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Hi Laurie,

I have been asked to assist with a case of a bad result from FHO on a little silkie. After the op he was not given any kind of rehab, he was left to run around at will but of course he just picked that leg right up and went for it!

Fast forward 5 months and we now have a dog that avoids using the limb, has significant muscle loss and reduced extension - 70 degrees!

Moving forward, I wanted to get your expert opinion to see if there is anything you would add in other than just starting him where he should have the day post op?

Follow up radiographs were performed and agreement was that bone on bone contact is not the concern and that aggressive rehab should be started.

Thank you as always,
K.

Hi K!

Firstly, sorry for my tardy reply! I was teaching last weekend when your question came in… and I”m just sort of getting caught up now!

Okay, so CRAZY!!!!

My biggest suggestion is to slow him down for walking. I love my land treadmill for such things. You can ‘mess with’ the ‘good’ leg (i.e. resist it, make it step over your finger, place it further forwards as it steps) as a way to get the dog to spend more weight bearing time on the post-op leg. You could do this in an UWT as well… but I love the land for this one.
Yes, start back at square one for weight bearing exercises.
You’ll now need to get very tricky with exercises b/c the little stinker has learned to avoid it.
Try Lovin’ on the stairs: front feet up on a stair step while rear feet are at the bottom, and then keep him there by giving praise, food, toys…
Toe-touch hanging: lift him off the ground, but let his toes just touch the ground so he tries to reach down / stretch out to touch the ground. If possible, maybe use a table top or counter top (with something on top for grip) and just let his post-op leg be the one that can touch.
Make him walk everywhere with something annoying on the ‘good’ leg. Start with a bootie, or sock, or vetwrap. This might be one of those cases where you get as aggressive as taping or vetwrapping the ‘good’ foot into flexion so it’s dysfunctional - and he learns to have to use the post-op one.
YOU can likely do the stretching, but don’t make the owners do it. It’s not going to be pretty, and if you break the ‘owner-animal bond’, they’ll stop doing all the exercises. So make a bargain with the owners that YOU will be the bad guy, and they can just have ‘fun’ & non-painful exercises to do at home.

This should get you started! Good luck!

Cheers,

Laurie