Background: Wylie was a stray that had a broken elbow when we found him, and the vet thought it had been broken for a couple of weeks or more. His shoulder muscles had begun to atrophy - you could feel a difference in the hurt shoulder compared to the good one. There was a chunk of the end of his leg bone free floating where there should have been an elbow joint. The joint was reconstructed and the bone pinned back together.
Fast forward to now: Yesterday was the eight week anniversary of the surgery. Things have healed well and the x-rays look good. The problem is, Wylie still does not want to use the leg. He'll walk on it, with a pronounced limp, but generally when he wants to get around fast he just uses three legs. He will not put any weight on the leg when standing still.
The vet's theory is that those shoulder muscles are so weak that they are uncomfortable for him to use and with not using them they aren't getting any better. On the vet's instruction I've been manipulating the leg, but without resistance I don't think it's helping the muscles. So what else can I do to help him build those muscles back up? There isn't anywhere he can swim right now, but we will be uncovering our pool in mid-April and he can spend all the time he wants in there, but I don't want things to get worse in the meantime.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
PS - Wylie is a 60 lb, 5(?) year old lab.
Fast forward to now: Yesterday was the eight week anniversary of the surgery. Things have healed well and the x-rays look good. The problem is, Wylie still does not want to use the leg. He'll walk on it, with a pronounced limp, but generally when he wants to get around fast he just uses three legs. He will not put any weight on the leg when standing still.
The vet's theory is that those shoulder muscles are so weak that they are uncomfortable for him to use and with not using them they aren't getting any better. On the vet's instruction I've been manipulating the leg, but without resistance I don't think it's helping the muscles. So what else can I do to help him build those muscles back up? There isn't anywhere he can swim right now, but we will be uncovering our pool in mid-April and he can spend all the time he wants in there, but I don't want things to get worse in the meantime.
Thanks for any advice you can offer.
PS - Wylie is a 60 lb, 5(?) year old lab.
