Lucy, a nine-year-old Border Terrier had been left lame by cruciate ligament damage in both her hind limbs, has bounced back brilliantly to lift a national agility title.
Keen competitor Lucy’s amazing achievement comes after expert care at Glasgow’s award-winning Pets'n'Vets Roundhouse Veterinary Hospital, where clinical director Ross Allan saved her competitive career by successfully operating to repair both knees.
Lucy’s thrilled owner, Lynda Kyle, from Glasgow, was quick to alert Ross and the Roundhouse team to the triumph, sending a photo and a message of gratitude and appreciation.
Lynda wrote to the team: “Lucy won the Tri Score British Team Championships a few weeks ago in the Canine Hoopers event that she loves. I thought you all might like to see her trophy, which is almost as big as her!
“She will never be the fastest dog but she is precise and with the metal in both her legs she runs her wee socks off and barks all the way round the course, loving it.
“This is a success story for TPLO, which helped her regain her agility and get her Hoopers life back. I’d love you to use Lucy and her story. She’s such a happy dog.”
Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy Surgery
TPLO is short for Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy, an advanced surgical procedure used to treat cruciate ligament rupture in the knee joints of dogs.
The operation involves changing the angle of the top of the shin bone – the tibial plateau, by performing an accurately positioned curved cut, rotating a portion of bone and stabilising it in a new position with specially designed plate and screws.
Ross said the TPLO is a relatively common procedure but recalls there was additional pressure with Lucy’s case as he and the Roundhouse team worked to ensure her impressive sporting career could continue.
He explained: “At Roundhouse, we deal with cruciate injuries every day and perform TPLO surgery to treat a wide range of patients of all ages, weights and activity levels, but it’s not every day we treat ‘elite athletes’ such as Lucy.
“She had suffered cruciate ligament injuries in both her knees and this was a serious threat to her sporting career, as a keen participant in canine agility.
“We decided that TPLO surgery was the best option for a rapid and reliable return of Lucy’s mobility and to give her the best chance of a successful return to what she loved doing best.
“We successfully performed TPLO on both knees and Lucy then underwent a dedicated rehabilitation programme to rebuild her strength and agility.
“It’s fantastic that she has recovered so well and the team were all so happy to learn she’s now won a national agility award.”
Lucy is not the only award winner, though, as the Referral team, which is part of all of our Pets’n’Vets practices across Glasgow, has this year received an ‘RCVS Knowledge’ Quality Improvement “Highly Commended” for our clinical audit project documenting TPLO outcomes and client satisfaction.
