Dr. Lera Clone walks through how vets diagnose torn ACLs in dogs using a bulldog named Tony as an example. A physical exam might miss partial tears because pain hides during handling, and X-rays only show inflammation, not the torn ligament itself. MRI or arthroscopy gives a definitive answer, and owners should never give human pain meds without asking their vet first.
Questions this video answers
3–4 year-old neutered male English bulldog.
Ibuprofen (Advil) and aspirin (including baby aspirin) without veterinary guidance.
MRI, arthroscopic scoping, or a positive drawer test.
X-rays cannot identify a torn ligament but can show inflammation or intracapsular effusion suggestive of a torn ACL.
Chapters
Hey guys, My name is Dr. Lehrer here at Heron Lakes Animal Hospital. Today I'm here with Tony. Tony is a three or four year old male neutered English bulldog. And Tony was coming in today because he was having some lameness or limping on his back leg. Now, whenever I have a larger dog, anything over £50 I consider larger. Whenever I have a larger dog that's limping on the back leg, one of the biggest concerns that's fixable or manageable that comes to mind is a potential ACL or we call it a cranial cruciate ligament. And so when you're bringing your dog to the vet, it's really important, as I mentioned before, you want to go ahead and make sure that you have a good relationship with your doc. So that way if you're at home and you want to try, try to provide some sort of pain relief that you don't administer any sort of drugs like ibuprofen, Advil, those are the same thing, or aspirin. Texas A and M vet school is really big on GI and they do not recommend giving baby aspirin unless it is for some sort of anti clotting thing because they think that even buffered aspirin can sometimes cause pinpoint ulcers. So mom came in, he was pretty much completely resolved. We did the exam on him and he weren't able to elicit any sort of pain. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't have anything going on. It is very possible a that while he's here he's a little nervous, which I don't think is the case with him. As you can see, he's just laying down. He is not sedated and that can cause his cortisol levels to go up or his adrenaline to go up. And if that does, that will start to minimize the amount of pain he experiences after the visit. Today mom may even notice or you might notice on your pets after an orthopedic exam, then maybe they're limping more so after the visit because of all the manipulation of the joint, it is best to bring your pet to the vet for some sort of limping while they are painful because then it'll be easier for the vet to find what the problem is. Now if he does have a torn ACL or a partially torn ACL in this case, I don't think he has a completely torn acl. If he does have a partially torn, he can have a little episode of pain and then he'll get better. And then what will happen is you'll notice another episode of pain. And so sometimes those little subtle changes in the joint are more difficult for a general practitioner such as myself to identify. So usually what we do is we incorporate a number of different experts on our team who are able to go ahead and identify those subtle changes in the joint. X rays will not identify a joint torn ligament, but they can show some inflammation or intracapsular effusion in that joint, which can be suggestive of a torn acl. Again, not diagnostic. The only way that you're going to diagnose it is either by an mri, scoping or if he has what's called the drawer. Okay, so my recommendation to you guys and take home is if you bring your pet to the vet and whatever it is goes away, it doesn't necessarily mean that they don't have something going on. It means that there is the possibility that you have to keep an eye on them for the next few months and keep in mind whatever it is that was happening in the past. So that way when you go back to your vet, you can go ahead and tell them, hey, this particular event happened and then he started having those particular symptoms again. If you guys have any questions about this particular video, leave it in the comment. If you found it helpful, give us a thumbs up. Subscribe and share. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
