Building Muscle That Has Atrophied

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

So Vikki is resting, happy, begging for food, and seems just fine. She lost 13 teeth (and had already had some removed sometime in her distant past, or lost them somehow?). She had three tumors removed- one large fatty one, and two more suspicious ones. Doc thinks he got clean margins. We are not sending them off. Vikki's main problem now is muscle. Her rear falls out from under her... she really needs to build muscle tone. I took her swimming yesterday and she LOVED it. I hope it is not too late to get muscle back, is it? I hope she doesn't have DM or anything like that. She will be tested.

[Guest FreddyGirl]

Thank goodness, been thinking about her all day today!!!

[Guest Paige12]

Thanks for the update. Keeping Vikki in my prayers! She probably feels so much better with those teeth gone.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

THANK YOU Paige and everyone...

[Batmom]

It really depends. If the problem is just that she hasn't had opportunity to move, then no, it's not too late. If the problem is that she has some degree of LS (more likely in a greyhound) or DM (less likely in a greyhound), then you might not have so much luck. If you can take her swimming, that would be a great way to help her without overstressing her. When you can't take her, walks at her pace, her distance; gentle fetch games in the house ("get the cheerio", maybe? ) ought to help.

 

So glad she got through her surgery well. Hope she makes a nice recovery.

[TheFullHouse]

Saint suffers from some rear end weakness. He loves to chase a frisby or a ball and I keep his strength up by letting him do that. I notice it greatly improves his muscle tone.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Thanks all.

 

What is LS?

 

I THINK that it's lack of moving/exercise. I can swim her almost every day- at least four days per week, so that is good news! She drags one foot, but doesn't knuckle over. You can just hear the scratch, scratch of the nails.

[Batmom]

LS = lumbosacral stenosis, DM = degenerative myelopathy. Sorry, I was shorthanding. Some degree of LS is pretty common in elderly greyhounds -- it's a narrowing of the spinal nerve canal, basically, so signals don't get through properly. Some more info here: http://www.greythealth.com/lumbosacral.html

[krissn333]

Swimming is absolutely a great activity for building muscle. When she's laying down, you can manipulate her rear legs to simulate running - that will also help. The swimming is probably the greatest thing for her though - I wish we had access to a place where Sutra could swim for exercise!

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

I am lucky lucky lucky! I am just a couple miles from the beach.

[Guest BorzoiMom]

She will come around, you just can't over do it for a while.

[NeylasMom]

Hopefully you don't mind me joining in here - I was actually going to post pretty much this exact thread. Neyla didn't fully weight bear on her back right leg for some time due to her toe issue and had muscle atrophy as a result, but her osteo meds/supplements have allowed her to start using that foot completely again. The muscle looks better, but she still has a lot of leg shaking after a higher exercise day. I've been wondering if there's stuff I could be doing at home (PT exercises maybe) to help her along, and also how long it should take to build the muscle back. I'm sort of surprised that after 2 months we're still dealing with so much shaking.

 

I considered swimming as we have facilities here, but she's nervous in new situations so I don't think it's worth it. FastDogs, if she's not up for swimming each day, even walking her in water would be good therapy. A lot of the PT places around here have underwater treadmills. Oh, that makes me think - there is a brook nearby where I let Zuri run and play while I walk in the water - I could take Neyla there to walk once a week - the water isn't that deep though, not sure if it will help.

 

Sorry, I'm semi-hijacking.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

no problem!

 

I have a spa I can turn the heat off and let her swim in place. Also she loves the beach and I had to pull her out after two hours because I wanted to leave. I imagine a few weeks of that should help. I would like to find her a life jacket and also a support harness (The Web Master Harness is the one I want).

[Guest BorzoiMom]

Life jackets are at Petsmart, even in cool colors.

[MP_the4pack]

A chiropractor will help maximize the ability to improve muscle. My Onyx is going to be 15 in Sept and although a smidge weak, her rear end is still holding up fairly well. She has had regular adjustments every other month for as long as I've had her (10 + yrs). I do swear by chiropractors.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

Wow, I will have to check that out. Thanks!

[Batmom]

Really a bad idea to do chiropractic on a dog without a firm diagnosis of any problems and an MRI. I know lots of people do it. That doesn't make it right. If I'd done chiropractic on Zema, it would've killed her. YMMV.

[Guest fandogs]

Glad Vicki got through her dental.. and now has a chance to get to the beach for swimming .. I wish I had some water near by, safe for swimming.. our small lake (4 acres) has snapping turtles.. BIG snappers... and we keep all our animals out of there.

Good luck with her.

[silverfish]

What Jey said. If she's weak due to lack of use, then you can rebuild some of the muscle in a senior, though the older they get, the more difficult it is, I'm guessing (stretching back into my more knowledgeable past) that things like growth hormone and the anabolic steroids (the natural variety) aren't produced or utilized in the way they would be in a younger dog.

 

We adopted Jack at ten years old and he had a real saggy rear end and he was underweight - his teeth were shocking, too, but he'd had two dentals by the time we got him.

 

The rear end doesn't look too bad in the first pic, until you look at how straight he's standing in the second shot. With a programme of gentle, and gently increasing, daily walks, he did really well. Here are his before and after pictures -

 

About a month after he came to us in May 2005

 

 

 

And roughly a year later, in 2006

 

 

Quite a dramatic difference, but it did take a long time. It was probably less than a year, but not far off. He was about at the peak of his fitness then, before old age started to claim him, but he enjoyed reasonable walks right up to the week before he left us.

 

You're very lucky to have the beach, and that she loves to swim. Once word of caution about swimming her four days a week, because it's really surprising how tiring it can be for them. You might want to work her up to that, and cut down the amount of time she's in the water, so you're building her up gradually, or you may find she's working off the calories instead of using them for muscle development, and since she's so unfit, watch her carefully for signs of strain.

 

I feel a bit as if I'm teaching my grandmother to such eggs here, but those are my thoughts.

[Trudy]

Really a bad idea to do chiropractic on a dog without a firm diagnosis of any problems and an MRI. I know lots of people do it. That doesn't make it right. If I'd done chiropractic on Zema, it would've killed her. YMMV.

 

agreed.

Same goes with humans (which unfortunately, I have experience with)