Can't Lie Down Well

[greyhead]

Shane did a basic hockey stop in the yard today and now has a swelling inside one knee. It looked like tibial periostitis (sp?) in the book Care of the Retired and Racing Greyhound. Called the vets; tech talked to vet and said tramadol and methocarbamol every 8 hours. I also am icing a bit, which they said was fine. (His heartbeat was initially very fast and fluttery, and he still pants intermittently.)

 

Trouble is, he only lays down for 15 minutes at a time, at most, and then stands for an hour to 90 minutes. Both legs start shaking. He's too heavy to lift into the car, and he won't be able to jump in. Anybody have any experience with a dog who can't lie down (until their legs give out)?

 

I asked the tech how long to ice, and she surprised me by saying 5 minutes per hour. Doesn't sound like enough to me!

 

Thanks for any advice.

[Batmom]

Has he had those meds before? Some of that could be a medication reaction -- have seen it myself with tramadol.

 

Getting a heavy dog in the car by oneself: Half the dog at a time. If it's a high car, it can help to put something (anything sturdy) on the ground that you can both stand on, to make the distance a little less. I lift front end in, boost back end.

 

Ice: Don't want to do it too long or you'll damage tissue. Bag of frozen peas or corn wrapped in a towel is good.

[greyhead]

Thanks, Batmom. He has had both those meds before, so we even have them on hand. But he hasn't ever had them simultaneously like this. I can understand why he might feel a little strange, and pant. But my fear is that his back legs still hurt too much for him to lie down and stay down.

 

Skip wondered if it would help to walk him around a little, to loosen things up. We just don't know.

Edited February 26, 2013 by greyhead

[Newgreymom]

Dylan had the same exact problem. Took him to evet and they gave him a large starting amount of Methocarbomol by IV then I got him the next day and he was much better. I had to give him 500mg every 8 hrs after that for a couple of weeks. Talk to your vet about increasing the Methocarbamol.

[greyhead]

Dylan had the same exact problem. Took him to evet and they gave him a large starting amount of Methocarbomol by IV then I got him the next day and he was much better. I had to give him 500mg every 8 hrs after that for a couple of weeks. Talk to your vet about increasing the Methocarbamol.

Wow, thanks. They'd asked me to call back after the first two hours, which I did, and I asked them about dosage. I guess the one-pill-every-8-hours answer was a stock one. I was wondering what the ER could do that we can't.

 

Later: I called and talked to the vet on duty, who agreed that he sounds really uncomfortable. I'll try a small amount of food, to test how bad he does feel. If we're all suffering just too much, in due course we'll take him to the evet. The vet said they can give him a shot that our vet doesn't have. But then he'd have to stay the night, like Dylan.

 

I'll give it a little more time, trying some food, and then we'll decide what happens next. Thanks for your replies!

 

ETA: He turned down any food. But about 10 minutes later, he has gone and lain down. Yay! Hope he can get some rest.

Edited February 26, 2013 by greyhead

[Houndtime]

Poor guy.

[tydyelady]

I am so sorry to hear about Shane. Sounds like you are doing all that can be done right now. Obviously you have to watch him to see if there is any improvement tomorrow, which i will be praying there is. I am happy to hear he can lay down. I know its awful to see the panting and pain, and they can't settle. Opie did this his last week, and it was horrible to watch.

Keep us posted on his progress, and praying that ice and pain meds do the trick.

[greyhead]

Okay, he lay down for over 3 hours! Then he got up to eat when he heard his food being prepared, and he took another round of meds with his food. Skip took him out for a short walk so he could work up to doing his business, and that went well. Hopefully, he'll go back to bed now and sleep through the night. Will report back tomorrow. Thanks for all the good vibes! Zzzzzzzz.

[carronstar]

How is Shane today?

[greyhead]

How is Shane today?

