I saw an adorable 3 year-old cocker spaniel over the weekend who had sustained a mild injury to her right hind limb about a week and a half ago - she is only limping slightly. I discovered a MASSIVE muscle mass difference in her back legs (the left side had much more muscle). Given that she is still using the right leg pretty well, she shouldn't have lost so much muscle in such a short amount of time. This tells me that her "injury" is more chronic and has been going on much longer than originally thought. I'm suspecting a chronic, very mild partial cruciate tear!
She will be resting for another 3-4 weeks and then we will begin a very slowly progressive exercise program. The owner would like to try to strengthen up the muscles with the hopes of avoiding a surgery down the line. I'll keep you posted on her progress! It should be an interesting case.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
