18/12/2023
🩺 Eastside Veterinary Clinic Case Series - Archie 🐶
This sweet face is Archie. He came to us in October for a long-standing history of off and on lameness in his left leg, which had progressed to more substantial lameness over the two weeks before he presented to us. Archie had had cruciate surgery on his right leg four years ago.
We performed xrays and careful examination under anaesthesia and established that Archie had ruptured the cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left leg. He then had orthopaedic surgery to reconstruct his left knee. In this operation, he had a TPLO (tibial plateau levelling osteotomy) performed by our surgeon, Dr Alex Harrison, and he also had a torn meniscus dealt with in the same operation.🧑⚕️
This operation involves cutting the bone and reshaping the forces in the knee joint so that the cruciate ligament becomes obsolete. Traditional surgical techniques such as ligament reconstruction in people have high failure rates in dogs, and so the TPLO is considered the gold standard worldwide for cruciate injury in dogs. Archie has to be strictly rested for 8 weeks after surgery while the bone heals, but his function and comfort are already vastly improved and he is off all pain killers.
Within two weeks, Archie was walking much better than he had in years. After he was cleared by Dr Alex, he was then able to commence hydrotherapy. As you can see, he is enjoying his second session on Eastside's underwater treadmill, and he is regaining his muscle mass by the week. Archie's owner feels that he has a new lease in life that he has not had for a very long time. 🧡
We are proud to be able to offer a full service for patients like Archie - from diagnosis, through to surgery, and post-operative rehabilitation. We are one of only 4 clinics in Adelaide that have an underwater treadmill on site and we accept hydrotherapy referrals from all of Adelaide, as well as our own patients.
For any enquiries about our services or rehabilitation facilities, please give our friendly team on (08) 8379 0222 ☎️
