Welcome to Hardy

Hello and welcome to Hardy. This hansome chap has got serious degenerative joint disease in his hock. its likely this started in adolescence but he’s made it to 10y without too many problems.

But now he is showing signs in his hind like looking wobbly and dragging his paws. He had and x-ray which was checked by the specialists. This showed sever remodeling in the joint and some tendonitis in the Achilles on the other side. His range of movement in the joint is poor and the limb postire has changed shape as he has adapted how he holds the limb. So there is a lot going on. But inspite of all this he remains happy, full of life and playful! 

So the hearts willing so we are here to help. The owner has already done some things to adress the issues. Without prompting they have started weightloss, got carpets in the house to make the floor more grippy, helped him with the stairs and got him started on hydrotherapy. 

We have now changed the walk regime to a more gentle program of little and often. We have asked that he write a diary so we can assess mobility and how it is improving and try to find a pattern causing the worst days. Dad will apply ice packs to the joint after walks and massage once a day and do passive range of movment 4 times a day. we have made sure he is confident and competant with all of this and we will see how its all gone next week. 

Keep up the good work dad! Hardy we’ll have you more comfortable soon.