Lena's limp

SevenFeathers

Dagobah Resident
Lena is a 7 year old lab mix. She started limping while walking, but runs with no problem. I took her in for xrays. The vet said no bone cancer, the bones look good, but tissue was inflamed, maybe just from overdoing it/sprain, etc. Lena does love to run and chase rabbits, and run beside other dogs behind a fence. Anyway, the doc prescribed Rimadyl for the inflammation. I try to avoid drugs, so have been trying Vitamin C and turmeric first. Not much of a response so far after a few days. I am limiting her exercise. I am a little afraid of the Rimadyl due to reading about side effects. Has anyone had good luck using the alternative treatments to reduce inflammation and pain? Or opinions on the effectiveness of Rimadyl for this kind of situation?
Lena2.jpg
 
I have an old dog that sometimes have difficulty to walk, surely inflammation also. I give to her homeopathy, from the brand Dr. Reckeweg R11.

20 drops in a little water 3 times a day the time necessary.

Also from Boiron granules Rhus Tox 9CH, 5 granules 3 times a day in a little water.

For my dogs it works fantastically.

By the way, your dog is gorgeous! What a beauty!
 
I have an old dog that sometimes have difficulty to walk, surely inflammation also. I give to her homeopathy, from the brand Dr. Reckeweg R11.

20 drops in a little water 3 times a day the time necessary.

Also from Boiron granules Rhus Tox 9CH, 5 granules 3 times a day in a little water.

For my dogs it works fantastically.

By the way, your dog is gorgeous! What a beauty!


I have been giving her rhus tox, but will check the Dr. Reckeweg remedy. Thank you! (Lena says "woof" -thanks for the compliment:-))
 
Lena is a 7 year old lab mix. She started limping while walking, but runs with no problem. I took her in for xrays. The vet said no bone cancer, the bones look good, but tissue was inflamed, maybe just from overdoing it/sprain, etc. Lena does love to run and chase rabbits, and run beside other dogs behind a fence. Anyway, the doc prescribed Rimadyl for the inflammation. I try to avoid drugs, so have been trying Vitamin C and turmeric first. Not much of a response so far after a few days. I am limiting her exercise. I am a little afraid of the Rimadyl due to reading about side effects. Has anyone had good luck using the alternative treatments to reduce inflammation and pain? Or opinions on the effectiveness of Rimadyl for this kind of situation?
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Im no veterinarian but I have a thought. Maybe try CBD balm on her?? I know you can get really good stuff in US. Or maybe even MG Oil on her joints? Good luck man!
If you want I can maybe try and ask a friend of my ex. She's a horse trainer ... I could have the info in couple of days..
 
Maybe try CBD balm on her??

Thanks, I have thought about that also and asked the vet who said it wouldn't hurt (but not approved by FDA - which I don't care about!) Since Lena would want to lick whatever I put on the leg, CBD would be OK in that case. Other things rubbed on the leg wouldn't be good if she licked them.

I even thought of massaging turpentine on the sore muscle, as when I used it on myself, it gave me immediate relief with my muscle pain! I would have to cover that since ingesting a lot of turpentine would not be good.
 
When my last dog was getting old and had problems moving about I made her bone broth to put the turmeric in. I kept it in a jar in the fridge and warmed about a cup full each morning for her as I was making my morning cup of tea. I was also giving her some liposomal vitamin C on her dinner of a night time.

I don't know if it was a combination of all but what really seemed to make the difference was Canine Rosehip Vital. I'd read about it amongst posts from friends in the dog training industry. Here in Australia it's sold through some chemists now. After she had completed the loading dose schedule and was on the maintenance schedule she was feeling good enough to act like a naughty puppy sometimes, kind of clowning around and that was delightful at her age :-).

After talking to her breeder, it's possible that she had degenerative myelopathy that was late in showing major symptoms because I'd kept her on a raw food or biologically appropriate diet.

She did start showing some symptoms when she was around 6 or 7 - she started scuffing one back foot as she walked and I'd pulled her out of agility competitions because she pulled up sore after the jumps and sometimes after running around she would hold one back foot off the ground.

