Great Dane knee injury, any advice is appreciated!!?

Question

I am very hesistant to ask advice on here because I am finding ppl to be very rude towards the person asking for help, but I am hoping that will not be the case here : ) I recently bought a 12 wk old great dane. Before I got her she was taken to the vet for knee inflamation, she had x rays and nothing was broken. Today was her follow up visit & it turns out she has what he called R.A.C.L which is a problem with her ligament in her knee. I am not able to find much info on this. He said most likely she will need surgery ($3500) when she is full grown. The breeder offered a refund but as you can imagine my family has quickly fallen in love with her. The vet was short staffed & not very willing to talk with me & answer my questions. He did say it is very rare for a puppy to get this. She is due for her last set of puppy shots in 2 wks where I plan on taking her to my vet for a 2nd opinion but if anyone has any suggestions or has experienced this I would love to hear your input/advice.

Thank you, Jen. Very informative. Do you know what RACL stands for? I was so upset at the vets I forgot what it was. In the meantime is there anything besides limiting activity that I can do such as vitamins/supplements? and is this surgery one that lasts a dogs lifetime or does it have to be redone? Thank you, again!

Thank you everyone!! My mind is at ease now. The breeder claims she injured her knee outside playing with other dogs, I personally feel it was one of the 5 lil rugrats running around the house tugging on her legs and ears, when I went to pick her up, even with her knee injured, and no one was disiplining them.

Answer 1

Hello,

I'm new here and I'm sorry to hear that people can be rude to those that ask for help, as I joined because I will need a lot of advice for my new puppy that I'm getting in June. Have you ever heard of ARBONNE? A lady who has bred and shown Great Danes for 20years introduced me to the company. It is an all-natural, botanically based personal care product company. She had danes with joint problems and back injuries. She used Arbonne's herbal muscle massage gel and joint formula pills on her dogs and this eased the pain in their joints. The fatty acid supplement has the highest antioxidant and anti-inflammatory levels on the market, it decreases any swollen tissue. These are alternatives to deadly drugs such as Deramaxx and Rimadyl, please do not use painkillers on your puppy without researching the product. I know that these products can help your little one without the pain and expense of surgery. I was so impressed with the results of my yorkie's problem that I published a newsletter. It discusses in detail what these NATURAL products can do for dogs. I can email you a copy if you are interested. Let me know...

I will also ask the lady who introduced me to the products for more advice. She has 20 years experience with danes and natural remedies, she can really help to guide you in the right direction.

Take Care,
S.K. Alexander

Answer 2

ACL surgery may not even be needed.In some cases it will heal on it's own with rest. It is unusual for a puppy this young to have this problem, but not totally unheard of..it doesn't mean that the breeder is breeding dogs with weak knees, especially in Danes since this isn't really a common problem with the breed...it is more then likely an injury issue. I would also get an opinion from a specialist to make 100% sure it is her knee and not another issue.Also a specialist can give you proper treatment advice & options that a regular vet may not have access to.

As for last vaccinations....your pup should not be having her last set in 2 weeks not if she is now 12 weeks old...she should only be having her second between now and then and her third and final between 16 & 18 weeks.Hopefully she was not vaccinated for the first time before she was 8 weeks old..this is important with all dogs but even more so in Danes. Also make sure you do not give her a rabies vaccination under 6 months of age again very important in Danes.

Answer 3

RACL stands for Ruptured Anterior Cruciate Ligament.

It does sound very unusual for a 12 week old puppy to tear its knee - I would get a second opinion. And $3500 for ACL surgery is INSANE! I worked for one of the largest veterinary hospitals in the country and we charged less than $2000 and smaller clinics (that were capable of doing the surgery) usually charge around $1500.

Has the dog been tested for Lyme disease? This is a common problem that causes lameness. There is also a condition (the name escapes me) which very large breed dogs can get as puppies which involves the growth plates of their limbs which can be painful but I believe can resolve with age.

Sorry, but being short-staffed is no reason to not answer a client's questions. Veterinarians know they can make more money by "processing" clients more quickly. You are paying for their time make sure you leave satisfied.

Answer 4

Congratulations on getting a great dane! they are wonderful dogs. very calm, relaxed when older and frisky and cute as a puppy. there are lots of foods that are taylor made for great danes and shih tzus as they both are real individuals and deserve the best. however, if you do change their diet, change it over a matter of 2 weeks, slowly introducing the new food. great danes are sometimes prone to bloat, so feed them 3 small meals a day and avoid over exercising them until they are fully grown and make sure you don't walk them straight after they have eaten. give them a 30 min gap. to stop her from biting, chewing things or jumping up (in other words, being agressive) get a bottle of water with a lid and put a few stones into it until it is about half full of stones. when she does something naughty, shake the bottle and say NO! (not too hard so it doesn't break her spirit) keep doing this and eventully when she does something naughty, say NO! and she should stop! as for chewing the furniture, there are different chew preventors on the market and find one that smells nicer than others! as for toilet training, as soon as she has finished eating or has just woken up, lift her into the garden. put newspaper on in the garden (sounds silly, but it will make her wee there) and she should wee on it. gently walk her back to the house and then walk her to the garden again. she should know how to get to the garden. again, CONGRATULATIONS! and i hope you have a happy, healthy pup for a long time. for pet insurance, petplan is very good.

Answer 5

You definitely want to have this surgery done, but I'd get a second opinion. $3500 is a ripoff for a cruciate repair surgery. Sorry, hit submit but had more to add.

If you care for your dog perfectly after the surgery (restrict activity for 6-8 weeks, then only probationary activity for another couple months, your dog's cruciate will be better than new). In fact, most dogs who rupture one cruciate will rupture the other side (sorry to say it =/) but a quality cruciate repair for one knee should not cost more than $2000. (If in fact it's a luxated patella, then $3500 is about accurate per knee, but RACL is a totally different injury)

Also, shame on your breeder (no personoal offense), but they shouldn't be breeding dogs with weak knees. Please spay this dog so she doesnt pass on her weak ligaments.

Well technically in dogs it's called a RCCL - ruptured cranial cruciate ligament (ACL is the abbreviation in human anatomy) and if it is ruptured it most definitely will not heal on its own. It's a very painful injury and will cause severe complications if left unrepaired (which I'm sure you won't allow, and good for you. Many dog owners let their dogs limp the rest of their lives, and it's heartwrenching).

And like I said, be prepaired for the other side to rupture as well. Dogs with congenital weakness in these ligaments almost always blow the other side. But the good news is, once they're repaired it's unlikely she'll manage to injure them again. A reconstructed cruciate ligament, whether built from the tendon around it, or replaced with prolene suture, is stronger than even a normal knee ligament.

Also, it is a congenital defect, it's almost unheard of for a 2-month old to rupture the knee in this fashion, the ligaments aren't even fully developed at this age, and neither are the muscles, and the poor girl doesn't even weigh enough yet to put enough stress on it to break it if it were not defective to begin with. Also, our protocol for final DH2P vaccines ends with the 3rd vaccine at 14 weeks as well, and first rabies at 16 weeks. I think the answerer below has a different protocol at his place.

Answer 6

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