RE: [pyrnet] Hing leg weakness in Pyrs

["Amy Bailey" <bailey.amy@verizon.net>]

My girl, Sweet Madeleine, did not have a lot of muscle as a puppy due to a
knee and leg deformity.  After it was surgically corrected (as much as
reasonable) I took her to swimming therapy.  She developed a lot of muscle
quickly as well as stamina.  

My old boy, Jascha, had bad arthritis in his hips and back and gradually he
lost a lot of muscle in the rear and gained it in the shoulders.  My vet
said sometimes dogs look like weight lifters because they shift the muscle
to upper body when their hips hurt.  Jascha was older and already blind from
cataracts so changing too much of his life at that point to try swimming was
not an option, but if he had been younger and I had already been through
swimming with Sweetie, I would have tried swimming.  I am not sure the
amount of arthritis visible on an x-ray exactly correlates to the amount of
discomfort the dog feels.  

I know if you decide to try this, you won't just drop your girl into a pool.
The therapist was in the pool with Sweetie who was wearing a life jacket.
When she stopped thrashing about the jacket was enough to hold her up in the
water.  The first two visits were not pretty, but all of a sudden it all
clicked and she knew how to swim very effectively. I cannot say she ever
enjoyed it, but she began to have a look on her face like she knew she would
conquer this challenge and she did.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org [mailto:owner-pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org] On Behalf
Of Tom McCulloch
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 9:26 AM
To: pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org
Subject: [pyrnet] Hing leg weakness in Pyrs

 
A question on muscle strengthening treatments for big dogs.  Our 11 1/2
year old female Pyr has hind leg weakness.  She recently had her hips
X-rayed, but only minor arthritis was found, and no dysplasia or other
issues.  She has now been on a regimen of Adequan for several weeks.
While this seems to help a little, occasionally she still has a hard
time getting out of a sitting or squatting position, and ends up hopping
until we can pick her up and stabilize her.  Afterwards, she is OK
again, and able to walk up stairs and do her half-run/half-jog through
the backyard keeping us safe from the squirrels.

Does anyone know of other kinds of muscle builders that could help?  Are
there steroids that work in these cases?  Thanks for any information you
can provide.

Tom McCulloch  


To unsubscribe, send a message to esquire@pyrnet.org with
	unsubscribe pyrnet-l@pyrnet.org
as the BODY of the message.  The SUBJECT is ignored.