The vets and canine musculo-skeletal physiotherapists couldn't really find an answer to that back then apart from that she was over tensing some muscles to carry some kind of injury or pathology. The only way to confirm DM at the time was autopsy, but since then breeders have been able to do DNA testing on parents and puppies for DM and my breeder found it in her lines so she speyed/neutered adults that she found with it and all puppies are tested before they go to homes.

I hope you find an answer for your puppa soon :-)
 
Would taking Lena for acupuncture be accessible to you? That may help.
Yes. The vet who did the xrays does acupuncture, so if the drugs or my alternative treatments don't help, that option is available.

Hello SevenFeathers, what leg is the issue, had assumed the front? lainey raises a good alternative, perhaps to be tried even before the drugs? Dietary restriction to ease inflammation and perhaps some cofactors, as Jones suggested. The Doc should have been able to give you a quadrant of muscle/ligament tissues causing the problem, so just curious. One of our dogs recently came in with a horrible front leg limp (he was in a lot of pain), so took the time to carefully go over, really slowly, cm by cm as much as I could in his body (bone, muscles, tendons and paw). The issue ended up being in the shoulder quadrant - muscle strain, so kept him as low as possible (good luck on that one), and added in some massage/trigger points once inflammation went down; and did use CBD, as was suggested above (although orally), and a few days later he started walking it off and was back to his old self, although it was easily five days before felling comfortable with his healing.

The vet said no bone cancer, the bones look good, but tissue was inflamed, maybe just from overdoing it/sprain, etc.

By the way, very nice looking 🐶, and extremely glad it is not cancer (been through that). Hope your 2d one responds as quickly as possible to treatments. May there be a great deal of running again soon!
 
The Doc should have been able to give you a quadrant of muscle/ligament tissues causing the problem

Due to the corona plandemic panic, I did not even get to go inside the vet clinic. They came out and took Lena inside. The doc came out a little later, but did not get close to me, saying she had a weak immune system. OK, I can honor her concern. She did not get specific about which area was inflamed, so I will call the clinic tomorrow to get more info.

Lena does not seem to be in any great pain, except for the limp while trotting. Slow walk-no limp. Fast running-no problem. I told them all this. I have continued the Vitamin C and turmeric for about 5 days now and she was still limping yesterday. This morning, I have given her 1 dose of the Rimadyl and will see if that makes any difference in the limp when I take her out. If so, I will assume it helped the pain. But I don't like giving drugs.

I have also been massaging her legs and shoulder area, and she shows no sign of pain, just pleasure!

Hi SevenFeathers, maybe an elastic bandage would help as well?

I thought of that, too, but have not tried it yet.
 
Hi SevenFeathers, I'm sorry to hear about Lena. Depending on your budget you could also look into red light therapy, you might find this thread helpful: Laser Therapy For Animals . Red light can be used to reduce inflammation and help injuries heal quicker. It does depend on the injury though as to what type of light therapy might be best and for how long.
 
The drug, Rimadyl, did not seem to make any difference in Lena's condition. I have continued daily doses of Vitamin C. I called the vet to advise her of Lena's status. She said that I could try DMSO. The inflamed area is around the wrist joint area (of the front right leg) which is where I first saw the "knot" on the outside. Once again, the vet said the bone looked fine (as in no bone cancer) but I should watch the area for any changes. I have purchased some DMSO gel at the farm store. What is the best way to apply the gel since there is fur covering the skin? I have put it on a couple of times just before taking her out, but I don't know if it was enough. Anyone with experience using DMSO on a dog? Please share how best to apply. Thank you!
 
When you talked about Lena's problem, the first thing I thought of was DMSO, but I didn't dare propose it thinking maybe I was making a mistake.

You're going to have to shave off the inflamed area, clean it with neutral soap, then apply DMSO, put a sterile compress on it and a bandage to hold it in place, which is an anti-scratch protective collar.
That's how I'll do it.
 
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