A dog's torn cruciate ligament, the canine knee injury also written as ACL or CCL, is repaired at a national average of about $3,525, with a range of roughly $2,793 to $6,417 per knee, per CareCredit's 2025 cost research [CareCredit Dog ACL Surgery Cost, 2025]. A TPLO is the higher-cost repair on that scale and lands toward the $6,417 per-knee ceiling rather than the $2,793 floor [CareCredit Dog ACL Surgery Cost, 2025]. This is the single most common five-figure orthopedic claim in pet insurance, and the bill frequently arrives twice. This page covers the cost and the insurance math, not the procedure.
The cost range for ACL/CCL repair
CareCredit's cost study, conducted by ASQ360 in 2025 across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, puts the national average for cruciate repair at $3,525 and the spread at $2,793 to $6,417 per knee [CareCredit Dog ACL Surgery Cost, 2025]. Where a bill lands in that band tracks the repair type billed. A suture-based stabilization is the lower-cost tier, near the $2,793 floor; a TPLO is the higher-cost tier, toward the $6,417 per-knee ceiling before any pre-surgical workup is added [CareCredit Dog ACL Surgery Cost, 2025]. Which type a given dog is billed for is a veterinary decision FurVerdict does not weigh in on; this page prices the range and the reimbursement against it.
The number that catches owners off guard is not the first knee. It is the second.
Why the price varies this much
Three cost drivers set where in the $2,800-to-$6,400 band a given bill lands. The repair type billed is the largest: the TPLO tier carries an implant and a specialist's fee schedule, which is the bulk of the premium over a suture-based repair on the cited data [CareCredit Dog ACL Surgery Cost, 2025]. Dog size is the second: a larger dog runs up more anesthesia time and a larger implant, both billed line items. Geography is the third, with metropolitan specialty centers pricing above regional practices.
What a policy would have covered
On a $5,000 cruciate repair, an accident-and-illness policy at 80 percent reimbursement and a $500 annual deductible returns about 80 percent of the $4,500 above the deductible, roughly $3,600, leaving the owner near $1,400. At 90 percent reimbursement the policy returns closer to $4,050. Against the average $3,525 case the same 80 percent policy returns about $2,420. The reimbursement scales with the bill, which is the structural reason a policy beats a fixed savings target on a claim this large.
The timing constraint here is sharper than on most claims, and it is why this section exists. Cruciate and orthopedic claims carry their own waiting period, separate from the standard illness wait. Embrace applies a 14-day illness waiting period and a longer orthopedic waiting period that, in some states, can be reduced to as few as 14 days only by completing an orthopedic exam and waiver before the injury [Embrace Pet Insurance: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026]. Embrace also states that a cruciate ligament injury first noted during the policy's opening 180 days becomes a permanent exclusion [Embrace Pet Insurance: Orthopedic Waiting Period, 2026]. A policy bought after the injury is already on the record does not reimburse the repair at any provider. The second knee is reimbursed only if the first was never logged as a pre-existing condition.
The bottom line
Cruciate repair is a $2,800-to-$6,400 expense per knee that often arrives as two bills, and the deciding variable on the out-of-pocket is whether a policy was in force, past its orthopedic waiting period, before the first ligament went. A buyer with an at-risk breed should treat the orthopedic waiting period and the pre-existing exclusion as the load-bearing terms, not the headline premium. Those are the terms to weigh across providers before a claim ever arises; FurVerdict's review method is published at /methodology/, and /disclosure/ explains how the affiliate relationship is handled. This page is reviewed every 180 days and on any cited cost-data change.