Knee deep, you said very few of these tears are injuries. This is not what I've heard from the veterinary medical profession within my husband's family. His brother and cousin are both veterinary specialists.

Can you elaborate where you got this information? It is my understanding that especially in younger dogs, 18 mo. or under are almost always strictly injuries due to lack of full maturity in the larger breeds. In dogs that are older and fully mature, it can be either an injury, a defective knee or both causing a CCL tear.

Can you send me where you read or heard this information? I prefer keeping up with the medical or non-medical problems within the dog I'm breeding for 25 years. TY.

How old is your Lab with suspicion of a tear and what's wrong with the dog that makes you suspect it? Is it a youngster or mid to older age? There are differences in treatment going by age also.

I have a girl who had a partial tear from an injury with another dog. Our home is three stories we walk stairs to the street level we walk stairs to the yard level. Surgery was not an option for us. We went the conservative route limited her activity but because of our stairs not as much as the vet would have like. We also added a collagen suppliment to her diet that I had started taking. We had nothing to lose and figured we would live with a happy yet gimpy dog for the rest of her life that we would eventually have to pain manage.

The collagen was the only difference for both her and I. We both started taking it about a year and a half ago. Both her tear healed and my cronic cyst absorbed. The vet was shocked at how well and clean her tear has healed when we xrayed her recently. My cyst had been surgically removed years ago and clamped my ortho said it would always be a reoccuring problem that I'd have to learn to live with. The pain was at times unbearable. I have been cyst free for a year and my girl has been sound for that same time frame.

A friend has also recently started using Collagen on her Dysplastic dog that was having troubles getting up from lying down. She also has seen marked improvement in just a few weeks of use.

It may not be a cure all but it couldn't hurt. I know personally how much Collagen has helped me.

http://www.youtheory.com/collagen-advanced/

This is the product I used two tablets a day far less than the reccomended dose. I also give my Girl 2 a day she crunches the down like candy. The other dogs get 1 a day because they started to get jealous.

I now have a doggy pack in my bathroom with me everytime I open up the medicine cabinent. LOL.

Again I do not recommend this over sound Veterinary Advice. It just worked miracles for us after we explored our options.

Good Luck :)

In addition to rest, I would use a custom fitted brace to help with joint stability.
__________________________________


Evaluation of fibular head transposition, lateral fabellar suture, and conservative treatment of cranial cruciate ligament rupture in large dogs: a retrospective study
AE Chauvet, AL Johnson, GJ Pijanowski, L Homco and RD Smith

Abstract

Sixty-one large dogs (weighing 22.7 kg or more) with cranial cruciate ligament ruptures (CCLRs) were treated with either fibular head transpositions (FHTs; n = 22 stifles), lateral fabellar sutures (LFSs; n = 39 stifles), or conservatively (CT; n = 11 stifles) with rest and aspirin. Based on owner evaluation, dogs treated with FHTs or CT did not perform as well as dogs treated with LFSs (p less than 0.05). There was no difference in owner evaluation scores for the dogs treated with FHTs or CT. Thirty dogs were reevaluated by investigators. No differences between treatment groups regarding age, sex, or time until diagnosis were noted. No differences in scores for lameness, stifle instability, or forceplate analysis among the treatment groups were observed. Degenerative joint disease progressed or remained severe regardless of treatment, based upon radiographic evidence.