Confined crate boredom & diet

[Westy76 546]

As above my 8 month old bitch is confined to her crate for six weeks to heal from a stress fracture of a rear hock and a strained thigh muscle.

At the moment she's loving the attention and chillaxing but I'm guessing(never had an injury to a dog that needed crating for so long)she's going to get bored at some point so looking for tips to help her deal with it,was told a filled kong would help?

Also diet,what would be the best for her while she's laid up?

She's currently on a mainly raw diet with added fat to get weight on her as I've only had her a few weeks and she was quite under weight also chudleys greyhound racer nuts and should I give her more calcium to help heal her bones?

Ps she has deerhound in her make up to if that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Westy76

[chook1 184]

If it was me i would probably just stick to the raw, she shouldnt need any extra fat or the racer nuts, as it will give her to much energy and put to much weight on her,

just adjust her food if she puts to much weight on, giving extra fat when there not useing it up could lead to problems with the pancreas,

as shes on raw she will get all the calcium she needs from that, especaly if you feed bones also.

 

You could use the kong to give her - her meals, pack the raw meat in the kong and freeze it,

that way it will take her longer and use up some of the energy she has, one thing i would watch for is her becoming depressed

as they quite often can when on long term crate rest, so make sure you spend plenty of time with her.

[Westy76 546]

Thanks for taking the time to reply with some good stuff

[Moll. 1,769]

Keep her protein levels down, to she does not go hyper.

[Hannah4181 260]

Kongs filled with meat/whatever are excellent boredom breakers, when my bitch injured her shoulder and needed 3 months cage rest i used them all the time. There is a lot of training toys like kongs that you can use to keep her mind active. I found that once my dog had got used to the idea of being in the crate, i could let her out in the evening to lay on the sofa, she would walk around the lounge but i just made sure she didn't jump on or off the furniture. You know your dog and will be able to make a decision on how you think she'll react to a bit of freedom. My bitch has a lot of collie in her and the mental punishment on her was far worse than the physical, she needed the out time from the cage to keep her sane. I also took her out and about in the car on appointments with me, she happily lay on the front seat and enjoyed the change of scene, again i lifted her in and out of the car, but the stroll from the house to the car, parked 30 meters up the lane, seemed to relax her. IMO the stretch out from a little controlled walk like that was important.

 

The young gundog i have needed crate rest last summer for a torn muscle, i ended up having to lift him from the crate to the dog box, and from the dog box into the river, then walked up and down a jetty for 40 mins with a ball on a stick under his nose!! The intense swimming had phenomenal results to his well being and healing, a complete exercise with no weight bearing at all, i simply lifted him out the river, rub down, back in the dog box and back home into the crate. Obviously it was summer and therefore the weather allowed the swimming. When i first started the bitch in the crate i also used rescue remedy in her water, just to take the edge of her, this dog went from total freedom of 300 acres and a good 5/6 miles daily behind the quad every day, to a crate!!! She worked it out though and healed beautifully.

 

Diet wise, with both of mine i left them on their normal raw diet, i just decreased the amount they got due to not having exercise at all. Its something you can work out by looking at your dog each day.

[Westy76 546]

Yeah I bought some low protein biscuits last night for her and put some minced rabbit in with it and filled a large kong,she loves it!!

One of her injuries is a strained gracillus and skycats book covers this really well but has anyone got any links to massaging that area and would it be a good idea to give her an all over rub when I treat this area as she's been laid up all day just to get the blood flowing through her other muscles? Again any good links to dog massage would be great.

[Westy76 546]

Kongs filled with meat/whatever are excellent boredom breakers, when my bitch injured her shoulder and needed 3 months cage rest i used them all the time. There is a lot of training toys like kongs that you can use to keep her mind

active. I found that once my dog had got used to the idea of being in the crate, i could let her out in the evening to lay on the sofa, she would walk around the lounge but i just made sure she didn't jump on or off the furniture. You know your dog and will be able to make a decision

on how you think she'll react to a bit of freedom. My bitch has a lot of collie in her and the mental punishment on her was far worse than the physical, she needed the out time from the cage to keep her sane. I also took her out and about

in the car on appointments with me, she happily lay on the front seat and enjoyed the change of scene, again i lifted her in and out of the car, but the stroll from the house to the car, parked 30 meters up the lane, seemed to relax her. IMO the stretch out from a little controlled walk like

that was important.

 

The young gundog i have needed crate rest last summer for a torn muscle, i ended up having to lift him from the crate to the dog box, and from

the dog box into the river, then walked up and down a jetty for 40 mins with a ball on a stick under his nose!! The intense swimming had phenomenal results to his well being and healing, a complete exercise with no weight

bearing at all, i simply lifted him out the river, rub down, back in the dog box and back home into the crate. Obviously it was summer and therefore the weather allowed the swimming. When i first started the bitch in the crate i also

used rescue remedy in her water, just to take the edge of her, this dog went from total freedom of 300 acres and a good 5/6 miles daily behind the quad every day, to a crate!!! She worked it out though and healed beautifully.

 

Diet wise, with both of mine i left them on their normal raw diet, i just decreased the amount they got due to not having exercise at all. Its

something you can work out by looking at your dog each day.

I've only had her a couple of weeks and the injuries was there when I got her(unbeknown to me) so were still getting to know each other but she's coping pretty well but cheesed off when the other dogs are taken out and voices her opinion!!!

Thanks for your help.

[Westy76 546]

Forgot to say a pal has lent me a potamag to.

[chook1 184]

If your willing to pay for it - then i would recomend you buy this,

it gives you all the strech's and massage's that you need

plus a lot of other stuff, its an e book, so you get it stright away.

 

http://www.back-in-balance.co.uk/dog_back_problems.htm

 

 

My beddy x has strained gracillus and the massage helps her

although with my bitch i never kept her on crate rest,

just kept her to no hard running.

Edited January 26, 2012 by chook1

[Westy76 546]

If your willing to pay for it - then i would recomend you buy this,

it gives you all the strech's and massage's that

you need

plus a lot of other stuff, its an e book, so you get it stright away.

 

http://www.back-in-

balance.co.uk/dog_back_problems.htm

 

 

My beddy x has strained gracillus and the massage helps her

although with my bitch i never kept her on crate rest,

just kept her to no hard running.

It's the stress fracture to her hock that's the crate bound injury but I'd rather give her thigh to fully heal to,thanks for the info chook