I brought my performance borzoi with a torn CCL to Dr. Acker, on a
strong recommendation. I understood that Dr. Acker specialized in field
dogs, but he knew nothing about the coursing my dog did and had not done a running dog before, as it turned out. Dr. Acker gave a presentation that was mainly about himself and had very little to do with my dog. He was resistant to answering my questions. His main concern seemed to be telling us about how wealthy his clients were, how they arrived in private jets, etc. He showed a presentation of a total hip replacement, and repeated, "Eight thousand dollars, eight thousand dollars..." He had a lot of time to talk about that, but very
little time to talk about my dog. My dog was there for knee surgery, not a hip replacement. I drove 9 hours to get there. My dog's surgery was on March 23, 2014. She never recovered well from the surgery. Because she was still extremely lame on the leg at 6 weeks post surgery, despite our carefully following complete restrictions on activity, I got a second opinion, from a mobile canine knee surgeon who travels and was in my area. He thought the TPLO was over-rotated and misaligned. He also found the plate to be too large. The mobile surgeon called Dr. Acker, who yelled at him. Dr. Acker wanted me to wait 6 months post-op, and do PT, so I did this. My girl was still lame. I went to a board certified surgeon in Seattle for another opinion. Dr. Acker is not board certified. The surgeon in Seattle found the same problems with the surgery at 6 months that the mobile knee surgeon had found at 6 weeks out. The tibial plateau is over-rotated because Dr. Acker measured her tibial plateau angle incorrectly. And the bones were not aligned properly before they were plated, which causes her leg to kick out the the side. Both of these surgeons found the plate to be too big. With the board certified surgeon, I had the plate removed in Oct 2014. Now we are 3 months post plate removal and planning a correction of the TPLO surgery in Feb 2015. This will be to correct the over-rotation and to correct the bone alignment. Dr. Acker charged $2,400, which was a low price for a TPLO. However, with the plate removal, several sets of x-rays, and PT, I have now spent over $8,000 on my girl's knee, and she is still lame. The new TPLO will be $4,000. I do not know, at this point, if she will ever be normal. Dr. Acker was dismissive of us when I met him, and I should have walked away, because of his emphasis on his own ego, on the wealth of his clients, and his disinterest in my individual dog. The records he sent my local vet are a joke; the only thing about my dog in them is the angle he measured, which turned out to be wrong. The rest was a description of how to do a TPLO copied from a textbook, and pasted into her records. That lack of careful meticulous individual treatment characterized my entire experience with Dr. Acker. I have asked for a refund of my money, to put toward my girl's expenses subsequent to Dr. Acker's surgical errors. I have had no response, not unexpectedly. Maybe Dr. Acker's casual sloppy attitude toward correct measurements, good records, etc, will get by with sedentary house pets who are not athletes. But if you have a performance dog and you want them to be able to have their life back, this is not the surgeon to go to. Go to someone who is board certified and who cares. read more
