How many of you use a holistic vet?

[TWW]

Best wishes for the Energizer Mazey . Hope all goes well.

 

[Hector]

You can get toe grippers if you don't want to purchase runners, just a thought.

 

[sjdavenport]

Are the toe grippers the little rubber things that go around the nail? If so, I would definitely come home to Mazey having eaten them all. She is a closet nail chewer. She's having a really good day today, her limp is much less discernible, even after our walk tonight. I can't say for sure if it's from the treatments yet since she was having good days mixed with bad days before, but hopefully it's a really good sign. I may also have taken advantage of post Christmas sales and went crazy buying stuff for her when she was having a particularly painful time......lol. She got a cushy new bed (one of the cats peed on one of the old bolster bed because I left them home with Kerry at Christmas instead of taking them with me, so I replaced that one). I also ordered her a heated blanket to sleep with at night since we keep our house at a balmy 58 degrees. I figured that wasn't helping her stiffness. I was a little worried about it heating up too much, but it has an auto shut off and 10 heat settings so I can keep it on the lowest one. She also sleeps right at my side of the bed so I can reach down and monitor the temp. Fingers crossed that she keeps doing well!

Enjoying her soft new bed:


Jealous Rhaegar


Mazey getting around better (please excuse my dirty house):
[video=youtube;Bg4Z0_4I0y4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg4Z0_4I0y4&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Hector]

Yes they are lol. Well I guess that won't work. She does look better and nice looking bed. Poor Rhaegar hahaha.

 

[sjdavenport]

Mazey is still feeling pretty good, but the real test will be tomorrow after we take them to the state park. I haven't heard anything back about her tick panel yet, but I'll probably schedule her next acupuncture appointment for next week. Her heated blanket came, and it is a big hit with everyone. I plan on only using it at night in her normal bed, but currently have it set up in the living room testing the settings and making sure it doesn't get too warm. Everyone immediately swarmed it.

 

[Hector]

Mazey is still feeling pretty good, but the real test will be tomorrow after we take them to the state park. I haven't heard anything back about her tick panel yet, but I'll probably schedule her next acupuncture appointment for next week. Her heated blanket came, and it is a big hit with everyone. I plan on only using it at night in her normal bed, but currently have it set up in the living room testing the settings and making sure it doesn't get too warm. Everyone immediately swarmed it.

View attachment 50727View attachment 50728

Where did you get the heated blanket? Is it for humans?

Looks really comfy.

 

[sjdavenport]

It is just one for humans I got off of Amazon. The manual was very alarmist though....don't fold it (even though it arrived folded), don't use it on a sofa, don't let pets use it, and on and on. She used it last night, and it had automatically turned itself off by this morning. She felt really good this morning and was acting really hyper. We went on a longer walk than usual this morning, about 2 hours. I could barely even tell she was favoring any leg, she did awesome. I should be able to tell by tonight if the extra activity causes her pain to flare up.

[video=youtube;hEtOMec-mlE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEtOMec-mlE[/video]

[video=youtube;-gTGTbBwV4s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gTGTbBwV4s[/video]

 

[Hector]

Mazey looked like she was struggling a bit on the second video. The thing I worry about those heated blankets is the washing part. I think I'll stick with heating pads for now.

 

[fran-and]

Hi there, we starting taking our BM to a Holistic Vet after disappointing service from a traditional vet. They determined that she had HD (from an X-ray for another issue) and were pushing for immediate surgery. She was only 9 months old at the time and still growing. We decided to try Holistic and would never look back. We started on acupuncture which worked really well, in addition to hydrotherapy and NIS. Our girl is now 3 years old and even though the signs of HD may become obvious as she gets older, we are doing everything we can to help her along the way

 

[sjdavenport]

I'm sure to some degree I may be seeing what I want to see, but there's no doubt that she did quite a bit better than the last time we took a very similar walk. She was a little more stiff that night, but not as painful as before. She has her next acupuncture session tomorrow afternoon. We scheduled after they called me today to let me know the tick panel was completely clear, so that was great news. Those tick borne diseases can get ugly sometimes. Hopefully she continues to improve!

 

[sjdavenport]

We started on acupuncture which worked really well, in addition to hydrotherapy and NIS.

Do you mind elaborating on the NIS? I'm not familiar with it. Thanks!

 

[sjdavenport]

My poor Mazey girl is just breaking my heart. Just watching her try to get around tonight is bringing tears to my eyes. She has seemed like she's been doing ok lately. We added no slip runners in our house to minimize "wipe outs" while she's playing or running to the back door, and added Duralctin and Phycox to her supplements. She's had some days where she's extra stiff in her left hind, but nothing terrible. Her holisitic vet thought her range of motion felt better than our first visit, and thought we could go another four weeks before our next acupuncture visit. I had even ordered some needles to try at home. We went on a pretty standard walk this morning, which she did fine on, but she has just been in bad shape ever since. She's spent the day in her bed with her heating pad not wanting to get up. She is ALWAYS up my butt 24/7, so the fact that she isn't following me constantly tells me she's really hurting. The way she's acting makes me think a CCL injury, which I don't even want to think about. It's definitely her knee that is hurting. I did some gentle manipulation, and there's definitely more laxity in her left knee than her right. Obviously my hands are quite unpracticed, and I'm going to get her into my normal vet ASAP on Monday to get her opinion (and more radiographs). So I could really use some good thoughts and vibes for my old girl Mazey. I really hope we're not looking at a CCL issue. I even gave her an NSAID (which I don't think she handles all that well) about eight hours before I took this video, and it didn't even touch the pain. I just hate seeing her like this.



