Hey guys,
Its been a long haul with Joey since she broke her wrist around 3 months ago. She ended up being in a splint for 2 whole months. When she got it off she was right around 6 months, so we decided to get her spayed at the same time she got her splint off, because she would need to be on limited activity after her spay for 2 weeks or so.
To breifly summarize, having a GSP with a broken leg has to be one of the most depressing things on the planet. Besides the constant nuisance of putting a cast protector on and multiple plastic bags everytime she went out to the potty, she had to have an e-collar on every night because she'd try to chew her splints off. We went through about 6 splints in the two months.
Then there is the issue of having one of the most active dog breeds confined to pretty much no exercise. I have to say, Joey did amazingly well with it. She seemed to just get used to it. She had her crazy zoomies from time to time but she really did well. She knew we were doing the best for her. When it was time for the crate at night, she'd stick her head out and press it through the e-collar as if to say, "I know I need this guys, even though I hate it." We even began to question if GSP's needing so much excercise was actually......... necessary??!?!?! I think it turned out it was just Joey'd body trying to heal her.
Anyway, she finally got it off, got spayed and we brought home our brand new baby. Her right front leg was severely atrophied and below her wrist her paw kind of hung there limply. The orthopedic doc swore to us the bone had healed and she would recover. Well, we are three weeks later now and she is FINALLY doing great! She's been on her first two short walks in 3 months.
She has a slight limp now, her right paw sits flat compared to her left one where the toes are curled from the tendon on the back of the lef. Her muscles and tendons are growing back she probably puts about 75% weight on the right leg now. It's probably a little shorter, but should even out. She RUNS around the backyard at full speed, making us cringe. We took her back to the vet Saturday and specifically asked about rehab options. He was slightly encouraging doing 6 weeks of underwater treadmill work, although he couldn't promise it would really do more good than regular walks/GSP spazzing outside.
Finally to my question, have any of you out there been through this and can give advice on whether the underwater treadmill would be a good idea in her situation? It seems to me like 30 mins on the treadmill 2x a week won't really be doing more than regular outside crazy GSP activities (we are slowly working her back into leashed walks). It's not really a money issue (although it is expensive), but it would be quite an inconvenience for us to get her to the place 2x a week. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Looking forward to reading posts on her again! We've kind of shyed away from it since our pup was injured.
side note: joey is now 7 months and only weighs 34 pounds! she is tiny! she is 22-23 inches at her front shoulders, so i'm assuming at this point she's just going to 'fill out'? she seems so small. |