We all know the adage that you can’t teach an old dog a new trick.  However, advances in treatment for canine knee injuries in recent years have shown that rethinking – and reshaping – how the knee works actually results in better outcomes than the older approach of trying to restore the same movements in the knee that existed prior to the injury.

Knee injuries are pretty common amongst sportspeople, and we often hear about athletes tearing their ACL – the Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Damage to the same ligament happens in dogs, but because they walk on all fours the injured ligament is described as the Cranial Cruciate Ligament – CCL. Following a CCL tear the knee is swollen, painful, and somewhat unstable. It is one of the most common orthopedic conditions we see in dogs at Canada West.

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Patient with a cruciate injury before surgery

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