My 4yo Labrador Retriever Hank recently (two weeks prior) underwent a Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy (TPLO) to repair the torn cruciate ligament in his back left knee. He gradually increased activity in the affected leg, but now seems as if his progress has halted. He’s very hesitant to put anymore weight on that leg. He won’t walk up a small step to get into my bedroom (this was the case before the surgery too). He moves around somewhat freely in the yard, but reverts to standing on three legs or doing a three-legged hop to move around at times. He has taken a bad step two to three times that resulted in a loud cry out. He must be coaxed to move around at all and appears to have developed a plum-sized seroma at surgery site of the infected knee. Could this be leading to the halt in activity/progress? He allows me to massage the muscles above and below the affected knee. We have also been doing some range of motion exercises on both legs.

Seroma?: He allows me to touch it and it is soft to the touch. It feels like a water balloon filled with a slightly more viscous fluid. It is directly above the incision site and the fluid appears to rest directly on top of the knee joint. Per vet recommendation, I discontinued the use of Rimadyl to try to reduce the size of the seroma.

Other symptoms: Licking at the base of tail to the point of seeing some blood in his fur. Excessive licking of the blanket he sleeps on.

My dog Sira had a cruciate ligament tear of the right knee and had ACL done with complete meniscectomy on 1/21/15. After 2 months the knee felt swollen and all of a sudden there was a blister that broke open and release a LOT of almost clear fluid and the “swelling” was gone. The little blister wound healed but after 6 weeks swelling/fluid on the outside of the knee joint and the little cap opened up and again fluid oozing out. The vet examined the fluid, even cultured it and there was some inflammation but no infection. For almost 2 weeks the knee looked better, skin color was pink but all of a sudden this changed. The skin looked darker with every hour, turning purplish and again fluid collected under the skin. Again to the vet who tried to drain the fluid out with a syringe but with not much success. The fluid had become more bloody. My dog was put on previcox and baytril. But again after it looked better for a while one morning the certain (blister) spot looked a bit different and 5 hours later it was blueish – pink marbled and 5 more hours later it broke open and again this viscous discharge. What is the cause? Could it be an allergic reaction to the nylon line or the stainless steel crimps that were used for the ACL? How likely is this? I got the recommendation from another vet whom I consulted while the surgeon was on vacation to have the nylon line and metal crimps removed and hopefully enough scar tissue has developed by now so that the knee is stabilized by it. I have spend now close to $3000 on exams, surgery and meds. To remove all that what has been put in to stabilize the knee joint seems like a waste but what good does it do if it doesn’t heal? I cannot let it go on like that and risk an infection of the knee, can I? Has someone seen such a reaction after an ACL surgery? Does this look like an allergic reaction? Is removing the lines and crimps the right next step?