Hi :)

I have a 3 y/o collie who broke his leg and was in a cast for 3 months (front leg). Because the cast was on so long it has caused major muscle wastage/damage. He will be going to hydrotherapy soon which should help a bit. He can only walk about 5 minutes before he starts limping. Has anyone else had experience with this? Is there anything I can do to help him recover?

TIA :)

Swimming is brilliant for building up muscle, my girl had muscle wastage as a youngster, she had a really bad cut to her back foot, due to broken glass hidden in bushes !! She had two operations to repair the tendons, and afterwards she had lost a lot of muscle tone.
Over the winter months I took her twice a week for hydrotherapy, but once the weather warmed up she was able to swim in a local lake. To start off with she was only allowed in the garden to toilet on lead, and we gradually built up to 5 minute and ten minute walks.
Glad to report she made a full recovery & continued with a very successful show career.
Not sure about the limping sounds as if your boy still has some pain in that area, so I would phone the vet and see what they suggest.
Good luck with your boy, it will probably be quite a long road, but well worth it in the end, just take things slowly and steady.

Thank you. I know I'm in it for the long run now but any advice and encouragement is really appreciated :) he's always been such an active dog. His problem is that he won't swim! I don't
know why. Before he broke his leg he would bound down to the river and then just stand there. Hopefully after going to hydrotherapy he'll see that it isn't scary and go for a swim on his own

I'd get a canine physio to assess him then they can guide which exercises are the most beneficial. You may only need an assessment and a follow up if it is a fairly simple problem but most insurers cover them.
I found it very useful when George hurt his leg but after rest and graded increase walks as advised by the vet he never got back quite right. We had a consultation and two follow ups  over 4 months and that was it, he was loads better as it targeted the muscles that were specifically weak.

One of ours had to spend several weeks in a cast due to damaging the ligaments in her hock.  I would suggest getting some physio support, as this will ensure that you take things at an appropriate pace.  One of the best things that we were advised to do was to ensure that when we started on any exercise was to walk at a snails pace.  This was to ensure that she was fully weight bearing on the injured leg, rather than gently skipping along and us not noticing.  We didn't leave our front drive for ages, as 5 mins of this at a time was enough to start with, we then spent a lot of time building up the time swimming.  Good luck with the recovery.

Thanks for the replies :) He has his assessment appointment with the physiotherapist on Monday so hopefully will be going on the right direction now.