Gun Dog Forum

My 10 month old Vizsla has what looks like an Achilles tear or partial tear. I'm waiting for the x ray reading to verify that nothing is broken. Has anyone gone through this with their dogs before? Did your dog fully recover? It looks like the dog would be in a cast for 2 months after surgery.

Due to trauma or degenerative disease?
One of my setters has had 2 TPLO surgeries but not an achilles tendon tear. She FULLY recovered. Amazing what surgeons can do to day for dogs.
Hopefully , it's just a strain and not a tear.

https://www.acvs.org/small-animal/achil ... n-injuries

I don't know what happened.

I had him into surgery today & it wasn't the achillies tendon after all. He had a tear & dislocation of the superficial digital flexor tendon. He'll be in a cast for 4 to 6 weeks, then a soft bandage for 4 weeks, then gradual exercise for 4 weeks. It looks like there will be extra grouse & woodcock this season since I won't be taking my share. I cancelled my 2 Michigan trips & my South Dakota pheasant/sharpy trip. Maybe he'll be ready by January & I'll go down South for woodcock.

OhioVizsla wrote:I had him into surgery today & it wasn't the achillies tendon after all. He had a tear & dislocation of the superficial digital flexor tendon. He'll be in a cast for 4 to 6 weeks, then a soft bandage for 4 weeks, then gradual exercise for 4 weeks. It looks like there will be extra grouse & woodcock this season since I won't be taking my share. I cancelled my 2 Michigan trips & my South Dakota pheasant/sharpy trip. Maybe he'll be ready by January & I'll go down South for woodcock.

We should talk. My male pointer (in my avatar photo) suffered this EXACT injury two years ago. Post Op- 4 weeks in a hard splint and he wasn't allowed to go outside to even take a p!$$ unless he was on a leash....... then 4 weeks in soft bandage with limited walks on leash. Still not allowed to go outside unless on a leash. Kept the Elizabethean Cone on him for the duration so he didn't screw with the bandages. 2 months to the day that I brought him home from the hospital after surgery, I cut him loose in an open, FLAT, mowed athletic field in town for 5 minutes..... gradually increasing off leash runs at this field until he made it up to 30 minutes and showing no ill signs of lameness.

I can not stress enough the need for you to keep your dog in your house, laying down & NOT moving around a lot during the first month.
There are a lot of homeopathic remedies that will help "mellow" them out a bit and take the edge off. Some of the pain killers they gave you for your dog will likely have the same sedating effects. Once the hard split is off- be very careful to not allow the dog to rough house in the house. The SDF capsule that was torn will heel up very strong if allowed to fully heel without relapse.

My pointer has been running in AF Shooting dog stakes for almost a year now. He now runs strong forward race and nobody who didn't know that he suffered the injury at 10 months of age, would ever think his leg was ever injured seeing him run today. Here he is with me at the 50th National Shooting Dog Futurity in Baldwinsville, NY (roughly 4.5 months after sustaining the injury).
Good luck & feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Rob

Thank's for the response Rob. That is exactly what my vet said too. He's in a kennel box all day & night, except when I take him outside on a leash to relive himself. Plus my vet has him on a sedative for the next 4 weeks. Glad to hear your dog is back to 100%. Do you have any idea how he got the injury?

OhioVizsla wrote:Thank's for the response Rob. That is exactly what my vet said too. He's in a kennel box all day & night, except when I take him outside on a leash to relive himself. Plus my vet has him on a sedative for the next 4 weeks. Glad to hear your dog is back to 100%. Do you have any idea how he got the injury?

we think he sustained the injury while moving at a high rate of speed and attempting to turn just as his rear right leg landed in a depression in the ground.

Rob,

I went through 6 weeks of the cast, 2 weeks on the soft wrap, now 2 more weeks of the soft wrap. This has been heck, but the vet says it looked good when he replaced the soft wrap today. I hope he's worth it!

So sorry to hear about your troubles. What a terrible time of year too.

Good luck with the recovery.