Our 10yr old lab tore his ACL about 3 months ago. We are treating him conservatively, without surgery also. If he was 2 it might be a different story. The fact remains he's a dog not a person. So he's really about 70 years old if he was human. Would you get your ACL done at 70? Probably not unless you where a freak of nature.

Get a prescription for Carprofen. It's like ibuprofen fr dogs. Give it regular for the first couple weeks, then just as needed when he starts gimping around. He usually doesn't need it unless we are camping or he is swimming and splashing around the river and walking on uneven rocks. He will be good as new in a month or two. The first two weeks suck. We where second guessing ourselves. But we waited and all is good.