Ed Post Op Recovery Therapy

[sheenygirl]

Hi,

After a rather stressfull last 4 months, my beautiful 9 month old Golden Retriever Sasha, was finally diagnosed with ED Elbow Displaysia (FCP) in her left elbow and is just recovering from ED Surgery (2 weeks ago),in which the vet removed a rather large fragment from her elbow.

I am finally recovering from the shock that it happened in the first place as there was supposedly no trace of it in her breeding . But that's another issue in itself.

Anyway my question is...I know that some of you may have experienced this kind of problem before and know that the surgery is over I am wondering what is the best recovery therapy that i can provide for her. I am thinking of aqua therapy or physiotherapy to help build the muscles in her shoulder ( which have wasted away over the past 3-4 mths from not using the leg properly). I am after any suggestion of therapists that any one may be familir with in the Sydney West/northwest area. I am based at Glenwood.

Have attached a pictue of my not so happy girl 2 days after surgery,

[kimjm]

Sorry not quite sure of the geography of the Sydney area but a Sydney Animal Physiotherapy has opened a centre in Leichardt not sure of the phone number sorry.

[ILuvAmstaffs]

Hi Sheenygirl. I can sympathise with the way you feel. My boy had surgery for ED (FCP) last December. He was only 8months old at the time. Just out of interest, did your girl also have an ulna oestectomy or just the fragment removed? Was it via arthroscopy or full incision? If she had the ulna oestectomy as well, I am fairly sure that for the next 6weeks or so she should just be taking it very easy... After that, I am told swimming is the best exercise because it takes all weight off the joint. You could try pming Mallerr as her dog had both hip & elbow ops & she was great when I was going through this all with Diesel.

Also, what are you giving her in regards to supplements? Has your surgeon recommended a follow-up course of carthrophen shots etc? I found that after trying the cartropehn shots, sashas blend, joint guard & blackmores glucosamine caps, that a product called Flexicose seemed to give the best results.

Feel free to PM me if you any questions.

Edited October 9, 2007 by ILuvAmstaffs

[CavsRcute]

There is a lady called Helen Nicholson who runs ?Animal Physiotherapy Services. She is a qualified animal physio and she goes all over Sydney but is based in, or very close to, The Blue Mountains. I think her email is [email protected] but google it and you will find the details. She can be hard to get hold of but keep perservering. If you need any further help PM me. What about acupuncture? We use a vet at Turramurra for my girl's HD and find it really works

Good luck

PS I drove from Glenwood to Turramurra yesterday and it only took me 35minutes. I know Helen is at Turramurra on some Thursdays, and so is Amanda for the acupuncture

[kimjm]

Helen is great too.

[percyk]

poor dog...

rough trot...

hopefully this will be the end of it and therell be no more surprises for u

[malleerr]

ILuvAmstaffs Posted 9th Oct 2007 - 05:06 PM

You could try pming Mallerr as her dog had both hip & elbow ops & she was great when I was going through this all with Diesel.

Aw, thanks ILA - glad i could help you. I hope Diesel is going well now.

Hi Sheenygirl - Welcome to DOL

Poor Sasha, hugs to her and you. Mallee my Rhodesian Ridgeback was diagonised with bilateral (both) ED and athritis at around 4 months old. Its was a huge shock for us, so i can understand how you feel. Mallee had an arthriscope on both elbow joints where they removed several bone fragments, her right side was worse than her left and she also had the bilateral ulna osteotomy, which is where they cut and remove a section of the ulna bone (i cant remember how large it was) and leave it hanging to refuse over time itself, this relives the pressure from the joint and also allows both the ulna and radias (?) bones to match each other in height. (sorry if i have explained that badly, its hard to explain in type :cool: ). Is that what Sasha had done?

Mallee was house confined for 2 months, with gradual onleash exercise only phased in about 1.5 months after the op (sorry i dont have my date book here). We started her on short walks only around 200metres for the first walk and over the weeks we increased it slowly. We are lucky in our street as we have lots of street lights so we just increased her walks by walking to the next street light, etc etc. This went on for about a month i think and then she was back to pretty much normal, well as normal as she would be for the time being back then as when she was 6.5 months old she was diagonised with bilateral HD which she has also had surgery for, but thats a whole other drama much bigger than the first. I would suggest though, for increasing the muscle mass, try her swimming, 10mins of swimming for a dog is about equal to an hours brisk walk, swimming is fantastic as there is no pressure on the joints. Swimming helped Mallee out alot esp after her HD operations.

Mal was on Rimadyl for about maybe about month, but i would not recommend that, not too good for their system, she has also been on cosequin (glucosamine and condrotine (spl)) ever since and i believe this has been a wonder for her. ETA - Mallee has not been on any kind of pains meds for about 1.5years.

Its 2 years (Sept 2005 she had her op) on from her ED surgery and she is fantastic. Mallee shows no sign of arthritis at all in her front legs, she only has two tiny little scars on both legs that you have to look for it you didnt know, bit different to th ones on her butt lol. And best of all she is finally pain free and happy.

If you have any question feel free to PM me.

Good luck to you both and i hope Sasha makes a speedy recovery.

edited to add pic

this is Mallee's x-ray confirming that the bones had refused and is sitting correctly

Edited October 10, 2007 by malleerr

[ILuvAmstaffs]

Hey there Malleerr! Diesels doing well thankyou. Good to hear all is well with Mallee as well.

