Knee again

by **maberi** » July 13th, 2010, 8:56 am

Did the vet say how long to rest him? The idea around conservative therapy is to allow enough scar tissue to build up around the knee area to stabilize it as best as possible since ligaments are not like bone or muscle in that they do not repair themselves.

by **TinaMartin** » July 13th, 2010, 9:26 am

Uggg! I would like to know from the powers that be when you are going to catch a break?

by **mnp13** » July 13th, 2010, 1:27 pm

Not sure... but this is getting old....

by **TheRedQueen** » July 13th, 2010, 10:40 pm

Xander had a partial tear, and with rest and such...he recovered pretty well...but then tore his other knee about 4-5 months ago...so he's hobbling more now.

Xander has a horrible heart murmur, which is the big reason we chose not to do surgery...

by **amazincc** » July 14th, 2010, 7:01 pm

How's Connor doing???

by **madremissy** » July 14th, 2010, 7:49 pm

amazincc wrote:How's Connor doing???

x2

by **mnp13** » July 14th, 2010, 9:04 pm

He walks normally but hesitantly, he can't do any stairs. We ice him twice a day. He acts like his normal dorky self. lol

He's on full crate rest though.

by **katiek0417** » July 14th, 2010, 10:02 pm

mnp13 wrote:He walks normally but hesitantly, he can't do any stairs. We ice him twice a day. He acts like his normal dorky self. He's on full crate rest though.

If you need him to do stairs to get in and out of the house, get one of those re-usable shopping bags from the market, and cut out the sides, and use that under his back end to support some of the weight...

by **mnp13** » July 14th, 2010, 10:38 pm

We carry him, he's only about 53 pounds and it's just two steps so its not a big deal. Great idea on the bag though... that would definitely make things easier!!

Here are the two scans - I cropped them down and sized them, but they are big so they have to be downloaded for viewing. Thanks again Katrina!

galleries/knee1.gif
galleries/knee2.gif

by **katiek0417** » July 14th, 2010, 10:48 pm

mnp13 wrote:We carry him, he's only about 53 pounds and it's just two steps so its not a big deal. Great idea on the bag though... that would definitely make things easier!!

Here are the two scans - I cropped them down and sized them, but they are big so they have to be downloaded for viewing. Thanks again Katrina!

galleries/knee1.gif
galleries/knee2.gif

I needed the bag with Nemo - he's 70 pounds...I couldn't lift that up and down ANYTHING LOL...you're right that it's only 2 steps, but, like I said, the bag does make it a bit easier...

And no problem...I just wanted to make sure I sent them big enough that they'd be clear...

For some of them - like cookie on the hip, you're supposed to have the dog turn away from the bad leg (which should cause them to put more weight on the bad leg)...but some dogs are weird (like Nemo), and to get him to put full weight on his bad leg, you have to get him to take the cookie from the injured side...

The other thing is for paws on the counter...they told me to start with something low (like put his paws on a chair, or the couch), but I found with that, he just wanted to jump ONTO the objects :rolleyes2:

So, I changed it up a little, and did it "paws on me." So, he just puts his paws on me, and there's nothing to tempt him to jump on to...in addition, one of the later exercises (that he just started) is dancing where he puts his paws on me, then I walk forward and back, and side to side...so it forces him to use the back legs...and by having him do paws on me, it's been really easy to get him to "dance."

by **angelica_2001** » July 14th, 2010, 11:29 pm

Thanks guy!

And good luck with Connor. I know how tough these knee injuries are, especially with an energetic dog.

by **maberi** » July 15th, 2010, 8:33 am

We have a padded sling with handles on it somewhere in the house. The vet gave it to us for Earl after he had his knee surgery. I'll try to dig it up and will drop it off when I swing out for that garden cart

mnp13 wrote:We carry him, he's only about 53 pounds and it's just two steps so its not a big deal. Great idea on the bag though... that would definitely make things easier!!

Here are the two scans - I cropped them down and sized them, but they are big so they have to be downloaded for viewing. Thanks again Katrina!

http://www.pitbulltalk.com/galleries/knee1.gif
http://www.pitbulltalk.com/galleries/knee2.gif

by **Malli** » July 15th, 2010, 1:27 pm

a towel works pretty well too

by **katiek0417** » July 15th, 2010, 6:34 pm

Malli wrote:a towel works pretty well too

They had suggested the towel to me...but Nemo has towel issues (he attacks them ....guess it has something to do with a rag on a ragpole :rolleyes2:

)...but, yes...I had forgotten that they suggested that to me!

by **Malli** » July 15th, 2010, 7:08 pm

Its pretty comfy, I'd imagine, only thing is you need a thinner one otherwise its hard for the person to grip well. Or even a small fleece blanket or thinly quilted blanket...

Knee again

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