grullagirl
Weanling
Have you hugged your horse today?
Posts: 238
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Post by grullagirl on Oct 10, 2011 20:54:17 GMT -5
This thread isn't about my horse but about my poor dog. She is a 12 year old mutt and just tore her ACL saturday. We have surgery scheduled for wenseday to repair it. Has anybody ever dealt with this before with their dogs? Me and my family are kind of at a loss about what therapies we should do after surgery. Any holistic ideas? Thanks!
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Post by nightangel on Oct 10, 2011 23:57:30 GMT -5
Where are you having it done at? I've assisted a handful and seen nothing but great success. The specialty hospital in Round Rock is phenomenal, but let me know what doctor you are using and what clinic. ACL repairs are not cheap and are NOT fun to recover from.
How big is the dog? As for therapy, it's not always necessary, but if your surgeon recommends it there is a place also pretty close by that does the whole sha-bang, they even have cool hydrotherapy equipment. She needs to stay very quiet, NO WALKS, stairs, running, playing with other dogs, or chasing her ball. It's handy to keep her in a crate on a nice comfy bed and taken out only to go potty. Your vet should give you some good meds to keep her pretty doped up and calm, I know it's not the "holistic" route, but it helps keep them from being restless and miserable during the recovering process.
She shouldn't put weight on it for the first week to two weeks, after that she should just touch her toe to the ground while walking. You may need to assist her at first, use a towel under her belly to lessen her load. Make shift ramps are also handy if you have stairs or need to get her in the car. Most likely your vet will have you keep her "grounded" for about three months, after that short walks are allowed.
Weight is an important factor, obviously if she is over weight she's going to have a tougher time recovering. With her not being as active as usual, you may want to switch to a low calorie food and try not to spoil her with bonbons all day!
MSM is always helpful for imflammation, you can sometimes find dog food with glucosamine in it (or your vet will carry supplements), and other joint supplements to assist the healing process like Glyco Flex can be found at your vet office.
They should set you straight with all of this stuff, but if they don't you know where to find me!
-Emily
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grullagirl
Weanling
Have you hugged your horse today?
Posts: 238
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Post by grullagirl on Oct 11, 2011 5:59:37 GMT -5
We are having the procedure done at Cedar Park Animal Hospital by Dr. Riddle. He previously did my other dogs slipping kneecaps about 9 years ago and we have had great success with her. We plan to keep her barraceded in the living room so she will have company. She is actually slightly underweight right now since a recenct scare with liver imflammation but is perfectly healthy now. We also have her on tramadol. I'm trying to get my mom to use the towl technique with her but gracie is just one of those dogs who doesn't like help. She will just have to get used to it though. Which place does the therapy? Thanks for all of your advice Emily i really appreciate it  |
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