Did you ever hear about a dog’s weak back legs?
Have you ever keep a dog? If your answer is a yes, then you may also have suffered some situation like your little dog became an old dog with some senior dog issues…Such as orthopedic injuries, arthritis pain, or other debilitating ailments, especially weak hind legs. Fortunately, the dog’s weak legs issue is not something that many dog owners have to deal with, you know?
But the thing we are talking about is, it’s always better to be alert to the possibility of the dog’s hind legs issue even if rare the condition could be, right? You may know that the condition we are talking about could show up in senior dogs mostly.
However, it doesn’t mean all dogs are immune to this dog’s weak back legs problem necessarily. Sometimes if you found out that your dog’s back legs are giving out, that could be symptomatic of so many different conditions possibly.
And have you ever think about, some of those dog back legs issues that may happen to some little puppies as well. Well before we get into the topic with what you should do and can do if your dog is about to lose all the control of his or her back legs, shall we just make it clear about what could happen?
What could cause a dog’s weak back legs?
That may be fairly normal in a different breed of dogs with the possible moment of weak back legs or some other related issues. You can slightly imagine that…did you ever seen your dog just tearing around your place for hours?
In that case, it is natural to tell a sense of fatigue or soreness of your dog’s legs. Maybe just a minor knock they need to shake off if your dog could have hit his legs sometime during his shenanigan you know?
On the other side, did you think that this kind of thing may be just temporary or just gradual? If you have ever seen your dog getting worse progressively and your dog easily getting distressed or just get weak in his or her back legs suddenly.. as you can see it, things like that could be much more serious in deep down there you may not see it yet.
1.The Cushing’s disease. Maybe you have ever heard about it before, that should be a status that could affect your dog’s adrenal glands somehow, and that may cause to release too much hormone which is called cortisol. At the same time, that could lead to a sort of symptoms that can include a potbelly, a notable increase in appetite and thirst, hair loss, and back leg weakness to a dog. Even you can take your dog o a veterinarian as soon as you realized that happen to your dog, and the vet may treat this condition well with medication, but it may last your dog’s lifetime, unfortunately. Do you know that?
2.Arthritis, diabetes, or the other common conditions could afflict senior dogs. Usually, a senior dog may develop plenty of health issues that could cause back legs weakness indirectly. Such as diabetes is known to lead to this condition you know? Of course, the pain that comes from arthritis may get serious enough to restrict movement and function. Well, you may want to take your older furry friend for regular check-ups to see if there’s a problem like that, and follow the recommendations step by step earlier, which may be helpful for a quicker recovery consistently somehow.
3.Ataxia may lead by neurological Disorders . There are lots of disorders that could affect the dog’s brain, that also could cause back leg weakness in different breeds of dog you know? Somehow, that could include some conditions like cerebellar, vestibular, or sensory ataxia, which could lead to some symptoms like a general lack of coordination, swaying, and different kinds of weakness.
At the same time, you could let your veterinarian take a series of different procedures to pin it down if the diagnosis is hard in the case of your dog. Well if you and your dog’s situation cause is not something congenital or hereditary, that means just medication or plus surgery could even lead to a cure easier if your beloved dog was lucky enough, even it is always hard, though. What’s more, it is also very important to be patient, just do everything that you can to let your dog stay comfortable.
4.Some injuries you may ignore. You know being injured is very common in a very active dog’s daily life, but some serious injuries to your dog’s spine or back could affect the nervous system up to some points, thereby affect the function of your dog’s muscles. If your dog is losing his or her mobility consequently in the back legs, or just been hurt… Maybe you have to let the veterinarian check for such trauma on your dog’s body.
You know that intervertebral disc disease is another condition that may lead to the discs in the spine causing the back leg weakness in a dog. Normally this requires medication and surgery to recovery. For another such condition that could cause a disorder in the spine may make an effect on the nerves, thus may cause a dog to lose control of his or her back legs. So you may wonder that may not be all about trouble in the legs for a dog.
5.The degenerative myelopathy . If you ever hear about the degenerative myelopathy (DM)m which could be a possible reason behind back leg weakness in dogs, particularly in senior dogs, you really should pay more attention to what we are going to talk about. It could be another condition that may cause the dog legs’ problem via a spine problem somehow. Do you know that?
As you can see, the spine is a very precious part of everyone’s body. And if something that disturbs it then could make life feel really bad. Likewise, that goes for your dog on the same point you know? Degenerative myelopathy is technically a condition that could create some damages to the nerves, then make up the spinal cord, also progressing to a point that may lead to some weakness, losing mobility, or even instability. Those are also known as ataxia in several dogs.
That can affect a dog’s legs also could increase or decrease at times of the severity you can think about. Although it wasn’t known to cause lots of pains, usually a dog may be affected to lose his or her mobility up to 24 months. At the same time. That could cause some pain of another sort naturally. And it, may also occur in some dogs as young as four-year-old you know?
