Sunday, April 29, 2012

Cruciate Ligament Tear in Two Legs

It's been about a month and a half since the Veterinarian diagnosed Aspen with a cruciate ligament tear in one of her hind legs.  In spite of all of our attentiveness and care, a little over a week ago, the other leg sustained the same injury.  She is watched over almost constantly, and this happened during a moment when she simply tried to go up a small step, it didn't take much.

Now that a week has passed, she is still limited, but moving about more than she did again due to some measure of healing, and again needs to be watched carefully so that she keeps on healing.

Thankfully, she is a dog with a good nature, and being older, tends to rest a lot anyway, but she misses the very thing she should never have been doing at her age, jumping up and down from the couch, and is learning to be content with her bed on the floor and occasional times up next to us on the couch or chair when we lift her and take her down.

We have a special harness for her now that supports her body from front to back with the hook that the leash attaches to toward the back rather than the neck are.  This helps to take some of the weight off of her back legs when walking...she it taking her time getting used to this.  Though she has hobbled about just a bit when she needs to go out and take care of business, this week we are trying to do just a little more controlled walking...nothing too active...to build and maintain her leg muscles and mobility.

She is on a anti-inflammatory pain medicine for dogs right now, but soon we hope to switch over to a Glucosamine/Chondroiton product in order to preserve what is left of the cartilage in the joints that will now rub together un-naturally due to her injury.

We will keep you updated on her progress and if you can learn anything from our experience, when your Yorkie reaches a certain age, don't allow them to jump up and down.

 

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