How did my dog damage a cruciate ligament and why does it cause limping?
The damage most likely occurred by jumping and landing badly. It is a common injury in the knees of footballers for this reason. Occasionally, the injury can occur by overextension of the knee, for example by the hind leg stepping down into a hole while the dog is running. Either way it causes partial or complete tearing or sometimes just stretching of the cruciate ligament. This causes the joint surfaces inside the knee to rub against each other instead of rolling along each other. The rubbing causes pain when putting weight on the injured leg. Are there certain things which make some dogs more likely to have this kind of injury? Probably the biggest risk factor is excess weight as this puts these ligaments under greater strain, especially in very active dogs. Dogs that do a lot of jumping, for example catching balls, are also more prone to injury. There is also a lot of evidence to suggest that a previous, sometimes minor, injury of the knee can cause a degenerative change which weak
