Dog had surgery a month ago still won't use leg.?

Question

Well, my stepmother's nine year old pit has had surgery about a month ago on her hip. Well, the vet said give the dog a month and it's been and she still refuses to use her leg *unless* she's very excited. Then she'll do little steps on it. Anyways, we've been giving her massages daily yet no progress. What should we do at home?

Answer 1

Your Mother dog is 9yrs old.My dog is going to have surgery for a bad leg and the Vet said because my dog is 7yrs old it will take at least 8weeks.

Massage is very good to increase blood supply to the area.Also has your Mom given her dog any supplements

like Glucosmaine chondritan?

Also if possible can you give your dog water therapy.

Please google information on your Mom's dog's condition.

The dog is a senior and needs time to get back to itself.

good Luck.Maybe a little Tramadol from the Vet will help.

Answer 2

Phone your vet and let them know she is still not using it and ask if you should be worried and what is OK to do to encourage its use.  Swimming is a good form of exercise for dogs that recently had surgery because it provides resistance but also supports their weight so the leg doesn't have to bear it all.  Many places have hydrotherapy pools specially for dogs.  Passive range of motion exercise programs designed by your vet are another option.  If they are sure the leg is healed enough to bear weight and that it will not cause her undue pain, there are things you can do to encourage her to use it, like putting a soft, loose bandage on the good foot to make it awkward for her to use it, which often gets a dog to use the injured leg for balance.  If that fails, having the vet put a full-splint on the good leg is an option, and I am sure there are others.  Again, this is something you want your vet to be closely involved in and you do not want to do any of this without their OK.  If there's something not quite right in there, you could cause her enormous pain and damge it further.  It's possible they may want to X-ray the hip and make sure everything still looks good in there first.  

Oh, and unless the vet showed you the proper massage techniques and said it would be OK, I would cease that as well, by manipulating muscle tissue you could be delaying the healing process and causing more harm than good.  I had to have a few 'lessons' with a licensed pet massage therapist to learn techniques, amount of pressure to apply, and where it was OK to massage before the vet said it was OK for me to attempt some at-home massage.

Answer 3

Her leg is probably still healing from the surgery. I'm not sure if massaging the leg is going to help much. Does she make sounds when you massage it? What i'd recommend is that you let it heal on it's own so it doesn't get worse.