# Hurt Right Hip . . . advice for "resting" an 8 month V?



## ryker (Apr 14, 2012)

Our little guy, Bridger, hurt his right hip playing this week. He will weight bear and toe touch on the right leg but mostly runs around with three legs. The only time he seems to have pain is when the vet tugged around his hip. Otherwise, he's still able to jump up on the bed and run around, although we haven't been letting him. I really don't want this to blossom into something worse.

The vet today put him on anti inflammatories and told us to 'rest' and 'hang out around the house' with no play, no wandering the backyard alone, and no running. We're going to reassess on Tuesday. If there's no improvement, they'll sedate him for hip x-rays.

In the meantime, do you have any advice for keeping an 8 month old V 'quiet' while he's two year old brother Ryker romps around? I hate to reduce it to separation and crate time, but I will if that will heal it without this getting worse. For now we plan on exercising Ryker a lot so that he sleeps, and then Bridger will hopefully do the same. We've got mental stimulation toys and plan on training him for mental exercise. We can only do Benadryl 1-2x a day. We've got new toys for him to gnaw on while he's in the crate, although Ryker is stationed outside the crate, barking his head off because he can't play. 

What have you done that has had any success when having to heal your V's? Anything that seemed to help? Did they eventually adapt to 'chilling out'? We get them out for an off leash run, at least an hour long, everyday. Or they go to the dog park for an hour and play. They're used to a good amount of exercise.

Thanks in advance!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

organicthoughts said:


> Crate and lots of bully sticks.


2X
And on a leash anytime they are out of the crate.
Spend lots of time sitting on the floor with them, and keep his brother worn out from exercise.


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## lilyloo (Jun 20, 2012)

Our girl sprained her hip when she was 5 months old. She over extended it when jumping off the bed. It was quite swollen and very painful for her. 

Our vet gave her a big dose of an anti inflammatory shot and she was put on crate rest for a week. I know it's hard to keep him still, but it is really important for you to do so. I would definitely crate him or have him on a short leash during waking hours. As others have said, lots of bully sticks or kongs stuffed with frozen peanut butter will help keep him occupied.

I don't know if Bridger has any swelling, but if he does -- don't be surprised if it takes a while to go away. Our girl's swelling over her hip joint took a few weeks to go away completely.

At 19 months old, she now has no signs of her hip injury. Keeping her still for those couple weeks was HARD but so worth not having the sprain give her lasting complications.


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## ryker (Apr 14, 2012)

Thanks for the input!

Luckily, no obvious swelling or pain on movement. We've stocked up on his favorite bone knuckles and antlers, as well as a few new fun toys, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work out.

My husband just took Ryker out on a good two hour trail run, and I've kept Bridger playing with toys under my control, and off his legs. He's going to go back to the crate or on leash when his brother his back.

We'll definitely take this serious for the weekend and see if it improves. I am NOT dealing with this for months on end!

Thanks!


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## jld640 (Sep 29, 2010)

Hope Bridger feels better soon!

You might try 'find it' in the house with treats. It gives him practice at nose work. Keep the treats on the ground. 

Other forum members have posted 2 other indoor games that Savannah likes: one is to put treats in some of the cups of a muffin tin and put tennis balls over the treats - it takes Savannah a while to find the treats and then figure out how to move the balls; the other is to have Bridger help pick up his toys and drop them in a box - with Savannah that meant training 'find' then 'get' then 'drop'.

You might also try searching for 'indoor games'. Also, some of the threads on spaying have games to play because of post-surgery activity restrictions.


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