I reviewed Ali’s progress every week, and she made a rapid improvement. The drug is given as an injection, once a week for four weeks. This has disease modifying and anti-arthritic properties, helping to heal damaged cartilage in a joint. I used a relatively new drug, called “pentosan polysulphate”. This was a huge cutback from the half-hour twice-daily runs that Ali was used to. I also decided to give Ali some medication. She was only to be taken out on short walks, on the lead, for no more than five minutes twice a day. I told Louise to rest Ali strictly for a full three weeks. Dogs do not know that they need to rest an injured leg, so their owners need to be the ones to make that decision on their behalf. In the same way as a twisted ankle in a human will not get better without rest, a sore knee in a dog will not improve if it is being continually stressed. The first and most important part of her treatment was simple: rest. If she did not get better within a short time, then a full investigation would be the next stage. After discussing the problem with Louise, I decided to give Ali some basic treatment for her lameness first. It was quite possible that she had simply caused minor damage to her knee by knocking it or twisting it. Ali is a dog who loves her exercise, and she regularly goes on long, energetic walks. So how much did I need to do? Many lamenesses are caused by simple injuries, such as the knocks and twists that happen during normal daily life. Endoscopes can be poked into the joint to visually inspect the various components that might be damaged. And it is even possible to arrange MRI scans for full colour, three-dimensional images of dogs knees.īut Ali was only mildly lame. Manipulation under anaesthesia can help to assess the health of the ligaments. X-ray pictures are a good way of checking the bony structures of the knee. So what next? It is always possible to investigate these problems in more detail. After my examination, I could say with confidence that Ali had a problem with her knee joint, but it was not so easy to say exactly which part of her knee was damaged. And there are multiple components inside it, including cartilage, joint fluid and floating bones. Many muscles play a role in its movement. It is held together by numerous ligaments. Ali’s lameness was definitely focused in her left knee. The knee is a complex joint. I had found the focus of Ali’s problem. I finished my examination by checking her hips and her lower back, but as expected, they were fine. To be sure, I then repeated the tweaking of her left knee, and sure enough, she gave me another disapproving look. I tried carrying out the same manipulation of her right knee, and she didn’t budge a bit. She looked round sharply at me, and her ears twitched – the doggy-equivalent of raising her eyebrows. She gazed impassively at me, wearing a deadpan, lugubrious expression. I moved further up her leg, firmly squeezing and twisting her knee joint. I tweaked each of her toes, her ankle, and the rest of her lower leg. Dogs cannot tell you where they are hurting, so I had to poke and prod every square inch of her leg to try to discover what was bothering her.Īli is an easy-going, relaxed dog, and she was quite relaxed as I carried out my examination. But which part of her leg was causing her pain? I lifted her up onto the consultation table, and examined her carefully. When she walked up and down in the car park, I could see that she was not putting her full weight on her left hind leg. Her lameness had started very suddenly, and she had an obvious limp. Boxers, like Ali, tend to be less prone to arthritis, so when Ali was brought in with a lameness problem, I had to keep a very open mind about the possible cause. Labradors, German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers are examples of breeds that often suffer from creaky joints as they grow older. Lameness is very common in pet dogs, and it is much more common in some breeds.
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