Advice?

[LDR 29]

Was out on wednesday night lamping and Bruce had a couple of quite hard runs, on the first run as the quarry and him reached a wire fence, barbed on the top, you could hear that there was quite heavy contact, on his return you could see he had obviously had quite a big tumble, as he was covered in mud, he showed no signs of being lame and no signs of any cuts off the wire, he then later had another good run which saw him over a large ditch, again upon return no apparent problems, it was only after he had had time to rest that when we got up he was limping on his front left leg. Yesterday when i got up, the limp has really developed and he is reluctant to put his foot down at all, i've checked everything i can think of from the toes all the way up to his shoulders. There is no sign of injury and the only time he shows discomfort is when you fold the leg up under itself! I'm no expert, but i'm hoping its just something muscular that rest will sort out, so what i wanna know is if and when your dogs have had torn or pulled muscles, what sort of time did it take to start improving, and whether or not you can think of anything i might have over looked? Cheers. He has some slight swelling to the inside of his left elbow?

Edited February 2, 2007 by longdogrunner

[skycat 6,173]

Without examining the dog in real life it is very difficult to say exactly what's wrong. The best thing to do is to get him to a Greyhound man, one who treats the track dogs: go to the track nearest you and ask the trainers who they'd recommend. Is the swelling hard or soft? Is there any heat anywhere in the leg? How long you keep him up for depends on the type of injury. This is just a guide: torn muscle: 6 weeks. Pulled muscle 10 days to 3 weeks. Tendon damage: up to 12 weeks depending on how bad it is. Cracked but not displaced bone: 6 -8 weeks. The problem is that you have no way of knowing how bad it is without an expert looking at him. If you just keep him on the lead for a week and then he appears sound again that could lull you into a false sense of security, and the minute you run him he could break down again, even making matters worse.

Of course he could just be bruised and sore. Give him a couple of days before going any further. Otherwise, the answer is: get him to someone who knows!

Edited February 2, 2007 by skycat

[inan 841]

Was out on wednesday night lamping and Bruce had a couple of quite hard runs, on the first run as the quarry and him reached a wire fence, barbed on the top, you could hear that there was quite heavy contact, on his return you could see he had obviously had quite a big tumble, as he was covered in mud, he showed no signs of being lame and no signs of any cuts off the wire, he then later had another good run which saw him over a large ditch, again upon return no apparent problems, it was only after he had had time to rest that when we got up he was limping on his front left leg. Yesterday when i got up, the limp has really developed and he is reluctant to put his foot down at all, i've checked everything i can think of from the toes all the way up to his shoulders. There is no sign of injury and the only time he shows discomfort is when you fold the leg up under itself! I'm no expert, but i'm hoping its just something muscular that rest will sort out, so what i wanna know is if and when your dogs have had torn or pulled muscles, what sort of time did it take to start improving, and whether or not you can think of anything i might have over looked? Cheers. He has some slight swelling to the inside of his left elbow?

Sky cats advice is spot on,particularly the bit about getting the dog to a greyhound vet ,I give general practice vets a wide berth ,unless its for something very basic like wormers or jabs,get the dog to a runningdog expert and be guided by them.

[Guest MOLLY]

LDR.....take him to the one i told you about in Gateshead. Ring me and ill give you the details.

MOLL.