Surgery Recovery?

[Michelleva]

About 3 weeks ago my dog underwent surgery for a luxating patella. She came home with good pain relief in the form of a patch stuck on her butt area, as well as AB's and an anti-inflammitory tablet.

We were so surprised in her recovery for the first two weeks. You would have never thought she had a problem, she was happy, walking well, eating well and resting well. Then last Saturday, her recovery seems to have gone backwards. All weekend she would put no weight on the leg at all, and this week, she's slowly improving again. She's at the point where she will walk but it seems to be quite uncomfortable for her.

She was checked at the vet last Saturday and had an injection. At the time he checked everything and said its all in place, she's just done too much. I 100% followed the vets advice on recovery, but now she's worse than she was in the first week. A friend who is a vet nurse thinks she probably felt little pain in the first 10 days or so, so acted normal, then when the pain relief stopped, she decided that it hurts to walk, so I'll just hop instead.

Has anyone else had a dog go through this surgery and have a similar experience? I think its gone the reverse of how I expected it. The vet is confident she'll make a full recovery, its just going to take time.

She's getting pretty bored in the crate now, but I do bring her out and walk her around the yard and house, as well as let her sit with me if I'm watching TV or on the computer.

[persephone]

..which is why I am not in favour of 'good' pain relief . If it hurts- the dog will rest.

From memory my dog was not allowed to walk at all for weeks ... mind you he was so bandaged he couldn't move his leg anyway ..it was like a splint! We carried him in & out ...and he weighed around 2o kg !

Hope your girl slowly and surely improves now ...it is a worry.

[Staff'n'Toller]

Pain relief aids healing, and for knee surgery it would be extremely cruel not give it for the first 10-14 days. There are no Vets in this day and age that would send a dog home from Orthopedic surgery without anti-inflammatory meds or they'd be up before the Veterinary board.

They should be toe touching at least 50% percent of the time when they leave the hospital and we expect that that would continue to improve over the next few weeks.

We don't splint or bandage patella or knee surgery any more as it causes far greater muscle loss in a very short period of time, and causes the skin around the surgery site to bind to the muscle layer and form scar tissue which causes more discomfort.

All you need is to find yourself a qualified K9 Physio to assess the knee and see what you need to do next.

[persephone]

..back over 20 years ago when my dog was done ... there were no real pain relief things routinely offered .. certainly no physio or aftercare ..dog owners now are so lucky to have all this routinely available to help recovery

The op was a resounding success ..and he had another 10 or so years of uneventful very active life , for which I was grateful .

[Michelleva]

Pain relief aids healing, and for knee surgery it would be extremely cruel not give it for the first 10-14 days. There are no Vets in this day and age that would send a dog home from Orthopedic surgery without anti-inflammatory meds or they'd be up before the Veterinary board.

They should be toe touching at least 50% percent of the time when they leave the hospital and we expect that that would continue to improve over the next few weeks.

We don't splint or bandage patella or knee surgery any more as it causes far greater muscle loss in a very short period of time, and causes the skin around the surgery site to bind to the muscle layer and form scar tissue which causes more discomfort.

All you need is to find yourself a qualified K9 Physio to assess the knee and see what you need to do next.

I agree completely. There is no way I was going to let her cry in agony for weeks on end. That was one thing I discussed with the vet before she was booked in.

She is putting the whole foot on the ground now. I did take her for a small walk just up and down our street this morning and she was walking quite well. I can see small improvements each day, which makes me happy.

I guess my only concern is that things seem to have gone around the wrong way for her. I'd have thought she'd be hesitant to walk on it in the first two weeks, and then gradually improve. Whereas, she looked and acted normal in those two weeks while she was medicated, and then once the pain meds stopped she's been much more reluctant to walk on it. But we are making progress, day by day.

I know a great doggy chiro, we saw her before the surgery, but she's 1 1/2 hours drive from me. Georgia also had a few rounds of bowen therapy before the surgery and that helped greatly too. I'm going to try and get her back for another session next week. Thats good for pain relief too.

[Staff'n'Toller]

Whilst I'm all for Chiro's (have a great one that sees my dogs) and I've had cranio-sacral stuff done on one of my dogs too, Physio is more specialised with surgery recovery and getting that leg back to full function- if you get my drift.

I actually had to ditch my own Chiro for a Physio when I injured my sacro-iliac joints as I was getting no relief and one of the stretches the Chiro told me to do was actually counter-productive! I got a lot better a lot quicker when I was seeing the right person instead of my Chiro throwing assumptions into the air about what it might be. I still see my Chiro but I understand what her limitations are.

I don't know what State you're in so I can't recommend, it's great that you're seeing improvement and set backs can happen, I would just warn about 'waiting' when you might get faster improvement from the right person.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Staff'n'Toller

[Rottifan]

I would be thinking if the problem has been fixed properly. I know many a person who has had the same op done on their dog and even a long time after recovering (6 months) the dog still walks on 3 legs. The problem in the first place was that the dog had a pinched nerve in its back causing pain referral down the leg and causing the dog to limp. The point is that the pinched nerve has still not been released so the dog is still limping because the actual cause of the problem has not been addressed. Get your dog to a good animal chiropractor to get fully adjusted to make sure - will help regardless. Best of luck, recover and confinement is never easy. I am against crating for recovery but rather have a small dog pen on a non-slip surface for better recovery, dont encourage your dog to move around or get overexcited but if they can move around in a 2-3m sq area at their own pace they will be much better for it. Good luck!

[Michelleva]

Whilst I'm all for Chiro's (have a great one that sees my dogs) and I've had cranio-sacral stuff done on one of my dogs too, Physio is more specialised with surgery recovery and getting that leg back to full function- if you get my drift.

I actually had to ditch my own Chiro for a Physio when I injured my sacro-iliac joints as I was getting no relief and one of the stretches the Chiro told me to do was actually counter-productive! I got a lot better a lot quicker when I was seeing the right person instead of my Chiro throwing assumptions into the air about what it might be. I still see my Chiro but I understand what her limitations are.

I don't know what State you're in so I can't recommend, it's great that you're seeing improvement and set backs can happen, I would just warn about 'waiting' when you might get faster improvement from the right person.

I'm in Melbourne, in the Narre Warren/Berwick area.

[Michelleva]

I would be thinking if the problem has been fixed properly. I know many a person who has had the same op done on their dog and even a long time after recovering (6 months) the dog still walks on 3 legs. The problem in the first place was that the dog had a pinched nerve in its back causing pain referral down the leg and causing the dog to limp. The point is that the pinched nerve has still not been released so the dog is still limping because the actual cause of the problem has not been addressed. Get your dog to a good animal chiropractor to get fully adjusted to make sure - will help regardless. Best of luck, recover and confinement is never easy. I am against crating for recovery but rather have a small dog pen on a non-slip surface for better recovery, dont encourage your dog to move around or get overexcited but if they can move around in a 2-3m sq area at their own pace they will be much better for it. Good luck!

thanks for your input. My girl saw three different vets before we gave the go ahead for the surgery. I wanted to be sure, and I've seen the x-rays and I'm convinced the surgery she had was necessary. But I do realise that the surgery may not necessarily be the end of her treatment. She does now walk on all four feet, but there definitely seems to still be weakness in the joint that had surgery, which I guess is to be expected after such invasive surgery.