**friendly warning: this post is long and probably has more information than you ever wanted or needed to know about the oak pup :) **
I have been MIA from this blog... partially because I don't want to believe that anything happened but it did happen so here it is. Almost 4 weeks ago now (April 22nd) Oak got injured - a partial cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tear (ACL in us humans).
We were just starting one of our favorite hikes up Dry Creek and had just made it to the river when Oak suddenly stopped and her right hind leg was lifted in the air. I thought it was a sticker or pokey weed in her paw. Unfortunately, no. No pokey. Damn. She was still holding her leg up in the air and limping on the leg. I immediately knew something was wrong, and quickly turned ourselves down the trail. I called the vet to see if they would be available to see her before they went home for the day and they graciously stayed open late while I drove down.
My vet diagnosed it correctly from the beginning - a knee strain - most likely the CCL ligament. She prescribe two weeks of strict activity restrictions (no off-leash outside time, short walks, no running/jumping), tramadol (a pain medicine) and carbrofen (an anti-inflammatory) twice a day for two weeks. We also got a 3 month supply of an oral glucosamine supplement to take once a day. I was way too optimistic and thought 2 weeks was ridiculously long and that I was sure she'd better in a couple days.....
The first night (Wednesday) was the worst. She wouldn't put any weight on her right hind leg AT ALL and was just hobbling around on 3 legs all night and needlessly to say, I went to bed pretty upset that night. For the next couple of days she had a fairly significant limp and just lazed about the house (luckily!). On Sunday we took her for her first off-leash walk since the injury. We probably only walked 10 minutes, just to the duck pond and back, and I was hoping no one was going to pull over and tell me I shouldn't be walking my dog due to her limp. We sat at a bench and watched the ducks for 20 minutes for some mental stimulation. We continued to go on 10-15 minute walks every few days for the first two weeks until her first recheck.
May 6th First recheck - we were ordered another week of tramadol and carbrofen twice a day and strict activity restrictions. We also received an Adequan shot, which is an intramuscular glucosaminoglycan injection to help the joint. We were told we could go on 20-30 minute walks. We probably went on 4/20-25 minute walks throughout the week.
walk up rock canyon
cuddling
May 13th Second recheck - Oak had not significantly improved from the week before so we had to obtain a 3-view knee xray. She had to receive some sedation to obtain the x-rays and our then our vet wanted her to follow up with and ortho vet.
May16th Orthopedic vet consult - we learned some very upsetting, yet revealing information. Oak has hip dysplasia [Hip dysplasia is associated with abnormal joint structure and a laxity of the muscles, connective tissue, and ligaments that would normally support the joint] and her left hip is worse than her right, which is probably why she tore her right CCL ligament. The ortho vet also saw evidence of edema (swelling) in her right knee joint. She still did not think that we need surgery at this point since it's just a partial tear and she still has good mobility.
She suggested to do only 15 minute walks at a time (or less if she showed any signs of additional shifting her weight to her left leg) and that we could go on as many of those walks a day, as tolerated. We can increase her walk time 5 minutes every 2 weeks. She also wants us to focus on uphill/downhill walks to build up her back legs - especially her hamstrings. She showed me a few easy physical therapy exercises to help Oak shift more weight onto the injured leg and build up its strength.
She suggested doing Adequan injections twice weekly for a month, physical therapy and acupuncture. We are going to start injections this week and possibly an acupuncture session.
There it is. Now you are up to date on Oak and hopefully we can get her back to her full active self as soon as possible!
I have been MIA from this blog... partially because I don't want to believe that anything happened but it did happen so here it is. Almost 4 weeks ago now (April 22nd) Oak got injured - a partial cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) tear (ACL in us humans).
We were just starting one of our favorite hikes up Dry Creek and had just made it to the river when Oak suddenly stopped and her right hind leg was lifted in the air. I thought it was a sticker or pokey weed in her paw. Unfortunately, no. No pokey. Damn. She was still holding her leg up in the air and limping on the leg. I immediately knew something was wrong, and quickly turned ourselves down the trail. I called the vet to see if they would be available to see her before they went home for the day and they graciously stayed open late while I drove down.
Oak at the vet
The first night (Wednesday) was the worst. She wouldn't put any weight on her right hind leg AT ALL and was just hobbling around on 3 legs all night and needlessly to say, I went to bed pretty upset that night. For the next couple of days she had a fairly significant limp and just lazed about the house (luckily!). On Sunday we took her for her first off-leash walk since the injury. We probably only walked 10 minutes, just to the duck pond and back, and I was hoping no one was going to pull over and tell me I shouldn't be walking my dog due to her limp. We sat at a bench and watched the ducks for 20 minutes for some mental stimulation. We continued to go on 10-15 minute walks every few days for the first two weeks until her first recheck.
at the vet's
walk up rock canyon
taking our activity restrictions very seriously
cuddling
May16th Orthopedic vet consult - we learned some very upsetting, yet revealing information. Oak has hip dysplasia [Hip dysplasia is associated with abnormal joint structure and a laxity of the muscles, connective tissue, and ligaments that would normally support the joint] and her left hip is worse than her right, which is probably why she tore her right CCL ligament. The ortho vet also saw evidence of edema (swelling) in her right knee joint. She still did not think that we need surgery at this point since it's just a partial tear and she still has good mobility.
She suggested to do only 15 minute walks at a time (or less if she showed any signs of additional shifting her weight to her left leg) and that we could go on as many of those walks a day, as tolerated. We can increase her walk time 5 minutes every 2 weeks. She also wants us to focus on uphill/downhill walks to build up her back legs - especially her hamstrings. She showed me a few easy physical therapy exercises to help Oak shift more weight onto the injured leg and build up its strength.
She suggested doing Adequan injections twice weekly for a month, physical therapy and acupuncture. We are going to start injections this week and possibly an acupuncture session.
There it is. Now you are up to date on Oak and hopefully we can get her back to her full active self as soon as possible!
Labels: aclinjury, adequan, cclinjury, glucosamine, hip dysplasia, vet, xrays
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