 Post ACL surgery - recovery & therapy
Hi all, I need an advise please.
My 7 year old Yorkie had a luxating patella & ACL surgery 4 weeks ago.
Basically she fell 2 years ago, got a stretched ligament. About 2 months ago no one saw anything, but we came home seeing her lifted up one of her rear legs. Got x-rayed and examinations from 2 different vets. We opted for surgery since she was diagnosed with luxating patella and ruptured ACL.
It has been 4 weeks now since, she still would not put her leg down at all. We did laser therapy within the 1st week. The vet rechecked a couple of times, he said it's more like habit than pain. He recommended a physical therapy for dogs.
- We message her legs multiple times a day
- we also do bicycle motion therapy on her legs
- we tried to put her in bathtub to swim which seems to help, she would use her leg to paddle, but she is afraid of swimming.
1) Do you have any advise/suggestion how to make her use her leg again?
2) What is the time range of recovery for ACL surgery? The vet says by week 2 they should be able to use the leg, since it is now 4 weeks he recommends us to for professional physical therap fearing a long term effect of not using her leg muscle.
I am wondering if there's anything we can do before spending another thousands of dollars for a therapy.
THANK YOU |