Injuries in Puppies and Adults - Rush to Judgement?

October 6, 2008 by Bob.

Sometimes a pup or an adult gets an injury while playing or training. It happens. What I have noticed is that the first thing, the very first thing an owner suspects when he sees his dog limping is that he has hip dysplasia or elbow dysplasia.

While this is something that you cannot rule out, there are a few other things to take a look at. By the way, I am not dispensing medical advice or diagnosis here, just giving you my viewpoint as a breeder and handler on how to take care of your dog. I train and trial working dogs and prepare them for these trials, so I know a few things. Okay, so you notice that your dog has a limp or is favoring a paw or carrying his weight differently.

1. The first thing I would do is get the dog calm, cooled down and relaxed.

2. Then you palpate the dog. You feel around where he is limping and see if there is a spot where he reacts when you touch or put pressure on it. Pull out his limb and let it come back, see if the leg is coming out or drawing in more than usual. Watch for any signs of pain or reaction in the dog or pup. Feel for any swollen area, broken skin, or any other abnormality on the surface. Check his pads, as sometimes they can split or crack. Make any notes for your vet if you spot something that is obvious or out of the ordinary. If there is a broken bone, get the dog immediate medical attention.

3.  Then, instead of rushing to the emergency vet hospital (unless there is a valid medical emergency), take your dog and put him up in a crate. Yes, a crate.  The reason I am saying this is that, more often than not, it is a soft tissue injury. This is especially true of very young dogs, younger than seven months. The chances of a dog developing a debilitating, arthritic limp prior to seven months are rare, although they cannot be ruled out. Even so, the odds are in your favor that the dog has sprained some muscle or ligament. You must crate the dog and keep him from running around. That’s right, you keep him from running around. Why? because every time he starts to heal the injury, he will re-injure it by running around. If you do not do this, then you will allow this dog to do more damage to himself. So you do what a human would do who has injured himself - give him rest. Take him out for walks on the grass, on the leash, give him a hug and put him back up. No running. At all. You think I am being silly for repeating this, but owners sometimes do not listen because they are being selfish and want to play with their dog or they think it’s cruel to keep their dog in a crate for two weeks.  I think it’s cruel to allow a dog to re-injure itself for no good reason.

4. Do this routine for at least two weeks. Yes, two weeks, minimum, every day, no exceptions. Find other ways to bond with your dog that do not include him blowing out his ACL. After two weeks, if he is no longer limping, wean him off of the rest with light exercise, more walks on the leash.If he’s getting better, but still off a bit, keep him on the routine until he’s 100% better. Remember, it takes time to heal muscle and ligaments. Just ask a human who has had to go through this stuff. It can take months, so do not be impatient.

5. Try to figure out what might have been stressing him out physically. For instance, jumping on concrete, sliding around on tile floors, jumping out of a truck, jumping over tennis nets, heavy running with no warm up or cool down. See if you can discover what, in his daily routines may have led up to the injury. Then, stop him from doing that particular physical activity and when he is healed, get him doing something that is not so stressful physically.

5. Give the dog natural anti-inflammatory supplements right away and continue through his healing stage. MSM is cheap and can be dosed orally. Vitamin C is also a good supplement. DO NOT GIVE THE DOG ANY PAIN KILLERS. Pain killers only mask the cause of the injury and will allow the dog to re-injure. Sometimes owners don’t listen and have to learn the hard way.

It costs about fifteen hundred bucks to repair an ACL on a dog, just so you know.

Best,

Bob

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