Backstory:
Tia came to us 3 years ago, as a rescue. In the spring she started limping. In the beginning it seemed that it was the usual I stepped wrong and now my paw hurts for a few days. It wasn't getting better, so after a few days we had a physiotherapist look at her and her diagnosis was a raptured cranial cruciate ligament. It means the knee joint doesn't hold together, but freely slides the top over the bottom part. So she went to a surgery, we shelled 5000Eur for it and started rehabilitating. The operation is (very simplified) cutting the bottom knee bone off and screwing it back in flat angle with titanium plate, so two parts don't slide on each other.
It didn't seem painful, she was high for the first day on painkillers and from the second day the fentanyl patch she got started working. It is a genetic condition, you can't do anything else with it, other than the operation. She was getting better, but after some weeks started to limp on the second knee.
The thing with this is, the second one goes out within a year usually within one year. So we started Gofundme ( link ), as it was a tough year, from Velho partially ripping his Achilles tendon, puppy eating 3 stones afterwards following her mom getting stomach torsion randomly while being in her doghouse, at 2am, Tia having her surgery and now the second one. We're now about 25000Eur in. We saved everyone, so that is awesome.
People sometimes think that it is weird we live quite modestly, but this is the reason. We never had so much happening at the same time, usually we have something little bigger every couple years, but not this big and not so much within half year

Wishing Tia a speedy recovery, and you an unexpected and sizable windfall of some sort.

Thank you 😊

Dogs recovering from anesthesia always look so vulnerable and helpless. Please cuddle her a lot and give her some warmth.

I'm so glad you are in a position to care for your babies. All of my love for Tia and a speedy recovery.

My older dog also tore her CCL in Feb of 2025, and we are terrified that she will tear the other side. We've since kept the dog door locked so she can't race through it, have other obstacles around the house so she has to move more slowly, and built a ramp to go down into the yard so it's more gentle than the stairs. Now she's got a bunch of GI issues so she can't have the good meds if she tears the other side.

I have a bad feeling this is exactly what is going on with my dog. He's only 1, but the symptoms line up. We just had x-rays done yesterday and we're waiting to find out.

The operations are routine thing now. Just expensive. My advice is: if it is TPLO, do the operation as soon as possible and have your dog on Metacam based medicine before the operation. As the joint rubs, there will be arthritis. Tia's first knee had little arthritis. The second knee, due to necessity to wait after the first operation and her having to use it after the first operation, looks bad. The surgeon said that it was quite destroyed. She should be fine, but it's definitely not great.

If we don't have the money, we sell stuff. If it is something that can't wait for a better situation, we go for it at any cost.