torn ACL

I have a three year old Jack Russell mix. He has played with a dog we got from the shelter when he was just a pup and at the time thw same size. For the last year and a half that have played nonstop. I noticed a couple weeks ago he was carrying his right rear leg up a sleep walking on three legs. I took him in and was told he had a torn ACL. From what I've heard it's a $3000 operation, but I have seen an alternative; a fitted brace. Does anyone have any experience or thoughts on the topic?

IIRC, there are a couple of members here who had a similar issue with their pups and they took a different route than surgery, you might want to try searching the site to see if you can find their posts.

I am one that had a dog with a torn ACL. Or supposedly it was a torn ACL.
We could not afford surgery so I researched and found a site that told how to help it heal without surgery.

Here is a link to the thread I started on Zoee.
http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthre...&highlight=ACL

And here is the website I referenced.
http://tiggerpoz.com/

This required us to leave Zoee at my moms house so she was under 24 hour supervision (since my parents are retired) for an entire year.
After that year she would still have times that she would limp. However, now that I'm thinking about it, right up until we just lost her last September she was not limping at all!
She was getting older and had other aches and pains. But that leg was not bothering her anymore.

Good luck!!!