I too have been through this with one of my Labs. Honestly, it is my opinion that they do not heal on their own to where the dog won't continue to have problems and maybe become very disabled as they grow older. Especially in a dog over 40 pounds.

My page http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/darbydiary.html will run you through everything that we experienced after TPLO surgery. There is also a link there that helps you deal with an ACL surgery no matter which one you decide.

I decided to go with the TPLO over the traditional just because my Darby is very active and after reading all I could, I couldn't believe that the traditional surgery would hold. There have been success stories with the traditional, but I didn't think I would be one of them so opted for the TPLO. She had the surgery in January 2001. It was a remarkable recovery.

Here are some of the best ACL links I have found in my search for information:

Dr. Kerstetter's Just Labradors Magazine article May/June 2003

http://www.ovrs.com/info/cruciate.html

http://www.bestbeau.ca/bmd_health_links_7.htm#CLR

http://vetsurgerycentral.com/tplo.htm

http://lauriebryce.com/tplo

http://www.vetcentric.com

http://sacs.vetmed.ufl.edu/Lewis/Cross-CCL/

http://petsurgery.com/anteriorcruciaterupture.htm

http://www.southpaws.com/topics/cruciate.htm

http://www.newmanveterinary.com

http://www.rott-n-chatter.com:80/rottweilers/cruciate.html

http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns

http://www.vetcision.com/rcclrecommend.html

I would suggest you join the Ortho-dogs email list. I am no longer a member, but the folks there were so helpful and informative when I was going through this with Darby.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/orthodogs Good luck with this.