Well friends, it’s official, it sucks getting old. As of this writing I am around 13.5 years old – pretty old for a large dog. Overall, I have been a very healthy pup, very few issues or illness. However, earlier this year my age started catching up to me.

It started out simple enough with a slight limp on my right hind leg. Mom figured arthritis and she was correct, but that was only the start. Turns out I probably had a partial tear in my CCL as well. Even with medication, my limp wasn’t improving, in fact, it go worse. That lead to mom doing tons of research on CCL injuries. Of course lots of information was about surgical options. Mom really didn’t want to go that route due to my age and the recovery time involved.

She finally came across “conservative management” options. This was all about supplements, braces, limiting actives, etc. This sounded like a good option. Thus, I got a brace for my injured leg. I wore it some and it did seem to help but getting it adjusted for a perfect fit was difficult.

After about 3 months, I was getting around good. Still had a little bit of a limp, but it wasn’t to too bad. Unfortunately my other leg had been taking a lot of extra abuse to compensate for the injury to the first leg. This lead to me blowing out my other knee! Now I was really in a pickle!

Mom bumped up my medications (she had been weaning me off of some) and kept adding to my supplements. It took about a month, but I’m able to walk again – but I still have a noticeable limp. Mom says if we can keep making improvements and avoid any additional injuries to my hind legs… well, I might just be almost as good as “new” in another 6-12 months. I know that sounds like a long time, but it will be worth it! Right now, I am enjoying being pampered.