cruciate

[lmmd]

I am curious as to how cruciate ligament damage is diagnosed. A friend with a 6 year old dog who has her hind leg up occasionally. The vet said they`d do an exploratory surgery, and correct the cruciate if it is damaged. Does this sound typical?

[Traci]

An experienced vet can make an educated guess upon the dog's symptoms, owner's description of complaint, exam, palpation and x-rays. An exploratory without a palpation and x-rays (or other diagnostics) is pushing it.

[davet]

just a guessa but i question an exploratroy to diagnose a cruciate tear...it is pretty simple to diagnose with out intervention, ie the sliding drawer syndrone is pretty diagnostic... and if one is going to explore, one might as well just do the surgery at that time......

[k9Karen]

I know Angel has an old injury that was diagnosed after I got her as a cruciate ligament tear. My vet spent several minutes palpating before determing that was the problem.

[lmmd]

Thanks for the ideas. It turns out they did a partial anaesthetic and Xray and decided it was a soft tissue injury and she is on glucosamine. I had the dog at my place for a few days at Christmas and saw no problems. This slight lameness is occasional - the owners have said..