Hi all, I hope someone may be able to advise on my amazing 2.5 year old lab, Dexter. He's undergone major surgery on his hock due to arthritis. Everything has gone well as far as the bone is concerned, however we're worried that he's still not really using his leg; it's been just over 3 months since surgery. He's not bearing much weight on it and is reluctant to use his leg. It might be habit or he could just be a lazy. He's fine in himself and will tap it on the floor when he has to. You can feel the difference in muscle and I'm quite sure it's muscle wastage, but there seems to be very little progress with no end in sight! He's at hydrotherapy once a week and has 20-30 min lead walks a day (this has been going on for about 3 or 4 weeks now). If anyone has any experience or advice, it would be much appreciated!
Hi Siggy, Is Dexter using his leg at hydrotherapy? It sounds like he might benefit from some physio. I don't know an awful lot about it, but I think they can help by having proprioception exercises where there is careful placement of paws and shifting of weight to help with re-establishing balance as a first step to rebuilding muscle. Has he had a review by the orthopaedic vet that did the surgery? - wondering if they have given you any advice. jac
He's kicking his leg great when he swims (albeit only 80% of the time), so I know he's got some flexibility in it! Physio sounds like a possible option and something I'll definitely look into. He's got another review in a couple of weeks, but his last assessment was that his bone has healed very well, we just needed to work on his muscle wastage through hydrotherapy. We'll see how we get on after looking into physio!