Can I ask... does Mallee ever lick the area where the ulna oestectomy was performed? I only ask becaues though Diesel doesn't seem to be in any pain, I often find him at night just lying there licking the area where the scar is or with it in his mouth. Though he doesn't actually bite it or anything. :cool: Our vet suggested that it seemed like a learnt behaviour that he has done ver since the op & just hasn't gotten out of (he is a compulsive licker & is always licking his paws etc), but others have suggested there may be an issue...

[sheenygirl]

Hi all,

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I will start chasing them up and see if I can get booked in. I really would love to get her in the water as I think that she would really benefit from this but just havn't heard or come accross any centres in Sydney that do this.

ILA... she only had a Fragment removed from the elbow and it was done through a full incision. The vet said to me that he was surprised at how large the fragment was as it was not showing up in both sets of xrays that had been taken...and in fact it was only when he performed the the surgery that he was he able to find anything at all. The first set of xrays only showed increased bone density but no clear signs of ED. The second set of xrays taken 8 weeks later ( after 8 weeks of cartrophen injections with no improvement) showed that there were further changes to the bone density and it was decided that surgery was the best option.

Since the surgery she has been on sylvet ( tablet form of cartrophen) once a week for 4 weeks..and also for the last 2 months, arthrocart ( glucosamine & shark cartilage).

It had now been 3 weeks after the surgery and Sasha is improving slowly day by day. She is still limping quite badly though and probably will for the next 3-5 weeks...at least that's what the vet has said. The vet has said it is fine for her not to be crated but still not to do anything too energetic just yet. He has not been able to give me a prognosis just yet...guess he wants to wait untill she has healed further. I have another check up in 3 weeks and will know more of what the future holds from there. It is really frustrating though as I have a 6 yr old boy who wants to play with her and she desperatley wants to play with him...am forever separating them to try and keep her quiet!!!

How is Diesel doing now? and how long was it after his surgery before you noticed any improvement.?

Malleerr...Wow you really have had more than your fair share of bad luck with Mallee...but still I am glad that she is doing well..It is really heartbreaking to watch them go through it...but you do what you have to, the main thing is that they are not in pain any more.

I can really feel for you ...as my Shepherd that I had before Sasha also had bilateral HD. We discovered it when she was just 6 months old. I used to think it was funny how she used to lay on her back with her legs in the air. Sheena was the first dog that I owned and being a novice and uninformed, purchased her from a backyard breeder not knowing any of the possible problems I could face. I learnt the hard way with her. But on a positive note...she had a great life ..went on to obtain her CD-X and went on to live to a ripe old (pain free)age of 14 ( way beyond the 5-6 years the vet expected)!!

With Sasha I made sure that she was from good breeder and that there was no sign of HD or ED in her background. The breeder is just as shocked as I am !! There are just no guarantees when it comes to genetics I guess...I can only shake my head and go why me...again??? I just figure that for some reason that I have been given what I can deal with and that these special dogs have chosen us to look after them as we are in the best postion to make sure that they have the best lives we can give them.

P.S...Maybe I am just being paranoid now...but i have also noticed that Sasha has started laying on her back with her legs in the air!!!...must get the back legs checked out as well now!!!

Anyway, thanks again for your suggestions and good wishes...will keep you posted on her progress.

[malleerr]

Hi ILA - so glad to hear Diesel is doing well

Mallee is a licker also, and yes she does lick her scars on her front legs (& sometimes her elbows), and also her back legs. She mainly does it when she is really tired, and just relaxing. I put it down to sort of a comfort thing for her, and thought that it must feel nice for her as when i rub or touch her scars she goes all droopy and will stand or lie there forever letting you do it..lol... I was only concerned about it firstly after the op, but as she has not shown any signs of pain, and x-rays have all been fine i just think of it as a bit of a querk. Although i do get sick of hearing the licking sound... She doesn't chew her front legs at all but you often find her in the most amusing postitions with her back legs in her mouth.

I remember when she was first diagonised by the specalist as having the ED & arthritis he said that one of the signs of it and something to look out for in the future in relation to arthrits was a sort of fluidy bubble that will appear under the skin in the elbow joint area, thankfully Mallee has never had it return (she had it when diagonised) but maybe its something to check on Diesel. Fingers crossed for you that it is just a querky little thing he has picked up

Good luck again Sheenygirl, thinking of you and keep us upated. Try not to worry about Sasha's back legs also, you have enough to worry about now. She may well be rolling onto her back to take pressure off her front legs while lying down while she heals.

Best of luck trying to keep your son and Sasha behaving, god i rememberwhat Mallee was like after aboiut a month after the surgery, it was an effort to keep her still and under control with all that wound up puppy energy.

I will be watching out for your updates. :D

[ILuvAmstaffs]

Thanx for that Malleerr! I'm pretty sure it's a simialr thing. He even kind of grunts/purrs as he's licking it sometimes & it's always as he's settling for the night. He will lick our feet & legs making the same noises if we let him.

I've checked him for the bubble, but so far I can see no sing of it. Though there is some thickening under the scar that looks a little like a bumb. Though I think that it is more scar tissue from the incision.

sheenygirl, Diesel went through pretty much the same process a your girl in getting diagnosed... though he had shots rather than tabs.

I'm pretty sure it took around 6weeks until we saw any major improvements with Diesel & after that probably about 4 months of trying different suppliments to get him to a point now that you wouldn't know he had a limp unless you were looking for it.

I wouldn't worry too much about her lying on her back either. The first thing Diesel did after his op was get on his bean bag & wiggle around until he was on his back. I will posta piccy when I get home.

Goodluck with it all & keep us updated on how she's going. I know how heartbreaking this all is.

[ILuvAmstaffs]

This was Diesel after his op trying to wiggle around onto his back on the bean bag:

And doing the same in his bed: