Post-op CCL Observations from the Front Line

[lehughes]

Hey guys!

I received a lot of positive feedback from last week's blog post:
https://www.fourleg.com/Blog/446/Post-O ... front-line

So I wanted to share some of the comments here. Please feel free to comment below as well!

Omg excellent blog! It is so true the tplo’s that sit and lie with that little extra external rotation for so long. I still think theres just a little inflammation within the stifle that prevents the perfect straight sit. I have often wondered if it just didn't get the most perfect angulation post surgery. And I usually find I have to do double the ilio stretches on these guys. I am also convinced they got an ilio strain at the time of injury. And then the factor or how long from injury to repair. And acute vs chronic tears. So interesting.

The other thing I see is the si jts in fho’s. So many just cant keep the si as level as desired making that leg even shorter. And others do. Its crazy. I cant put my finger on it but think maybe when muscles are reattached it makes a difference exactly where! Totally fascinating.

Thanks again for a great blog!

SL

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Couldn’t agree with you more! We need more sport specific exercises for return to sport for ANY injury. Time and time again I see clients come to me following a rehab course. They returned to sport and got re injured again quickly. Cookie cutter rehab without progressive return to sport exercises is not beneficial to the sporting or active dog. We should be stressing the injured tissues while mimicking various sport movements to determine if the new found challenges will cause any hiccups. This way, one can return to sport knowing their dog is physically prepared for the challenges of their sports. We need more exercises focussing on three planes of motion!! Definitely a gap out there. Given that I work with primarily athletes this is so critical to successful return to sport! And the sport exercises are so fun and give us a lot of knowledge with how much the dog can handle! Great blog Laurie.
CM

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Absolutely love this post!!! I am on a mission to show that UWT should NOT be used when rehabbing CCL surgeries because it actually does not load the muscles and joints, and without loading the joint we can’t retrain the brain to put full weight on that leg again! I just saw a patient at 14-weeks post-TTA still with significant muscle atrophy after doing 12 weeks of very intense UWT (up to 30 minutes on incline at 1.5mph). The last phase of our CCL rehab program includes all sorts of high impact activities, even though we don’t see canine athletes, so we can be confident releasing them to playing off leash again. And, before we get to that later stage we build a lot of strength focusing on land-based exercises only. Great job on this blog post!!!
FM