Hiya, took our 5 year old to the vet this morning as he's been limping slightly in the evening and was having problems lying down last night. She thinks he has a slight knee sprain as the ligament was slightly loose and said no exercise at all for a week. Would the odd 5 minutes on the lead be ok, say a couple of times a day? He's going to go nuts! I'll be trying to keep him occupied with all the games he played when a mad puppy. Thanks

I would suggest follow the vets advice.

A week is not that long to cope with as it is better to rest rather than do further damage.

Yes do follow the advice you've been given - a week isn't very long and if you ignore it you may find that you have a dog that has to be crate rested for much longer.

I'd also suggest putting him on lead to go into the garden

Get him a few chew toys, fill a Kong, and practice (gently) basic obedience and more precise positioning for sit, stay etc.  Keep it calm (and keep watching him to check you're not asking too much) and you might find it tires him out mentally and impresses your family and friends with your newly trained pooch!!

I hope all is OK after a week :)

I'm just coming to the end of a weeks house rest for Spud for a sprained shoulder. I've had this many times with dogs, so many I don't go to the vet any more as I know the drill and spud was on Metacalm anyway.
You really must not walk him at all, and as has been said, put him on a leash to go in the garden too. it's a complete pain in the bum, but take my word for it, don't be tempted to exercise him at all, it will only take longer to heal and mean more house rest.

> I'm just coming to the end of a weeks house rest for Spud for a sprained shoulder. I've had this many times with dogs, so many I don't go to the vet any more as I know the drill and spud was on Metacalm anyway.

I am just wondering why dogs are supposed to be rested  for a week when the current treatment for human sprains is 48-72 hours rest then gentle exercise to be resumed. Also in humans NSAIDS (Metacam is a NSAID)are to be avoided within 48 hours of the injury as this slows the healing process. Obviously I know dogs and people are different but when it comes to muscles and bones the principles are the same whatever the species.

I have no idea, any time I've gone to the vet with a sprain the dogs been put on metacalm straight away.
Perhaps the avoidance of exercise is more down to we can take care with exercise after a sprain but you can't tell a dog that, better to not let them potentially cause more damage.
I just follow what my vet has previously told me to do and it's always worked.

Thanks everyone, will do as we've been told :-)

> I am just wondering why dogs are supposed to be rested for a week when the current treatment for human sprains is 48-72 hours rest then gentle exercise to be resumed

As Celli has said I've always assumed it's because most dogs have no real concept of go slow or take it easy.  Mine could fit your average dog's weekly exercise regime into 10 minutes

Even if rest for a dog means not going on walks that doesn't equate to doing nothing and barely qualifies as gentle exercise either...