fourleg.com

How long after FHO surgery do you become concerned about the dog not weight bearing??

I have been seeing a shitzu that was run over by a pick-up truck about six weeks ago. She had surgery for diaphragm tear - her abdominal contents were in her chest cavity - and FHO. She is still hardly weight bearing on the FHO leg. She lives a fair way away so I only see her every two weeks, we have been doing three leg standing, walking over poles, scrunchie on the non-surgery hind leg, weight shifting exercises.....

Anything I'm missing? I can move the'hip' around, she has full ROM and she doesn't give a pain response. Although, I am fairly certain she has done something significant to the stifle also as there is a lot of crepitus and it feels unstable. I have advised them to go back to the vet and I am going to send a progress report.

But, this is the first FHO I have seen, so wanted to check in and find out what is 'normal'

Thanks

Not normal. That is way behind schedule.

Thanks for your reply. I have sent a progress report to the vet and advised them to take her back for a follow-up.

While I agree that she should be walking by now... the curious thing is that she doesn't have pain when you do ROM and she has full ROM. Not a bad thing to have the joint radiographed to be certain, but I would also put into my thought processing that the rest of the dog took a 'beating' as well with the diaphragm surgery etc.

So your additional thought processes:
[*]Wind up Pain / Sensory Sensitization: with so much going on - perhaps this is a component to non-use.
[*]Fascial restrictions - iliopsoas / diaphragm / abdomen - abdominal muscles, etc
[*]Crappy surgery (while I tend to usually worry about the docs leaving in a sharp edge or bone spur, I have also seen a dog or two where I suspect the doc took the lesser trochanter off in it's entirety, thereby leaving the dog with no iliopsoas whatsoever! (in which case, you see a rock-hard, trigger point - laden sartorius with reduced extensibility.) Or they nicked the iliopsoas... or femoral nerve in surgery...
[*]Small-dog-don't-need-this-leg-syndrome: Every now and then we see these small dogs who just refuse to use the leg... and they easily adapt to 3-legged. You have to be fairly tricky and sneaky to get them to 'buy into' using the leg.

If it's the latter, then really 'monkey' with the good leg and just ask for walking. (i.e. tight vet wrap around the good foot before going for a walk - i.e. 5 - 10 mins)... and when I say tight, I mean don't cut off blood circulation, just make it uncomfortable to use). I've even gone so far as to bandage / tape the good foot into flexion (I've only had to do this twice ever...). Maybe add several weights, bandages, etc to the good leg before going for a walk. If you have a treadmill, you could maybe just push on the rear end as she walks... sometimes you can get them to use it if you take away the 'hopping' option.

Good luck either way!

Cheers,

Laurie