Conservative Management Experience with an Active Dog – Diesel

Diesel, Conservative Management, after a trip to the vet because my dog had his left hind up for three days straight (and had briefly pulled it up in the air a few times the week before) my vet, in his small consulting room, saw my dog take a few steps (leg down) and said,” Cruciate…

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Veterinary Prolotherapy

Among the many alternative therapies for a CCL injury is one you may or may not have heard of: prolotherapy. Prolotherapy (“prolo” is short for proliferation) is an injection technique used to stimulate the growth of healthy connective tissue to help strengthen torn or weakened ligaments and tendons and eliminate chronic pain. Prolotherapy has been used successfully on…

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Conservative Management – Lucy the Corgi

We have a wonderful Corgi named Lucy who will be turning 2 years old the first week of December. We picked her up from a breeder with a good history. She is pretty active at home with her step-brother Corgi Charlie, but at the dog park she doesn’t like to play; shes an explorer. At…

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Conservative Management vs. Surgery – Bella

My dog Bella was also diagnosed with a partially torn ACL about 6-8 weeks ago. We have been trying a conservative approach. Our vet even gave me a lite sedative for her because she is so used to being so active. I have seen about a 20% improvement. She limps mainly when she first gets…

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Turmeric for Dogs

What It Is Turmeric, an herb known for its bright orange color, has long been used in its native Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian countries as a staple for not only cooking and clothing dye, but also as medicine. For thousands of years, Chinese medicine, for example, has incorporated herbal remedies as part of its holistic…

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Injury Misdiagnosis – Lucy

Our 8-year-old Goldendoodle Lucy was at our dog boarder while we were on vacation and we received an email that she had injured herself running while off leash. We picked her up a few days later and realized it was much worse than what they had described; she was trying to walk on 3 legs,…

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Treatment Options – MacDuff

MacDuff is an almost 15-year-old terrier mix who weighs 21 lbs and is very healthy but 2 weeks ago he injured his back right knee and we’ve been told he needs a unilateral TPLO for $5,000 with an estimated 8 weeks of recovery. I initially said yes but then started wondering if that would be…

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Surgery vs. Conservative Management – Sophie

Three months ago in February, my Scottie Terrier, Sophie, tore her CCL. She is 22.5 lbs and 7 years old. She had x-rays and saw two different vets, one being an orthopedic who recommend the band surgery. He manipulated it and said it was completely torn (not sure if he can really tell?) Anyway, I…

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Conservative Management with Lupus – Kaylie

My 9-year-old 64 lb Kaylie became critically ill in June 2015 and was diagnosed with canine systemic lupus (which acts very much like human lupus) but luckily I found a wonderful internal medicine vet  who is very knowledgable in this area. Through immunosuppressive drugs–Prednisone and Imuran among them–she has been in remission since mid-summer 2015,…

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Beginning Conservative Management – Jackson

I joined this community because my 3-year-old Lab, Jackson, was just diagnosed with a partial cruciate ligament tear. The vet receommended surgery, and said it didn’t need to be done right away, but eventually it would. After going home upset at the though of putting my poor baby under the knife, I began researching other…

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