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Submitted August 23, 2008 -- NEW

Q.) I read your blog at least once a week, thanks for having it up! The dog in question is a four year old border terrier bitch that is 20 pounds. This is a working dog used to hunt mostly groundhogs. The other day, while on her third hog of the day, she got a bit chewed up but nothing horrendous or untreatable. However, this morning she couldn't use one hind leg, off to the vet, possible torn ACL.

I've read enough about the surgery, so understand how it works, but I've also been reading that smaller dogs can get away without the surgery and do just fine. Now if this were a little lap dog, but she isn't. I don't want problems down the road with her knees. Any enlightenment for a smaller dog?

A.) One of the keys with your dog will be to determine whether it is a partial tear, a sprain or neither. If your dog has all of the classic symptoms of a tear but when under sedation does not exhibit evidence of a full tear, I tend to handle these conservatively at first. If it is not a full tear I will typically start with two weeks of strict rest, followed by a gradual return to activity. If your dog returns to normal activity, it can be assumed that it was either a sprain or a minor partial tear. One thing to note: at any time during these two weeks, or once activity is resumed, it is possible for these partial tears to fully tear and you will still end up needing to address the injury. Many surgeons will recommend surgery with even a partial tear. I have had enough dogs that seem to recover after a period of rest that I'll often not jump into surgery right away with these non-full tears.

In regards to not performing the surgery to allow scar tissue to form if it is a full, or severe, paritial tear, I would highly recommend against that, especially in an active dog. There are cases in humans where they don't fix a torn ACL, and commonly in cats we won't fix the ACL, but almost universally in dogs a torn ACL is a surgical condition. As to which surgery is done is an entire post all unto itself, and something we will cover, as there are now a number of surgical options. The key with dogs is that allowing an unstable joint to continue is a recipe for the development of arthritis and a host of more problems down the road. Certainly I would make recommendations on a case-by-case basis, and if this were a five-pound, 15-year-old toy poodle we may go down another path; that being said, with a young, athletic dog an accurate diagnosis and fix to the problem is in order.

Submitted October 1, 2008 -- NEW

Q.) On our third outing of the season with my two-year old brittany disaster struck. He cut himself deeply on the top of his right hind paw, over the top of the outside toe and severed a tendon. Vet care was within two hours. The vet was able to overlap and stitch the tendon (I don't know how many stitches) and there are four stitches holding the external cut together. I was seeking a second opinion as to how long the recovery time for this injury should be, my vet recommended six weeks. How much exercise (walking) can I give the dog? Is there any way to judge when the injury is recovered enough to resume hunting? I don't know who is more depressed as October passes us by without hunting, my pup or myself?

A.) It will be difficult to give full recommendations without seeing your dog. There are a number of tendons in that general area, with some ranging from very important to the overall function of the limb and others that are more secondary in their function. That being said, I can give you some general suggestions with these type of injuries.

With athletic dogs I always try to make recommendations based on as quick of return to function as is safely possible. This type of injury can be particularly troublesome since the tendon was completely severed, and especially so because these tissues are extremely slow in healing and have a number of extreme stressing forces working against healing. Basically the key will be to make sure you have adequate healing taking place, followed by the correct amount and type of physical therapy, in order to return to function without reinjurying the leg. Thankfully the field of veterinary rehab and sports medicine is a rapidly growing field. Unfortunately there are still not enough rehabbers out there and many are located in more metro settings. If you have a certified canine rehabilitator near you I would strongly recommend scheduling an appointment with them to set up an appropriate plan based on the injury and the degree of recovery taking place.

If you do not have access to such services then I would speak with your vet about tracking someone down that he could talk to in order to develop a plan to aid in the return to function. Many injuries are straightforward enough to develop a plan for recovery; with a tendon issue we need to make sure healing is taking place, not allow too much scarring and contracture and then get the dog back to a performance level. Very likely this will have a good outcome, the key is to make sure healing is taking place and that we don't return to activity too soon.

Submitted August 4 2008

Q:
My one-year old Llewelling setter was getting a good run the last Saturday. On Sunday one of his paws was really tender. We looked at his pads and my husband found a crack on it. What is the best way to treat this and is there something we can do to prevent this in the future?

A:
Foot ailments are extremely common in active dogs and can range from minor annoyances to full-blown emergencies. One thing I would recommend is to make sure it is just a crack in the pad and not a deeper laceration. Injuries to the pad area won't necessarily gap like a wound on other parts of the body will. You will want to very gently exam the crack to see how deep it extends and if there is any debris further in the wound that could be causing the issues with discomfort.

If the wound involves more than just the outer, thick layer of the pad, I would recommend a trip in to your vet to have the foot evaluated for stitches. A much more common issue would be, exactly as you describe, a crack to the surface of the pad. In these cases I would recommend a very thorough cleaning of the area, followed by the application of a product like EMT Gel or Spray. These products will offer a degree of protection to the injury and also will greatly aid in the healing process. If kept clean and allowed to heal, many of these dogs are pain-free within a day or two and the foot will heal shortly thereafter.

As far as prevention I see two options. With dogs with sensitive feet, or if the foot injuries are consistently caused by a certain type of surface, then I would recommend boots. I have mentioned many times over the years Dog Booties.com and they are still my preferred source for dog boots. Your dog is still relatively young and it just may be a matter of time for the feet to toughen. Each year I try to get my own dogs more conditioning leading into hunting season and every year I still battle minor foot injuries on multi-day hunts. Most dogs' feet will adapt to the conditions they are routinely hunted or run in. I often get asked about some of the chemical foot pad tougheners that are on the market. They may work just fine but I've never used them in my own dogs, because quite frankly, they make me nervous. I've always wondered if they can change the foot pads, what else can they change?