I have a dog with a ruptered cranial cruciate ligament in her left rear leg. Any suggestions?

I have tried the restricted activity thing for two months--thought she was doing better--but then a setback. Any info as to experiences with surgery would be appreciated.

My dog had surgery at 2 1/2yrs for this,she had a full replacement, she had to wear a cone to stop her chewing the stiches, but she hasn't had any problems with her leg since the operation.

My Boston had that. Here in California I paid about $1,500 for the surgery, but my vet is pretty expensive. He has a scar on the inside of the leg which no one notices it at all. Some vets do it from the outside of the leg too. I had to keep him in a crate for two weeks with short walk just to do his business. On the third week, he started to use the leg to walk on. By 6 weeks after the surgery, he was good as new. I do try to keep his jumping down and My son built some stairs for him to get up on the bed with. Oh, he never seemed to be in pain, but at first I did have pain pills to give him. She'll be ok.

There are two groups at Yahoo you should join. They have multiple moderators, most of who are professionals in the vet care industry. Conservative Management is what you have been doing. Talk to them and see if there is anything else you can do. The alternative to Conservative Management is surgery. For ACL and CCL injuries there are 3 basic types of surgery:1) Traditional - the torn ligament MUST be removed. It's replaced with a synthetic one.2) TPLO - a piece of the top of the lower leg bone is cut and repositioned so the two bones meet correctly. A metal plate holds the bones in place to ensure they grow together in the right position so the dog can run and walk normally.3) TTA - basically the same type surgery as #2, but the cut is different and the positioning is different, and the metal plate is different. (this is the newer of these two surgeries.)What I found by going through TPLO surgery with my Great Pyrenees was that, if the dog is young, and very active, and in good health, the entire experience can go very smoothly as it did for us. My dog is now 2 years + post-op and a very happy, active guardian dog. Traditional surgery costs about half of what the other two surgeries cost. The whole experience is usually really scary, but the Orthodogs group is wonderfully supportive and helpful. It's a hard decision if the dog is really young, not of adult age, or if the dog is really old for it's breed. Then the question becomes quite difficult to decide what to do. Join these two groups and use their expertise and help.If you are not comfortable with your vet's suggestions, get a second opinion. If you want to follow my dog's story, look in their message archives from Oct, 2005 through January, 2006 for Pepper, Great Pyrenees. You didn't say what breed your dog is, so I can't add some things as they might not apply.