Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) Partial Tear Update

It's been two years since Zio was preliminarily diagnosed with a partial CCL tear by my (ex)vet.  A friend referred me to a forum group that discusses dogs with orthopedic issues.  I also did a lot of research online to consider available options.  Everyone seemed eager to jump to the conclusion that immediate surgery (knee reconstruction) was the best solution.  I did get a referral from my vet to the leading orthopedic surgeon here in Oklahoma City, but I never felt completely comfortable with the diagnosis.  Without exploratory surgery, I think it would be extremely difficult to diagnose a partial tear by manipulation alone.  He was never reactionary with manipulation or pressure.  The non-weight bearing limp can indicated that the bones are slipping and causing friction if the CCL is torn. With a partial tear, there probably wouldn't be any slipping though.

I mentioned the situation to my personal doctor during my annual physical and he thought it was crazy to consider reconstructive surgery on a partial tear.  He said they would never consider that a solution on a human patient. 

I decided to go with six weeks of rest and ordered some Joint Strong supplement powder.  We did very short walks around the block initially every other day (off leash, since he thinks he's a sled dog on leash).  We gradually built that up until he was going about a mile.  The limp disappeared after the first five days.  He began practicing again after two months and I've kept him on Joint Strong for the last two years.   He is now running his fastest times ever and I'm very glad we didn't just go with the majority opinion and do major knee reconstruction. 

My recommendation if you find yourself in the same boat?  Don't believe the "surgery is the solution" crowd on a suspected partial tear.  Do your own research and see what feels comfortable.  Ask about non-surgical options.  The vet that referred me to the orthopedic surgeon is not my vet any more, but for a different reason though.  I should have sought a second opinion, but it worked out well!

A Personal Best on the Clock

Zio was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself, at last weekend's Spring Fever tournament hosted by Hyperflight!  He ran more 3.9 second runs than I kept track of Saturday running into Lucy and I'm pretty sure one of them was a 3.91, which would top his previous personal best of 3.94.  Many of these 3.9 second runs with pass, were in the 3.8 range wire to wire.  I'll analyze the video at some point to annotate it officially here!  ;)

We switched the line up around on Sunday and he was passing into Teegan.  Lucy is very easy to pass into with her consistent turn and recall.  Teegan is green and fairly rough with his turn, including several return trips outside of the jumps when he turned wide and took the direct path back to "mom".  Needless to say I played it more cautious with Zio's passing.  Toward the end, I started trying to get the timing a little closer and dialed the passing in to a moderately comfortable pass, but far from tight.  

He now has 29,915 U-Fli points as he closes in on his next title of TFFC -III at 31,000 points.  Border Staffy sister Luna gave me my first perfect start! She was running for the first time this year after she broke her toe in January chasing a ball in the backyard!  She ran on the "B" team as start dog and ran pretty good considering it was her first time in the lanes in over six months. 

Bark For Life Demo, Midwest City

We had fun doing a Bark for Life demo to support cancer research last weekend.  We did some flyball demonstrations and then threw some frisbees.  It was getting fairly warm, so we tried not to over extend them.  Here are a few pictures of Zio's box turn during the event... with props of course!

 

Groovin' in Grove VI

We had a pretty fun weekend of racing, despite being somewhat shorthanded on teammates.  Luna was held out again, so we fielded a mixed lineup on one team.  Lucy, Zio, and Maverick started out on fire, with Lucy posting her first sub-four second run in the first race.  The first three dogs were running in with a total time in the 12.3 range.  With a 4.5 second dog running anchor, we could have easily been in the 16's.  As it was, Newman did a good job of filling in on No Fear and helping to build Maverick's confidence passing another dog.  I know Becca would have liked to post great times for Newman, but she followed the plan and gave Maverick an entire weekend of wider passes.

Zio had a few runs in the 3.9's, but we didn't have Amanda as our pass caller, so we were winging it or using the naked eye to estimate passing.  He was pretty sore Saturday night, so I'm hoping some of the up and coming dogs progress enough to enable substitutions for Zio and Maverick.

First 2014 Post!

I guess I've really slacked off on keeping this updated.  To catch up from the last post in October, Zio had another great tournament in November.  Lucy was back to being the start dog and Zio ran even more 3.9 second runs than he did in October.  I'm pretty sure that one was his best time on the clock with a 3.94, but I know he's running 3.8's line to line.

Over the previous winter, Zio had put on excess weight due to inactivity and a change to a different dog food with more protein.  He probably started racing in 2013 at a weight between 50 to 51 pounds.  By the end of 2013, he had slimmed down to a weight closer to 46 lbs and I really think that made a big difference in his times.

This year, I cut back his winter food intake when we can't be active and he's been around 45 lbs, which I think is a good weight for him.  The first tournament last month had him running consistent 4.0's with 3-4 ft passes, so definitely 3.9's line to line.  I don't think he had the stamina this early in the season, but he should get stronger as the year progresses and we can get out more.  I was struggling with the flu during the tournament, so didn't get to race him on Sunday.  John filled in and it sounds like Zio ran good for him. The team ran good overall on Saturday with Lucy, Zio, and Mav all running 4.0's on occasion.  We ran a best of 17.3 despite not having Luna running with her broken toe.  Sunday's best was a 17.29 with Teegan running fourth, but we'll have to work with him running team some more.  I'm looking forward to running in Grove and seeing how we do!