However, how to diagnose degenerative myelopathy is kind of difficult. The worse part is there’s no known cure yet. But you can get your dog checked up as much as early which can lead to earlier detection, physical therapy… As we all know that changing the diet can really help ease and manage those conditions somehow.
How to help your dog with weak back legs?
1. Just make sure to do all the prevention you can, like mention your dog’s history. You must know that the history of a dog is absolutely important because there are so many conditions or even illnesses that could have so many similar symptoms. This move could help to make the right diagnosis, like just mentioning the symptoms in detail regardless of those symptoms that seem unrelated completely somehow.
For example, maybe just a lifestyle changing, like the diet, or diabetes even obesity could also be the cause for the weak back legs. But fortunately, the arteries, nerves, and veins could have less pressure once that condition is under control. And the back legs could be stronger as a result.
2.You should take your dog to the pet hospital as long as you realized something was wrong with your dog’s back leg. For instance, if your dog lost function in his or her back legs suddenly, you may want to take him or her to the vet for an emergency visit. Furthermore, some sudden changes were almost always caused by some injuries but if you can help your dog urgently could reverse the symptoms in time you know?
At the pet hospital, the veterinarian may suggest an emergency surgery for a dog as if with the case of injuries or tumors, etc… Because the surgery could either reverse the condition mostly or prevent it from getting worse up to a point.
3.You can take a check your dog’s back legs regularly. Or you can just take your dog to the veterinarian for a regular check is also fine. Due to some conditions like spondylitis and age, those may need special care for the rest of a dog’s life. So the veterinarian may suggest you use a dog hind leg sling or a dog leg harness to help the dog to finish the regular moves easier.
The loobani dog sling is a good recommendation for you if you are looking for a senior dog sling which can be helpful to lift your dog. The loobani portable dog sling for back legs is very sturdy, with soft linings, removable handle padding, and adjustable straps.. which is not only a very helpful dog rear leg sling for your senior dog but also a very easy using & storing dog back sling for you to have.
Anyway, sometimes you may found that the dog owners usually make a low bed for an older dog who got some sickness like spondylitis or arthritis. That may be helpful to reduce the pressure on a dog’s back legs.
4. You can try the rear support dog wheelchair. You may consider getting you to dog a rear support dog wheelchair if you found out that your dog could not bear any weight on his or her back legs anymore. Most of those lightweight wheelchairs may assume all the weight of your dog’s rear body could be and do all the work that the back legs need to finish. Just for your pet can be comfortable with using his or her forelimbs, then could be moved safely and speedily, with confidence. That’s how the wheelchair works with the aid you know?
Apart from that, a rear support dog wheelchair makes sense when your dog needs to prevent all activities need to bear this or her weight, or if your dog just lost all the back legs function because of a neurological issue. Besides, it is also ideal for those pets just got amputee. Simply you just need to specify the extent and the nature of the pet’s back legs amputation before you do the wheelchair purchasing.
5. You can also Dog Lift Harness if your dog’s situation is slighter or you are not just not comfortable with those heavy tools. A dog rear leg harness like a dog support strap, rear dog lift harness, or dog leg sling could allow you to provide some support for your dog’s back legs gently, take off the stress of weak back legs or even painful joints, etc… Usually, you just need to put the comfortable cotton dog lift sling around your dog’s belly, then grab the attached grips to lift upward slightly to help your dog to stand up and walk along.
Dog lift harness for back legs normally could prove to be ideal for dogs those struggle with dysplasia, arthritis, or some other painful situations without having lost all of the weight-bearing mobility or ability. A handy dog lifter could make all the difference between taking your dog out when letting him freely roam under his or her strength. How do you think of it?
But you need to be careful when you picking up a dog hip harness for your special furry friends. You need to get the proper size of the dog lifter based on the weight of your dog and maybe look more closely at a dog’s dimensions that if it is necessary. In most cases, there would be some recommendations for you to follow regardless you do the purchase online or offline.
Such as the best dog lifter I’ve ever tried on my aged dog, the loobani portable dog sling. You can easily found the chart of the method to measure the size of your dog’s body, which need to use this product on, also could see pretty clear what size they recommend if your dog is small size, medium-size and large size…You can also check more details by checking the video and those pictures on the website, some pictures and stories are showing us how the loobani portable dog sling did a great help on their special dogs out there. That’s so cool you know that?
I did try my best to help my dog with weak back legs
When I realized that how weak back legs are common among senior dogs, I have also ever seen lots of dogs with weak back legs is on the rise. Does your dog have any trouble with his or her back legs? I did everything I can do to help my dog out just like what I just told you folks above. Because an older dog’s back legs collapse, that can be quite a common problem. Their bodies may be getting weak when a dog is in the later years, the doglegs may be exhausted, then wobbly owing to the years’ long toil. Especially when an older was walking, you may feel a kind of dizziness in his or her gait normally. But I hope this article can help you to help your dog with weak hind legs up to some points, I do believe that you can do your best to help your dog with that, just like me, as a dog lover as well. Anyway, good luck with that!