Designer~Wife asked:


I have a 14yo sheba inu / chow mix that sprained her ankle 2 weeks ago. I am sure it is a sprain as we went to the vet immediately to have her checked out. She was given a shot of steroids & sent home with Rimadyl for pain & swelling and started doing much better.

A week later (while still on bed rest – we have been very careful with her) she jumped up and re-injured the ankle and was put back on Rimadyl for another week, again with decent results. She is not healed by any means, but much better.

This morning, she tripped while going out the door to go potty and fell down. She lifted her injured leg initially (like she didn’t want to put weight on it), but then started walking. I took her in and iced it…We’ll see if this gets worse again later today.

Now for my question (sorry about length, but wanted to give background) – Has any used Hock Braces to help support the ankle after a bad sprain? Did it help or just hinder? I can’t stand the thought of her being in pain from continual re-injury and we are doing everything we can to keep it from happening, but both times there has been nothing we could have done to stop her.

She is one of our beloved babies and we want her to be as comfortable as possible.
The initial injury came from running – She is 14, but acts like a puppy still.

The first re-injury happened while in her crate. I came to check on her to see if she needed to go outside and she was so excited that she jumped up from laying down and tried to rear-up (think horse) which is what caused the swelling to come back.

This morning when she fell, she was on a leash, going outside and simply tripped on the doorwall track.

Trust me, I am VERY careful with her and have had several dogs who lived long happy lives – I’ve just never dealt with an ankle sprain.

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