WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

For Jean in Vermont

Jean, your question re your dog's problem, I forwarded this to Celia. She has not been able to resign onto the board, for some reason and perhaps because she has so much going on in her life right now, building a new home and living elsewhere at the moment, it's too much for her to deal with. So this is her response and she's asked me to post it for her to the board. Rosey

Dear Jean,

Rosey has brought your post about your dog's ligament problem to my attention knowing that our black Lab Riley had the same surgery 2 years ago.

Unfortunately, the problem will not likely improve without the surgery. Especially if the ligament has really popped and will only continue to cause pain and lack of mobility. We tried to keep Riley on limited exercise for 6 months but he continued to favour his other leg and that became sore too. We opted for the surgery. It cost in the same range as your estimate but he has since fully recovered, and we felt it was worth every cent we paid. He was 6 years old at the time, and otherwise in excellent health. He was injured whilst out duck hunting with DH and slipped jumping out of the boat to retrieve. The post surgery rehab we followed as per our vet's advice was limited exercise and gentle massage and light bending of the leg several times a day to prevent stiffness, for several weeks. That was followed by short slow walks and increased them gradually until now he is back to 100% activity, with the exception of anything like chasing a ball or where he would have to come to an abrupt stop. That doesn't mean to say that he still tries to chase squirrels if he can get away with it, but we try not to let him. Ivon made him a carpeted ramp to be able to get up and down the 4 front steps but after about a month he was able to manage without it. For the first initial post-surgery days we used a large bath towel under his tummy near his hind legs, to take off some of the weight to help him up and down the steps.

Riley is quite large at 109 lbs and although not overweight we have slimmed him down a few pounds to alleviate weight on his hind legs. Another thing that helped was a bed we made him so that he could sleep and rest stretched out. We couldn't find one to purchase so we made one as follows:

We bought a double bed sized egg crate mattress foam and cut it in half. Stacked one half on top of the other and then pinned a twin bed sized comforter all the way around it with the large quilting pins, and laid his blanket on top. It worked perfectly for him and he seemed to recover very well that way. He is now on glucosamine and chondroitin 2 pills twice daily for a total of 2,000 mg per day. That would be subject to weight, so if your dog weighs less than 109 lbs it would be advisable to ask your vet what dosage you would give. The ones supplied by the vet are very expensive but I buy Riley's at the Wal-Mart and use their Equate brand family size bottle. He does fine on them and is well and happy again.

I hope this helps.
Best regards,
Celia

posted by RoseyP @ 6:09 AM