Problems and Solutions
Post Surgery Rest Suggestions
The Problem: A high-drive Border Collie needs post-operative rest
Any suggestions for keeping a dog entertained and using her brain while keeping her from doing running and jumping?
She had a partially torn ACL and is 6 days post op. She's 11 and doing okay in the crate, but her head and desire to chase the cats and otherwise do things does not go well with the need to keep her from running and jumping for 2 months. Tonight, she tried to chase a cat while still in the crate. It didn't help that my younger dog was chasing one of the cats.
The Solution!
Oooh, I know how this is and I feel for you. When my 5 month old Aussie broke his back leg, ( two bones, 4 breaks and one spiral fracture) we had to keep him on crate rest post-surgery for 8 weeks as well. Not easy or fun. We took him out of his crate often, tying him to a cabinet and then sitting beside him for hours, if necessary, just so he didn't feel cut off from me or the rest of the family. To keep him occupied, I did a lot of hand games with him and allowed for a lot of chewing for stress relief. Here are some of the things we did..
- Have dog touch your hand with his nose, and then get a treat. (He earned his entire dinner that way some days.)
- Have the dog keep his nose on your hand while moving your hand around (and then treat). This is great for later agility work.
- Which hand has the treat? (Make him paw at or touch with nose the correct hand until he has it right).
- Pick up and put down toys and practice "give" and "leave it" commands.
- "Shake" paw/hands while lying down.
- Frozen peanut butter or cheese whiz filled kong mixed in with kibble.
- Treats, frozen peanut butter, or cheese whiz in those kong treat holder toys.
- Teach "high five", which is different from "shake".
- Learning the name of two different toys (ex. ball vs. kong ). As in "pick up your kong".
- A lot of those nylabone potato bones with supervision.
- Teach him to pick something up next to him on command. (Weird things like pencils and sponges, etc.) This was followed by the "give" command.
- And if all else fails, there's nothing like good, old fashioned sedation.
We worked out his sedation schedule in the first few vital weeks so that it was a steady sedation, not an up or down thing. I hated him being dopey and out of it, so what we did with vet approval, of course, was to half the eight hour dose and give it every 4 hours. Decreasing as we could to keep him himself and keep him in control of his balance and bladder, but at the same time allowing for the edge to be taken off. I think it was a lot better and now our vet has started advising people in the same position to do likewise if they are able. Good luck, I hope this helps. The worst part (the surgery) is over.
Thanks to Jan Fiske and Lisa Coggins for their contributions to this problem and solution.
