Post-surgery poodle won't use 4th leg

Does anyone have suggestions for getting my 13-month old mini poodle (16 lbs.) to start using his right hind leg again? He had surgery (fho) 2 months ago and still won’t use it regularly. He’ll tap it, and sometimes take a step, but it seems he’s not making progress. He’s on Rimydal (anti-inflammatory. I do range of motion exercises for little bits at a time because he squirms away and won’t let me. We did hydrotherapy for a while but it was too expensive. We don’t have a pool. I take him for short walks as I was instructed by the vets. He’ll take a step on it occasionally, but mostly he hops around on 3 legs. He’s getting more and more used to it, and he can get along, so why bother…(I imagine that’s what he thinks.) If anyone has had experience with this, I’d love to hear about it. Or a suggestion for a different forum if this is not the right place. I’m new. Thank you.

 

Hi and welcome, what kind of surgery did he have? maybe it it still painful and that is why he doenst want ot put weight on it. Gina here has a dog with only 3 legs and gets around great. I think it that is what he prefers then it shouldnt be a problem

honeybear

 

I suggest taking him back to the vet. SOmething is obviously wrong. Since its post op, they shouldn't charge anythng.

 

You don't have a pool, but how about a bath tub? You could try some hydrotherapy in there.

I don't have experience with this issue, but hopefully someone else here will be able to help more!


Jamiya

 

Your vet should've given you excercises to do with the dog to help build up the muscle in the leg. Because he was off it for a while, he may not understand that he can start using it again.
I would try some movement excercises with him to work up the leg and rebuild the muscle in it. It may have gotten to weak from non-use so it hurts to stand on it.

Just like when you get a cast taken off, it can take months and therapy with stretching before you get full mobility again.

 

Now is this the surgery where they take the ball of the hip and completely remove it. If it is I know of someone that had that surgery on her st. poodle. He took awhile to walk on that leg too months but he is walk pain free now. Usually those hip or knee surergies take months for the dog to start using them again. If you want to speak with this person they would be more than happy to tell you of their poos progress.

This is a great poodle forum that I go to with all of my poodle questions.
http://furkids.proboards10.com/index.cgi?board=poodle

I hope you check it out. We always have fun there. Lots of pictures too. Lots of poos.

 

I just checked back on the other forum and it was the same exact type of surgery. Her poo had a bone spur on the ball and had the whole thing removed. Somehow it is supposed to regrow. Not sure how on that. I'm sure she would love to tell you about her poodles surgery.

 

Thanks to everyone for replying. I thought I was going to be notified when I had a reply, and when I wasn't I figured nobody had replied. It's a good thing I checked! Anyway, Leo had avascular necrosis which is deterioration of the bone on the ball of the femur (genetic predisposition possibly brought on by trauma - he fell off the deck at 12 weeks). The surgery is femoral head ostectomy (fho) where they cut off part of the ball of the femur, and a new joint will form from scar tissue and growth. Someone mentioned exercises, and yes, we try to do what they call "range of motion" movements with his leg, but he hates it and squirms away, so I can only do it for a short period of time. Possibly because it's uncomfortable - that's where the anti-inflammatory should help. True, he needs to build up the muscle, as someone said, but the problem is we're seeing no progress. He's been at the same level of usage for quite a while now. I'm getting different opinions from different vets -- some say it takes months to recover; some say he should be walking on it by now. Yes, I could try the bathtub, but I don't know if it's deep enough. That would be an adventure. We did some professional hydrotherapy but it was much too expensive to continue. It's discouraging because a few weeks ago I took him for his usual slow walk, and he used it the whole time. Maybe it was too much, because now he's barely using it at all on walks. Maybe one step out of 8. According to one vet, we just need to outsmart him, because he's adapting to life without that leg, as small dogs can do. True, as one reply said, dogs can be fine on 3 legs, but that's not what we want, and in the end he'll be a lot better off using all four. Thanks to the reply with the link to the poodle site. I will definitely check it out. Thanks to everyone for your replies.

 

I'm glad you finally checked in here. When you post a reply, make you you check the notify me whena reply is posted above submit. Hope to see you at the poodle forum. its great over there too.