Psoas Muscle Strain

[Guest Liz_in_PA]

After two weeks of increasing lameness in his driver side rear leg, we took him to the vet. After multiple xrays and three vets checking him, we're happy that it's just a strained psoas muscle. I guess it's sort of like a pulled groin muscle. Diagnosed by pulling the leg out to the side and then backwards. If the dog turns his head backwards and tries to bite you...well, it's the psoas. He didn't do it at first but after the xrays and prodding, I think he hit his "I'm out a patience moment." He's on rimadyl and tramadol. We're supposed to have him rest for two weeks. It could take longer to heal. Leash walk for peeing.

 

My question is: more and more human medicine is finding that you shouldn't just be a lump during the healing process but gently move around (slow walk). Would that be appropriate? On the other hand, when he sees the leash he starts trying to jump around.

[Guest Scarter55]

Lady managed to pull/strain a muscle in her neck. We eventually took her to a dog chiropractor. I didn't even know those existed! But he's been great, and has been giving her treatments that I admittedly though was a little overkill at first, but she has been recovering very quickly. I might look to see if you have a specialist like this in the area. Not being a vet, or even knowing what a psoas is, take my advice with a grain of salt, but I would keep him in and try to encourage him to not move around too much. With a human, it is good to stretch an injured muscle lightly, but since a dog obviously doesn't understand this concept, there is a good chance he could re-injure it when he excitedly lunges for a squirrel or something. We've already had a few injuries that Lady has had to recover from, and that is the advice the vet gave us in all cases.

[tbhounds]

I have experience with this--all I can say is rest, rest and more rest!!! Another way you can determine if its a strain is (well, perhaps your vet should do this!) to palpate rectally at the 7:00 position (5:00 if its the right leg)--you'll know when you hit the correct spot--ouch.

I found that after 2 weeks there was minimal improvement-took about one month before leash walking was increased.

[Guest Liz_in_PA]

I have experience with this--all I can say is rest, rest and more rest!!! Another way you can determine if its a strain is (well, perhaps your vet should do this!) to palpate rectally at the 7:00 position (5:00 if its the right leg)--you'll know when you hit the correct spot--ouch.

I found that after 2 weeks there was minimal improvement-took about one month before leash walking was increased.

um, no. But thanks for the information!

We have two 30 pills each of Rimadyl and Tramadol (1.5 to 2 twice a day). So, we probably will have to go get refills.

[Guest Liz_in_PA]

In case anyone wonders about how long these take to heal...he had a recheck today. We have no idea when it will be better. He is on Rimadyl twice daily and 2 tramadol three times daily. However, we now have permission to resume slow walks.

 

It's the muscle that you would strain if you were an excited greyhound leaping out the back door to go chase a squirrel (or anything). Or, you know, the one you might strain if you were doing zoomies in the living room. Helpfully, he bites at that area in his belly because it helps, so he has a chewed up tummy.

 

marshmallow creme is yummy for hiding tramadol, but sticky.

[kudzu]

Am dealing with this right now with the humble little lurcher. Poor old girl is 13 going on 3. She has no idea she is the oldest dog in the house. She runs, bounds, leaps, spins, & in general acts like a puppy. That is until a couple weeks ago. I didn't know what she'd done but put her on restrictions when she turned up lame. She was improving when 5 days later I goofed & accidentally turned her out with the other dogs. So more rest ensued with plans for a vet visit if she didn't improve rapidly. She improve just a bit but not much. Sure enough, vet says is the iliopsoas. He believes it's partially ruptured. Ugh. To make matters worse this girl has renal insufficiency so she's on tramadol only, no NSAIDs. Right now she's on rest for 6 weeks. 6, six, SIX, S-I-X weeks! Oy and that's just the initial stage. Gads.