 

Oh, much better, thanks! He slept through the night, as far as I could tell. We're taking him out the side door instead of down the deck stairs, as he still doesn't want to get involved with more than one or two steps at a time. We took him on a six-block poop walk this a.m., the last block of which was probably "a bridge too far" but he survived. He ate last night and this morning with enthusiasm! I'll get refills of his meds this afternoon, so he should be all set. (He still has trouble lying down if he's at the end of his 8-hour med cycle.) If it gets worse or he doesn't improve, we'll have the vet take a look at it.

[Newgreymom]

Mary, the evet told us no exercise at all for 10 days. The Methocarb worked so well for Dylan. I'm still friends with the vet from the Dairyland track, and she called it "painful greyhound syndrome". I've never looked it up to see if there is an actual syndrome by yhay name, but she told us exactly what he needed and she even talked to the evet for us. Glad he's feeling better...

[greyhead]

Thanks, Sandy. The greyhound book we consulted calls it "track leg" or "jack" in Chapter 15. It seems to have a wide range of severities, and Shane's seems relatively benign compared to some. I'm cutting back the tramadol and hope to eliminate it tomorrow. We'll see if the methocarb alone will get him the rest of the way.

 

The walking was just supposed to promote a BM. (He usually runs around the yard to achieve it, or else he walks at least two blocks on leash. How did you guys handle that with Dylan?

[Newgreymom]

Dylan has never had a pooping problem. He'll go pretty much anywhere. We took him in the fenced area of our yard on a leash though. We never gave Dylan Tramadol during his episode, just Methocarb. It was hard to keep him down when he was feeling better, but I knew it was for his own good...

[JJNg]

The greyhound book we consulted calls it "track leg" or "jack" in Chapter 15.

 

This is a fairly common racing injury caused by the dog's gait being slightly off while going around the sustained left hand turn on the track. It's caused by the dog hitting the inside of the left back leg with the outside of the left elbow while turning to the left. However, I've never seen a greyhound do this running in the yard. Any chance he actually hit his leg on something? If this doesn't clear up, I'd definitely have the vet check it out and take an x-ray.

[greyhead]

This is a fairly common racing injury caused by the dog's gait being slightly off while going around the sustained left hand turn on the track. It's caused by the dog hitting the inside of the left back leg with the outside of the left elbow while turning to the left. However, I've never seen a greyhound do this running in the yard. Any chance he actually hit his leg on something? If this doesn't clear up, I'd definitely have the vet check it out and take an x-ray.

 

Hi Jennifer. Shane didn't get this injury the way a racing dog gets it on the track, but the swelling area matched the photos in the book, and it makes logical sense -- at least to me. Shane can run a circle in the yard, but it's too tight to build as much speed as he sometimes wants. So then he adds a straight stretch down the side of the yard, going faster, but he has to stop at some bushes, suddenly. So he does what I call a hockey stop: back feet parallel to each other, as he leans his whole body to the left and screeches to a stop! It looks like his "knees" -- or the tops of his tibia -- knocked together, injuring the one on the right leg. I watched him immediately come back around some trees, and then he walked up the three steps of the deck instead of jumping -- unheard of for him unless he's hurt. So I can't think he hit the bone on anything other than himself.

 

The vet is having me bring the cat in for observation tomorrow and leave him for the day. We'll probably discuss how Shane's doing and make some decisions then. (She's our regular vet, but she's was off the day he got hurt, so another vet handled it over the phone shortly before they closed for the day.) What's weird to me is that there was swelling, now gone down, but no bruising that I could see. He's still not doing stairs, btw.

[JJNg]

Thanks for the more detailed description, Mary. When you first said "hockey stop", I had a basic idea but your last post helps me picture it better. I can definitely see how he could have injured the area by knocking his other knee on it. My dogs have had various soft tissue injuries that only had swelling and edema with no bruising. Not really sure why, but it happens.

[greyhead]

Well, good then, it happens...so he's not weird! At least he's lying down today with no problems. It was really hard watching him have to stand for three hours that first day.