He's Only 4.5 And Limping

[XTRAWLD]

I could tell Ryder was off for this whole week, and he unfortunately did not improve, since my original post a few days ago. We went to chiro yesterday.

 

Dr. Matt asked Ryder to walk in the parking lot to determine his limp. He asked for all his background info, where I explained his previous limp from impacting his knee of our stairs years ago. He was happy we were giving him GLM and to continue to do so.

 

He could tell immediately what Ryder's problem areas were, and performed a couple other simple tests to find out what is bothering him. He got down on the floor with Ryder and made sure he was very comfortable with him being around. Ryder tends to be shy with men. He made three area adjustments while Ryder munched away on dehydrated liver treats I was holding. I don't think I will ever get that smell out of my hands now.

 

He has treated greyhounds before and 12 are current clients, all are being treated for nearly the same issues. It is determined that it is the racing life catching up to Ryder and his reasoning was explained to us very clearly. I'm very happy that Dr. Matt took the time to educate us and answer all of our questions.

 

After his final adjustment and roughly 5 minutes later, Ryder's face changed. He had a happy face on. He seemed very content and it was almost like a "relief" face...."ahhhhhh". We all noticed the change. We walked out of the room, and Ryder carried his head higher than he has been for the past couple weeks. (He always seems to keep it down, I thought it was a non confidence thing, but perhaps a little of it is to alleviate pain). Dr. Matt told us he will likely lay low for about 24 hours and would like to see him twice a week for the next month at least. We have 4 appointments booked and visible results as far as alleviating his limping should be seen in 4-6 sessions.

 

I may have not have been a big believer in this type of "medicine" before. I went through physio last year for an injury and I think that experience changed my perception regarding other methods to relieve pain and stress. Seeing the look on Ryder's face yesterday was all it took for me to know we had done the right thing. I'm somewhat mad at myself that I put it off for so long and didn't take him sooner. But more importantly, we have now gone and done it.

 

Today Ryder has been holding his head up when walking, and he has a bit more bounce in his step. While we are not and should not expect results overnight, he's clearly exhibiting signs of a happy dog, and that is all that matters.

Edited April 15, 2012 by XTRAWLD

[Remolacha]

:yay

[vjgrey]

I'm glad he seems to be feeling better, but as someone who's just lost my hound to Osteo, I would not wait "4 to 6 sessions" for the limp to go away. A set of X-rays isn't that expensive, and if they don't show anything you can feel comfortable going ahead with the adjustments. Just my two cents.

[lotsoffreetime]

I am glad the adjustment helped Ryder, but I would also suggest x-rays as a caution. We took Merlin to Chiro for a while (not for a limp...his back end collapses when we lift up his back paws to clean them and we were hoping chiro would help...we were also noticing "hot spots" that indicted inflammation near his mid-back area)...and the chiro herself was grateful we had had x-rays done; she said she would have recommended them herself if we had not done them, as she was able to see structural anomolies that could be pinching nerves and potentially causing problems...