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Rear leg/foot sensitivity


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Our Border Collie, Billie, is now 3 years old.  He's been struggling since he was about 8 months with what the Vet thought was probably a torn ACL.  We live on a farm where he runs free and was the first Border Collie I have had that was obsessed with vertically jumping at things (bird houses, etc.). He, of course created his own obstacle courses in the yard and was continually jumping straight up a lot.  He developed something eventually that made him seem to favor his right rear leg.  After having him checked out, the only option was a surfer that may or may not work and he would have to be kenneled for months.  After checking around and reading some other stories on this surgery and it's low success rate (expensive surgery) we opted to take him home and give him all the supplemental things we could to rebuild tissue.  When he runs you can't even see a limp.  When he lays around more and is less active in the winter, he is worse.  It's almost Spring and he usually doesn't seem to have as much of problem, but recently he's gotten much worse to where he can hardly go up a few stairs.  I assume his left, supporting, good leg is starting to get weak from carrying so much of the balance.  My question is whether there is another hope I have and whether this is a common thing,  I have had 4 Borders in my life, and I haven't had this before.  

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Hi, Barbi, My 12 yr old Gibbs has damaged ACLs on both knees. After taking him to a veterinary orthopedist, I decided to not have the surgery, for the reasons that you listed. I've also read/heard that the recovery/rehab is long.

The vet I saw suggested doing some physical therapy exercises with him to keep the muscles as strong as possible and encourage circulation. They're basically the exercises you'd be doing with a dog post-surgery anyway. Gibbs also gets gabapentin, (for pain)  and rimadyl. (for inflammation)  I know the rimadyl has some bad long-term effects, so you'll want to think about that one. 

The exercises are pretty simple, like having the dog circle around a chair or stool, in both directions. Another one is to have the dog do some weaving in and out between obstacles. Any exercise should be done slowly, and build up slowly to more repetitions. On-leash walks were also suggested, building up slowly to longer walks. Gibbs enjoys these 'games', as he gets a few treats here and there when I work with him.

These exercises seem to help Gibbs a lot. His limp is definitely more obvious when I've skipped a day or two of exercise with him. You might try these with Billie, starting very slowly with 1 or 2 repetitions a day for a total of maybe 3 sessions a week.

You could also put a ramp in place over the stairs, if that's possible. that might be easier for him. Letting him run and jump might be making the injury worse, and you also run the risk of injuring his left knee.

There are some other exercises the ortho vet recommended, I'll look those up and post again.

Ruth & Gibbs

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