If you follow this blog, then you know that Tex tore the dog equivalent of his ACL back at the beginning of the bird season. The poor dog had to miss October through the middle of December. He recovered well and here are some pictures of his return to hunting fields.
Tex is ready to hunt!
Happy to be back in the field!
Notice the hen quail in the center of the picture.
Oak loves the bird hunting! He is turning out to be an outstanding bird dog.
Teaching the kids.
Point.
Snowy quail
Photogenic “Oak”
After the TPLO surgery and 12 long weeks of rehab, Tex is as good as new.
It really is amazing surgery. His rear left seems to give him no trouble and he was back to cruising the fields. Then in early January, less than a month after recovery, he blew out his other ACL! The doctor warned that when one goes there is a 50% chance that the same thing will happen to the other knee. So I guess we are just extra lucky. This season is pretty much a total loss for old Tex. The good thing is that he is out of knees to wreck so he should be in tip top shape for next year!
This is what an $8,000 dog looks like.
Next year is going to be awesome, hunting with my bionic dog!
Birdhunter 
Happy to hear Tex is on the mend. Its a great blog & hate to see Tex’s profile diminish.
My lab blew out her CCL last June & yeah; $4K later I was warned the other knee was likely to go. Our dilemma is she’s 11 (so retired from field work but I want her to have a comfortable retirement). I write because I’m curious about the cause of Tex’s first blown out knee. Among my retriever friends whose dogs have blown their CCL, the common denominator seems to be female, spayed at a very early age. We can’t recall a single male retriever in our club that’s blown a CCL. Among the females, only those spade before their first two cycles seem to suffer from a blown CCL. The conclusion we draw is that hormone production affects the ligament growth of the knee and early spay interrupts production.
So, knowing if Tex blew out his knee pulling one extreme athletic move too many, stepping into a hidden gopher hole or, was neutered early will further inform my future decision making.
Thank you for your thoughts on this … Alan
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Hi Alan, Tex is a male and was neutered before he was a year old, I think. The was no obvious reason for either failure. The vet says it just happens. My theory is that since Tex is a huge Shorthair at 90 lbs there was just too much stress on the ACL. I am just glad he is out of knees since I am out of cash! I am not sure I would have done this if he didn’t have 5 or more good hunting years left. Thank you for visiting the Birdhunter!