Dealing With A Hock Injury Questions

[Guest SillyIzzysMom]

We're foster sitting a sweet boy who is 7 years old. He's got an old injury--a broken right hock. You can see that leg has a little bit of a wonky bend and a knot.

 

He limps significantly when he first gets up off of a bed, really hopping for a few steps then just a general favoring of that leg. I've been taking him on a daily walk with my crew--about half a mile to three quarters of a mile every morning. We take it slow, lots of pee and sniff breaks for eHe lags a little, but after a few minutes the limp looks better, but it is still somewhat noticeable. I might be wrong, but it seems like, maybe, his limp is worse than when he arrived a week ago. Of course, it's been cold and rainy--exactly the worst weather for old injuries.

 

The food he's been on has some glucosamine (pro plan large breed) and I've started adding some powdered glucomamine, but I'm not sure how much to add.

 

So I guess I have two questions:

 

1. Is it a mistake to take him on walks? With an old injury like this is the exercise doing him more harm than good? I feel like it seems to loosen him up some, but I worry that I'm making him uncomfortable.

 

2. What is the right amount of glucosamine? I'm not sure what he weighs but he is a very tall boy, but thin. . .I'm thinking around 75 pounds.

 

3. Any other suggestions? I just worry that he's hurting and I'm not helping him in anyway

Edited December 14, 2009 by SillyIzzysMom

[RobinM]

We recently adopted a newly retired boy, Ollie who retired because of a bad broken right hock.

 

Vet said walks were fine. Modify as needed but we have been walking him 2 x a day about 1 mile each walk.

 

We are giving 1200mg of pure glucosomine.

[Guest Energy11]

My former vet/employer always recommended 1200-1500 mg/a day. Good Luck

[Guest SillyIzzysMom]

I'm thinking this guys last home (for 3 years) didn't do a lot of walking. They returned him because they thought he "wasn't happy" and I suspect what happened is that this boy, a quiet unassuming sweetie, just faded into the woodwork at that home and never got much attention at all. He is all knobby bones, not a lot of muscle, gawky gangly. . .you get the picture.

 

It seems to me (as I get older. . .and oh. . .how I am getting older!!) that life is a "use it or lose it" proposition, so I'm all about using it. But I sure don't want to cause injury.

 

And thanks about dosage. He's on some food with some glucosamine, so I'm trying jiggle the dose with the additives. . .your numbers help a lot!

 

M

[SPDoggie]

Our broken hock boy also gets glucosamine added to his food each day, 1200mg I believe. We've had him for 4 years and he is now 9. We have noticed a definite stiffening with him if he does not get the added glucosamine. He is stiffer after lying down but loosens up quickly. We have not had to modify walks for him, but if it is a particularly rambunctious day he might get a doggie aspirin. We can tell he is getting stiffer with age, but nothing dramatic yet.

[dante2zoe]

Our broken hock girl turned 8 in August. She broke it at age 4 while racing. She doesn't jog with the youngsters, but does all the walks and hardly ever lags when the weather is nice. Right now, it is cold and damp/rainy and it bothers her. She loves her lure pole (Saturday's post) but just gimps around some until she feels better. She gets fish oil and SynoviG3 daily, which helps.

[Jiffer]

The leg will strengthen with time. I'd shorten his walks for a little while until he's had some time to adjust to them.

 

Get him on 1500mg of Glucosamine HCL/day, avoid the Sulfate if you can, it's not as easily absorbed by dogs.

 

Atlas received a serious break in his last race to his hock. He has complete foot involvement in his. He can barely bend his toes and he does not walk on his main foot pad, just the toes.

Here's what his leg looks like:

 

He's quite able to do long walks and to run and play. But it took time to build up the muscle in his leg to be able to enjoy it without discomfort. He's 10.5 years old now and can easily do a 5km walk.

[GreytHoundPoet]

Timmy broke his hock in his last race. He can easily do long walks and he plays and runs with the best of them. Steps bother him after a long while so we built him a ramp to go outside. He does start to limp more than normal if he is overdoing it and we know to stop him. He takes glucosamine as well.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

I help to rehab broken leg hounds fostering. I use a regiment of walks starting with a few blocks at first (to guage the strength of the leg muscles) and after a month they are up to the full 1.5-2 miles a day walk with my other hounds. You do need to be sure to keep them walking as if they are allowed to limp on the leg and pull it up, you could lose muscle mass due to atrophy. I also do the "wheelbarrow" excercise. Basically what you do is take their front legs, lift them up so they are standing on their rear legs, then slowly walk them backwards so they have to walk and put full weight on their rear legs. This is also another strenghtening thing you can do to help your hound. I give 1500mg of human-grade Gluco to my hounds. I have a male hound that shattered his hock, had 2 rods and 8 small pins to reset. After a few months he had to have his hardware removed. After about a year and a half of post hardware removal plus daily walks and excercise, he now can run at a staggering 43mph when he wants to go full out. They can and do recover fully from injuries. Just like humans, if you break a bone, once it heals, its just as useful as before.

 

Chad

Edited December 14, 2009 by Greyt_dog_lover

[Guest SillyIzzysMom]

Thanks so much for the replies. Now I've got it figured out how much of the supplement to add to his food and actually today is warmer and drier and I think he seems a little better. I got worried because his regular foster mom said that he rarely favored his good leg and kept up on walks so I couldn't imagine what was going on. Maybe this is partly a product of the icky weather. I'm keeping an eye on it--if he doesn't look way better I'm probably taking him into the vet for a check, but I feel encouraged in general with your replies and his somewhat improved attitude today.

[Guest GreysAndMoreGreys]

It's also very possible that there was ligament damage to that leg when it broke.

What happens sometimes is that they stretch out that main ligament on the back of the hock which then causes a hyper extension of the lower leg.

 

The walks sure can't hurt and I agree will help build up the muscle which is needed. Muscle helps support bone, so muscle tone is a good thing