[video=youtube;4dQvwcNqs10]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dQvwcNqs10&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[Hector]

Oh, oh no. Poor Mazey. That definitely doesn't look comfortable.

I hope she gets well soon. Lots of rest, lots of rest.

 

[NYDDB]

Oh, man....she doesn't want to put any weight on it at all.

I agree with Hector- rest, and more rest. And it seems that what she wants to do at this point anyway.

Best of luck; CCL injury is NO FUN.

 

[QY10]

Poor Mazey

On the plus side, it looks like she knows exactly what she needs - rest!

Angus, Thalia, Cache and I send lots of positive and healing thoughts!

I can vouch that CCL injuries are no fun, but my boy has been making a ton of progress with his. So there can be light at the end of the tunnel..


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sjdavenport]

She hasn't really improved any overnight. Up until this point, we all assumed it was run of the mill arthritis, so she hasn't been on exercise restriction at all. So today was day one of enforced rest, and it already really sucks. I fully sympathize with those of you who have had to restrict your pups' exercise. We took Rhaegar and Atlas on their walk this morning and left Mazey at home. I know from our webcam we've used that she just sits by the door and cries when I leave, and it's much worse if I take the other dogs with me at the same time. We left her with her favorites, a greenie and a trachea chew, but she didn't even touch them while we were gone. I got her an appointment with my vet tomorrow at 11 (hopefully my professors won't crucify me for sneaking out of class). I'm praying for good news, but I've kind of already prepared my boyfriend for the idea that it may be a CCL injury, which could potentially mean some very expensive treatments. Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst! And thanks for the good thoughts!

 

[NYDDB]

There is hope, if it is a CCL tear, especially as Mazey is a smaller dog. Check out this site if you want to follow the conservative management route- a gold mine of information. Dog ACL Injury-- Is Surgery Really Needed?

Mateo's success has been a roller-coaster ride: some improvement, then some set-backs (i.e. after meeting a dog friend on the street he hadn't seen for awhile...some wrestling takes place, and then...he's limping more.) But, we are getting there.

Sending positive thoughts for your sweet girl's healing!

 

[QY10]

The conservative management treatments are pricey, but it will cost less than surgery. That is sort of how I cope with how much I spend on Angus (haha). It just means that I have had to make cutbacks on our spending and really stick to my budget.

Angus goes 2x a week for his treatments and I have honestly seen nothing but progress. He has been going for about a month or so now and he's doubled the distance he can walk on the underwater treadmill, more than tripled the amount he can walk outside and he's now walking on concrete and small inclines/declines without any issues for a minimum of 30 minutes.

In addition to his treatments, we do different stretches at home and I also massage his injured leg.

I hated leaving Angus at home, too. He would always rush to the door in excitement hoping that he would get to go along for whatever fun I'd be having with the other dogs. I coped with it by spending some extra quality time with him each day. The girls would both get locked away and Angus and I would play a game, cuddle on the couch, I'd give him a massage, extra treats, a short (5-10 minutes) leashed walk around the yard etc...It made me feel less guilty for leaving him in the house so much and I think Angus and I both benefited from me not feeling like such a failure.

It's been a long road, but I wouldn't even entertain the idea of surgery especially not after seeing how much progress he's made without it... That is just me though!

 

[sjdavenport]

Well, unfortunately I'm pretty certain she has at least a partial tear. I went ahead and did the cranial drawer test on both her knees again just now because I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep tonight for thinking about it. Her left has a definite cranial drawer sign, and I know if even I can tell, then it has to be pretty significant. Of course I'm trying to wait until after her appointment tomorrow to know for sure, but it's impossible for me to not already be thinking about surgical vs conservative/alternative treatments. No matter what, we can work things out financially to do whatever is needed for her (we don't really need to eat, right?), and I should get a discount, so that never hurts. Previously, I would have gone straight for surgery, no second thoughts. I really appreciate yall sharing your experiences with Mateo and Angus (and thanks for the links). I've kept up with your threads on their progress, and it's given me a lot to think about. Of course I want to go with whatever will give her the quickest recovery time (and therefore the shortest period of restricted activity) and least chance of future arthritis, but there unfortunately doesn't seem to be a consensus on what will provide that. I could probably read journal articles all day every day for a week and still not come out with a good answer. I am going to have a LOT to think about, that's for sure. She's my baby, I can't stand seeing her in pain. We went into mastiff puppy ownership with Rhaegar knowing that orthopedic problems could definitely be a possibility, but instead it's my tiny little Mazey! They certainly surprise me every day. I will update tomorrow after her appointment.

 

[sjdavenport]

My vet confirmed a ruptured CCL. We have a consult with the orthopedist on Wednesday.