Surgery for torn CCL in 31 pound dog?

I have a 31 pound, six-year-old beagle/Boston Terrier mix. Last weekend I came home and found him limping and holding his left rear leg up. I took him to the vet on Tuesday and was told that there was a 95% chance he tore his left rear CCL. Surgery estimates range from $1800-$4800, and I was told that he has a strong possibility of blowing out the right one within a couple of years. I scheduled him for surgery next week. But many people have asked me if the injury can heal on its own. My online browsing suggests that is very possible, especially for dogs under 33 pounds. I have noticed, especially in the last couple of days, that my dog is limping a little less, and is putting weight on the leg a little bit. Now I am completely conflicted. I want him to be healthy and healed. I spoke with a nurse friend whose dog healed naturally. I wanted to get the opinion of a vet with no financial stake in the matter. I have ordered him a leg brace - if I used that and limited his movements, does he have a decent chance of healing on his own? Thanks in advance.

Hello and thank you for this very specific question.  Thirty one pounds is about 14kg, a medium-sized dog.  I know that small dogs with a CCL tear will frequently do reasonably well with rest, adequate pain releif and weight loss (where required), so called 'conservative' (non surgical) treatment.  A researcher called Vasseur found that 85% small dogs with a cruciate rupture were found to be improved (about 10%) or clinically normal (75%) about three years after the injury.  However, just less than 20% big dogs got that sort of result after (an average follow up of) four years.  It is not the only study suggesting this sort of size-related trend. Your dog is also close to the pivot point between the two groups, which was around 15kg.  At six, a typical life expectancy for the breed would be in excess of another six years. Fauron and Perry, orthopaedic experts writing in the Veterinary Times in 2017, concluded that joint stablisation should always take place by preference with a view to reducing small movements at the joint and thereby reducing osteoarthritis later in life.  However, they said that lighter animals would be likely to retain a reasonable quality of life without surgery in the short term. As ever, the numbers game can be meaningless when conaidering the fate of one joint;  you do not want to know how the average dogs' knee would perform, but how your dogs' knee would perform.  To my current understanding, more dogs return to full fitness and do so more quickly, when surgery is performed.  I haven't explored the leg brace and don't use them; please ask your vets' opinion about this prior to using it, should you be tempted.  I hope that something there helps.

I note that Rachel Kenvyn, a surgical specialist, has written an excellent article about cruciate surgery in dogs which you'll find if you run a search for it in the blog.

Thank you so much for the helpful replies! I will look up that article now. Appreciate it!