Dog knee injury? "Medial buttress", can still run

Hello everyone wanting to hear any experience or advice if anyone has had a similiar problem

My 9 year old retriever has a "bump" on the inside of his back right knee (the side closest to his junk and facing the inside of his left knee). Some searching suggests this is what's called a "medial buttress", an inflammatory response to a knee injury.

He does not wince or react in pain if I feel the inside of his knee with him standing and me behind him but does seem conscious that the bump is being checked.

After extended exercise or lying down on his right side he will occasionally limp slightly for a few seconds when he gets up, as if his leg is "asleep".

I have not seen him holding the leg up off the ground like one that cannot hold weight.

He still wants to exercise like there is nothing wrong with him, when I jog with him following someone on a bike he doesn't want to stop and if the bike leaves while he's been told to lie down he wants to jump up and immediately chase it, and will try to pull against the leash will all of his might and push off the ground with all of his might.

So whatever is afflicting him does not cause him such pain or discomfort as to discourage him from wanting to run around like he's fine, but my concern is what appears as if it's a minor issue right now gets worse from being ignored if something can be done to fix it.

I first noticed the "bump" on the inside of his back leg after a long exercise session maybe 1-2 months ago when he started limping around. I have no idea if it had been there already or was the immediate inflammation resulting from an injury suffered that day.

Hoping he just ran too hard I decided to give it some time and hope the "swelling" would go down.

Now this bump on the inside of his knee has not gone down at all and I want to get it checked out while he can still run.

Searching the symptoms has suggested a ruptured knee ligament which would certainly be awful.

My 1st question is is there even a point in taking him to the vet? Is the vet going to just charge hundreds of dollars to look at him for a second and refer to a specialist/surgeon who is even more expensive?

Would it be best to just go directly to them and have them check out the dog and cut out the middleman?

Something I have found which is very concerning during brief research is that none of the expensive "surgeries" actually fix the knee ligaments and conssist of things like cutting bones, turning bones, installing plates and all kinds of unnatural mutilations that do not mimic the actual knee and unsurprisingly do not work.

Then you have the "doctors" who are all brainwashed and invested in religious belief in their "field" that selling drugs or surgeries is the be all cure all, and that whatever they are told must be the truth and for good, or their own personal fear of being blamed for not offering surgeries a condition worsening.

Does anyone have an opinion on any of these "surgeries" actually working or being worthwhile? The descriptions of some make about as much sense as dentists destroying teeth that have the ability to repair themselves and filling the craters they make with toxic chemicals.

I have seen mention of different physical therapies having positive results, especially when it is relatively minor damage as compared to a complete ligament tear, which intuitively makes a lot more sense to me than cutting open the dog and butchering their knee.

As it is right now I am expecting to take him to the vet, pay an arm and a leg for a few minutes, be referred to pay another arm and a leg for a specialist, and then be offered to pay thousands of dollars for a surgery that is not guaranteed to work and may be more harmful than helpful

What I'm hoping is to learn is that the injury is not a worst case scenario and hopefully some kind of rehab or therapy can help him


Anyone who has any experience tips or links on the subject would be very much appreciated

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