Stiff Knee

Osabarbosa · 10-22-2007, 04:06 PM

Hello all, I am new to the forum and I am happy to be here. I am hoping someone has had exerience with what we are going through so they can help us a bit.

We have a 6 1/2 month old lab/boxer mix named Osa. About a month and a half ago, she was a doggy day care and came home limping on her right hind leg. We took her to the vet and he thought that she just twisted her knee so we put her on "leash only" exercise (only walking) for 2 weeks. After two and a half week, we brought her back and he gave her a clean bill of health and said the knee felt good. We started increasing her exercise and she is now playing fetch and running again (which she loves). My question is this, every now and again after she has slept for a couple of hours, she is stiff on that back leg. After a good stretch and walking around for a minute or two, she is fine. Is this part of the healing process and we shouldn't worry about it or should we tone it down some because we worked her a little too hard?

This past weekend she played with another puppy and was fine all day and then the next day we took her for a walk and she slept most of the day (she was tired from the puppy play). When she got up she was a little stiff. I just don't want to be doing anything bad to the puppy. Also, is there a massage/stretching we can do for her?

Thanks for the help.

ACampbell · 10-23-2007, 02:38 AM

As far as exercise is concerned, I'd ask the vet how much exercise would be suitable for a sprain or whatever your vet diagnosed the injury as...just like people, these things can take a lot of time to heal and can be made worse by wear and tear just like ours can be, especially if it's a pulled muscle, those get really stiff with too much exercise. So, ask the vet what they think, after all, they're the doctor!