please... someone tell me your dog has had a MAJOR led injury and healed just fine!

[lovebug]

if so how long did it talk for him/her to use their leg again?

my dogs leg was caught in a fence that he tried to jump over. i fond him 2 mins (if that) after it happened hang, yellping and stuck on that one leg. i rushed him to the vet and they said nothing is broken. they said he hurt it REALLY bad! inturnal injuries with muscle, nerves and tendants all injured. that if he does not use it as time goes on he may lose his leg.

what are the odds he will lose his leg?
what can i do to help him along? i am already keeping him in a kennel, he is on pain meds and we ice his leg.

please someone help me with this. i am just sick! i dont know what to do (other then the vets advice) i am just ill thinking my once 4 legged dog might have to go down to 3 legs! i know 3 legged dogs do well, but thats not the point!

so does anyone have a story like this and the dog did just fine?

please someone respond to this. i cant sleep until i have some kind of advice.

[HopefulJo]

About two months ago, my 3.5-year-old Australian Shepherd did what he does best, and chased the neighbors car. Usually, they stop and proceed slowly, but this was the teenager on his way to school... Casey ran INTO the car (didn't get hit by a tire) and afterwards, was able to stand, but his right rear leg was just hanging there- he was unable to move it. I rushed him to the vet, who did an xray and determined he didn't break anything, but his hip was dislocated.

We were sent to an animal hospital, where they kept him another 2 days, and did surgery to pop his hip back in place and put a pin in to secure it. We were told to keep him inactive as much as possible (yeah right) for 3 weeks, when they'd take the pin out, and then keep him with low activity for another couple weeks.

Finally (!) this ordeal is over, and the only evidence it ever happened is his shaved hip showing the surgery scars. He's doing great and is back to his old, bouncy self. Also, we're building a fence. :-P

If we hadn't done the surgery, I don't know what would have happened- if he would have lost the leg or what. I don't think it would have popped back in on its own. If your vet thinks that nothing's broken, and the bones are where they need to be, the muscles can heal. Hopefully he'll get up the nerve to try to use it some, and strengthen it again. I know how scary it is!

[lonegirl]

I also wanted to reassure you that I have seen many 3-legged pets. I had a 3 legged cat who many people didn't realize had only 3 legs as she got along great. I have seen many 3 legged dogs do well too.

I hope that time will heal and you do not have to worry about amputation but wanted to give you some positive info if you have to go that route.

[laohaire]

I dunno about dogs and leg injuries (except, yeah, I see a couple of 3 legged dogs around town and they get around fine) but my cat was hit by a car and it broke his spine. Somebody found him and kept him in a basket for 3 days while my mother was looking for him. She finally went door to door (and this house was actually quite a ways from ours, she really loved the cat and was committed to finding him). So, broken back, 3 days with no medical attention. He was not only fine (well, after surgery and healing) but he ultimately lived to be 22 years old.

[lexapurple]

The last vet I took my dog to said that "it would have been better if he broke the leg instead of what happened"
Unless you dog's leg is fixed properly ASAP it is NOT going to be just fine. Don't wait, take your dog to specialist to see what can be done if anything. I wish I had insisted on referral when my JRT just hurt his leg instead of waiting for three weeks liek my vet recomended. Two regular vets at separate clinincs didn't even think anything was wrong other than laceration of the skin two inches below the tear. I tried to seek opinions from other vets and found out that they knew next to nothing about tendon/muscle tear. If I took him in right away it might have saved him being in constant pain now. He has torn his calf muscle and showed simptoms of partial tendon tear. He has recovered well and can use his leg to get around but he is in pain and will need a hock fuzing surgery in the future when pain gets to uncomfortable. He is a JRT so it doesn't bother him yet.

[North_Of_60]

What diagnostic techniques did they do to determine what was damaged?? An x-ray, while it will show bones and laxity in the joints indicating torn soft tissues, isn't really reliable for determining the extent of the damage. If all they said was that if he doesn't use it he may loose it, I'd be looking for a second opinion. If there is that much soft tissue damage, is his leg immobilized? Cast? Splint? Anything?

Sounds like an odd thing to say...

Having said that, we chose not to operate on our senior dog who had a torn ACL. We did find a rehab center, and she has healed wonderfully, and still has about 90% mobility in that leg. At her age the risk of surgery itself was enough to consider other options, plus she has had pancreas and trachea issues in the past, so intubating her and causing undue stress was also a concern. Not to mention that in senior dogs the loss mobility during rehabilitation can cause injury to the opposite leg, and it increases the risk of arthritis, etc.

I don't really know what to say about your dog, because the the injury is kind of vague.

[lovebug]

Update

my dog Riley is doing better today. he is using his leg but it is still limping and lifts it up more often then not, but he is using it.

i added some MSM into his food to help with the muscle injury and glucosamene (sp) to help with the join he twisted.

i am still keeping him confined for most of the day. he is doing really well at keeping himself quite, but hates the kennel! my other dog just lays next to the kennel when he is in there. i let Riley out to go potty alone so they dont try to play.

all in all i think he is doing better, but still has a long way to go.

THANK YOU so much for your stories it has helped to know i am not alone!!!

i had to move my trip to next week. we have someone living in the house full time while i am away, but i wanted to make sure he was in a good place before i left.