re: Labrador ACL/CCL Tear

About 11 years ago had a similar situation with a 14 month old lab. She jumped out of the back window of my F250 on our duck lease while I was doing about 5 miles an hour to go after a herd of cows. At any rate, after limping around for a few days vet gave me the news. Ended up taking her to Texas A&M vet clinic for TPLO surgery. Ran me about $2800 or so. She was young and the suture technique was unlikely to hold up on a young dog, they are just too active and jump too hard. I hunted 3-4 days a week so she was very active in rice fields.

Worst part about TPLO is you have to confine the hell out of your dog for 4-5 months. Talking a small pen that is too low for them to jump in. We had a 24" x 48" x 36" tall cage in the house. She could only come out to eat and go outside on a leash. Bone has to have time to heal or the TPLO surgery is shot.

Went through it and she was fine for the next 8 years and then started having some arthritis in that leg which is normal.

For a 9 year old "non-working" dog I would think the TPLO surgery would be hard on them and not something really needed. Suture would be my recommendation and I am not factoring in cost.