June 03, 2005

Muscle Strain

Thommo has been lame for a few weeks - he has pulled the muscle at the front of his thigh. He had a week on Metacam but at my regular vet he is absolutely rigid with fear so I wasn't sure that it was possible to diagnose just what the problem was.

So we went back to Barbara, a holistic vet who helped him to 100% recovery from a cruciate tear, and managed to extend Diesel's life. Her book Healthy Dogs is my reference for all dog health questions. He was a bit anxious here, too, so I used the strategies in Click to Calm . It was written for the aggressive dog, but given that aggression can be an outcome of stress, the strategies work well for a dog that stresses in particular situation. Thommo has a highly reactive handler, so teaching him to see my body language in a stressful situation as a cue for him to focus on a job like carrying a toy has been really useful.

He has had chiropractic to correct the alignment of his spine, acupuncture and gentle muscle manipulation and has been given Traumeel in tablet form. I'm icing his thigh after exercise for two minutes, and putting a heat pad on it when he beds down for the night. After two weeks of treatment he is no longer limping, but we'll keep the treatment up for at least another week.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi:
I have a question I wanted to ask you about this offline. If you could email me, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
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