My 6 year old husky/shepherd mix tore her CCL (it is called a canine cruciate ligament in dogs, not ACL like a human) on January 5th, 2015. We opted for conservative care versus surgical after I extensively researched all options. Even with surgery, they have up to 40% chance of having arthritis in the stifle (knee joint). That is about the same as the odds of having it without surgery. Also, surgery so restricts their movement that often, up to 30-40% of dogs have the same injury happen to the other leg. I found that number to be much less with conservative care. She is just over 8 weeks out and walks on four legs fine at a slow speed. We never crated her, just restricted her movement. No jumping or running. (she had a setback once when some idiot let her out of her pole barn and she ran a bit....set us back a bit, but not much). She walks up to 15 minutes at a time on all four legs with her A-Trac Brace which I bought for her. Almost full pressure on injured leg. We walk her with the brace 1 time per day and give her 3 other walks without out it for about 5 minutes each. When she speeds up she does life the leg UNLESS she is on a mission (smells a rabbit or something along those lines). I know it will take many more months before she will full on using the leg 100% of the time and from here on out, we will restrict her running unless she is wearing the brace. But I guess the point I am making is that you can heal them without surgery. My vet is very impressed at the healing she has had. In fact he suggested surgery right away and I told him I was going to try the conservative treatment. He checked her at 4 weeks and was astonished at her level of healing. She was on pain meds for a couple weeks and also Meloxicam (anti-inflammatory) which she is still on, along with a supplement. I also give her organic bone broth with each meal (known to help with joints) and she gets lots of natural healing including Reiki energy healing and work with stones and crystals. She is doing wonderful. I know it is a long process and I am willing to work through it for her benefit.

We almost lost our 15 month old Cockapoo and we fear it was due to this drug 'Metacam'. We brought our dog to the vet with a slightly sore paw, nothing we were overly concerned about as he was putting weight on the foot and in good spirits. Reluctantly we agreed to our dog being given an antibiotic and an injection of Metacam (we felt this was a bit unnecessary but we trusted the vets opinion and that we were doing the best for our dog). That same day the dog was groggy and lethargic. By that same night our dog was groaning with pain so we gave him half a painkiller prescribed by the vet. The next morning our poor dog couldn't move, he lay unresponsive and couldn't lift his body weight upright. He wasn't eating or drinking a thing! If we touched any part of his body he was in severe pain. Our dog is very energetic with a great appetite and we were very worried! We returned to the vet and found our dog was running a very high temperature. The vet was adamant that this was as a result of his sore paw and possible bone infection and was very critical of the dog breed. Our dog was kept in over night and medicated with paracetamol and an IV antibiotic. Within 24hours our dog was returning to normal. The vet insisted we do an x-ray and nothing showed up. Thankfully we were able to discharge our pet after two nights but found the vet very reluctant to talk about what and how much medication he had prescribed our dog. We have no way to ever know for sure the reason our dog fell unresponsive within a couple of hours but we can't shake the feeling that it has a strong connection with the Metacam he was administered on first meeting the vet. We have also noticed our dog's weight is not correct on his medication label - it is double his weight! Finally, when leaving the vet practice with the prescribed medications, the vet had to call us back as he has prescribed double painkiller doses. The vet carried out a blood test without our knowledge and still has not disclosed the result of this blood test. When asked to discuss our concerns the vet became extremely defensive and condescending towards us. We would love to put our minds at ease and find out if any other dog owners experienced this reaction to Metacam or if it sounds like a over dosage of Metacam?

Don't ever give your dogs human painkillers without consulting with your vet first! They can be toxic and extremely dangerous for dogs. Besides there are so many painkillers and anti-inflammatories on the market that are especially for dogs. Why don't you look into them before just giving your dog a human advil? Also if your dog is limping, it could be a sign of a torn ACL and that's a serious issue that needs to be treated and looked at by a medical professional! If you just give your dog a pain killer and try to mask the pain, what you may very well end up doing is making the problem worse and creating further complications down the line. My dog tore her ACL and it was a long recovery process (without surgery). We give her this Inflamex all natural anti-inflammatory for dogs from the online store ortocanis and we also use their knee brace for dogs, during her recovery as well as after she recovered to give her that added bit of stability to her knee. While doing your research into products for dogs if they're experimenting pain and mobility problems is a good way to go, nothing is going to to substitute the opinion and diagnosis of your vet. That's where you really need to start.

I second the small size Salon Pas patches. Although I prefer the ones without Lidocaine. I think they operate more as an acu-pressure point than anything for me. I can put lotions with the same ingredients on and they do little. I tried the larger size and the hot type and they did little for my hip pain. The mention of the knot now has me wondering if that is what the massage therapist's grabbing, lifting slightly, then rotating the butt cheek on the side of my hip that hurts as the last thing that was done was for. At the immediate time I was "what the" but I realized that the pain that was still there immediately after the massage was gone by the time I returned home. The shop has closed down so I will need to find another place when things are safer.