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Erin

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  1. Baxter is 7 1/2 years old. As a working cow dog, he's had his share of kicks, bumps and bruises. So when he would occasionally gimp around, we just wrote it off as the latest in the series. Until last week that is when he refused to climb the stairs. Of course that made red flags go up for my husband and I. That's when I started putting things together (the limping, the "bunny hopping" in the back, etc), did some 'net research and thought we probably had a classic example of hip dysplasia. It was nice that it had waited to so long to surface. Just took him to the vet this morning who tells me he thinks it's more likely to be a torn ACL. No, he didn't do x-rays because he said examing the hips he didn't really think there was anything at all back there that was wrong. Just the ACL. He mentioned that like people, dogs often will get a surgical repair for this, but that recovery was kind of questionable. He said he's known younger dogs that bounced back really well and older dogs that couldn't keep from just tearing it up again. Either way, there's only one vet in the area (100 miles away) that does surgeries like this. We're considering getting a second opinion from him (and our vet suggested we might want to do so). But, for now, we have him on aspirin and glucosamine/chondrointin supplements. Has anyone else dealt with this? What was the success of the surgery (or lack thereof)? Did they ever go back to work? It's not a terrible tragedy for *us* if he never works again (he's currently flopped on his back, half propped up against the couch with his nose wedged under it... sound asleep) but it always breaks Baxter's heart when my husband heads out on horseback without him. We were hoping to work him long enough to get a younger dog going, but if that's not to be, that's okay, too. Anyway, any thoughts or ideas are welcome! Thanks Erin
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