This Joint Problem Makes Dogs, Owners, Weak In the Knees:
Being an athlete is a well-known risk factor for cruciate-ligament injury. A larger — but lesser-known — risk factor is being a dog. The number of dog knees undergoing cruciate-ligament repair each year in America is estimated to now exceed 1.2 million. That’s about five times the number of human procedures — even though humans outnumber dogs in the U.S. by nearly five to one. And it’s not as though dogs have more knees: The joint on their front legs are elbows that aren’t vulnerable to the problem.
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A November article in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association estimated that Americans spent $1.32 billion to fix dog knees in 2003.