Ruptured cruciate - crate rest 8 weeks

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My vet has recommended this.

Oops pressed send....

What I meant to ask is - is it really do-able! My poor dog.

Encouragement needed please.....

Is your dog small breed or large breed? Lots of other options for treating cruciates in this day and age rather than crate rest, but medium and large breeds usually require surgery and that’s best followed with good Physio and rehab.

Thanks, she is small - jack Russell. She is having surgery next week to repair it.

They said crate rest in addition to surgery.

Ah, thanks Welsh

We also have a pen so could partition off a sofa-free zone of a room. Perhaps when she is a bit better.

She most certainly is not aware of her limitations!

8 weeks of crate rest for my JRT is something I have nightmares about, in the same category as a major house fire or redundancy. You have my sympathies.

Have you joined the Canine Enrichment Facebook group? Lots of ideas there if you search for terms like crate rest.

Our totally mad and very active Border Collie had the xrays due to being a little lame which persisted for about 10 days. Vet diagnosed the cruciate ligament needed surgery to repair - took xrays. However on return from vet, dog was far less lame but was on pain relief. We forgot to give the pain relief the next day and was far less lame so kept her off it and off the leg as much as we could be banning ball games and restricting to indoors (no jumping up), she was definitely better and came totally sound about a week later. I suspect the manipulation under anesthetic for the xray untrapped whatever it was that was causing the problem. Certainly was not anywhere near as lame as the various videos of dogs I've watched. Was going to order her a supportive harness - there are videos of dogs coming sound after using these.

Crate rest is really not that bad for most dogs - (there will be some that find it hard but they are the minority).

You need to be imaginative on ways to keep your dog amused after the first week of so.

They do not need to be crated all the time eg if you are watching tv they can easily come on lead and sit by you at the same time. They can go out in the car in a crate and watch the world go by. They can have bones/kongs to chew. You can do some trick training eg nose touches, front paw work.

We had a buggy for ours and they came out and about in that with the other dogs.

They do still have to go out to wee etc every few hours so it is amazing at how the day gets filled up.

Thank you.. day 1 - just popped back from work. She seemed quite content in there!

Perhaps relieved at having to patrol the grounds/police the letterbox! Haha!