Dog cruciate ligament surgery recovery - CCWO

Our 11 year-old terrier cross (exact age unknown!) Rusty tore his left hind leg CCL earlier this year. The vet recommended surgery through the DSPCA which would be CCWO - closed cranial wedge osteotomy. On researching this online, there are a lot of reports of TPLO and TTA surgeries here on boards and elsewhere but very little on CCWO so I thought our experience with it might be helpful.

Rusty previously damaged his right hind leg CCL - partial tear - last year. He healed extremely quickly and well from this and resumed back to his former level of activity. He has been on Meloxicam and Yumove for this and arthritis. His left hind leg CCL though from this year was an obvious choice for the surgery as it was a full tear and he was not dealing too well with moving around and getting up.

CCWO is indicated for 2 reasons both of which would have been applicable for Rusty - as a senior dog, the bone growth required in other surgeries is a bigger ask. As a terrier he also has a steep hind leg angle which makes other surgeries unsuitable.

Surgery took place on Thursday 20th May. The vet surgeon reported it as a complete success a few hours after drop-off and that he was sitting up. He was collected on Friday 21st May. We opted for a small 'fort/den' rather than a crate as he is not crate trained and the vet said both were fine options. He was sleepy and uncomfortable for the first 2 days at home but began to perk up on the Saturday - day 2 post-op. His short walks outside to the garden seemed okay for him - careful of his surgery leg, hopping on it a little bit but still putting weight on it. The discharge instructions mentioned that the wound might discharge a little or have bruising but we never noticed any of this and the bandage stayed clean. He did however manage to work his way under a corner of the bandage on Day 2 Saturday so the cone which was supposed to go on on Monday in the vets was put on early. His walk improved to a more normal/equal gait on Monday and has stayed that way since. It's such a relief. He got a great report at the vets on that same Monday- day 4- and the following Monday - day 11 post op.

The first post surgery poo arrived early on Monday morning - he had been taken out 2 hours before with no results! We thought this would 'break the seal' a bit but he continued to really only go at night and managed 48 hours between poos at one point. The vets mentioned this was normal especially in older dogs but did give us paraffin oil. This definitely worked somewhat but he continued to be shy with peeing as well as poos until the cone came off on Day 14 post op. He celebrated with 2 accidents within 5 minutes! And his digestive system has returned to normal since. The Tramadol he took for the first 7 days probably didn't help also. He wasn't drinking as much water as he normally would while wearing the cone so his food had added water and snacks like carrots etc. were also given in water to help.

So far, great. Really thrilled with his progress. He stays in the den until Day 28 after x-rays that morning where he will hopefully get the all-clear to leave the den. Basically walking normally now. When he does get the 'all clear' we will continue to bring him out the back on a lead as he will be inclined to run and jump by himself out there and this is to be avoided at all costs until 8-12 weeks post-op. He is definitely not as vocal/annoyed as I thought he would be being cooped up so that's a big bonus too. Graduated to 10 minute walks this week which will go up by 5 minutes every week. Just looking forward to the x-ray check-up now!

Here are some photos to give an idea of size as we don't know what kind of terrier cross Rusty is. He is 11kg. Hope this is of help to anyone considering this surgery. All in all a lot less stressful than we were anticipating and he seems well on track to a full recovery.