with this new found injury?

Matt

[FASTFJR]

Tell me about it
I think it boils down to one thing, poor breeding habits

We have a female black lab about 65lbs. Overall she is in pretty good health. At nine years old she is starting to show problems with both hips. The one side of our deck has 4 steps which over the last 6 months has given here some problems. The other side has 2 steps which she is still OK.

My brother has 2 HUGE males. Big freaking gullets, both are over 100lbs. These dog came from the same breeder about 18 months apart. "Jake' the older one has had epilepsy since he was 8 months. At 3 he had surgery to correct his front legs, some sort of problem with the ligiments. "Bumper" the younger one has had hip problems since 9 months. The breeder paid for the 1st surgery 5K. The dogs are 7 and 9 now and walk like very old men.

I grew up in a house of "Goldens" We had 3 litters over a 15 year time period with 2 of our females. All 30 pups were healthy and never had any problems. The last pup died 4 years ago at 17 years old. My mother followed the health of every dog and heard from the people at least twice a year about any health issues, their were none.

I think our next dog is going to be a pound dog