After years of weak ligaments in both shoulders, last week little Willow - the smallest dog in the house - managed to give me a major subluxation in my left shoulder, took the whole thing right out of joint and hard so now I'm having to get treatment for it.  Just wondered if anyone has any experiences or info?

I had physio when I was about 17 IIRC, the aim then was to increase the muscle tone around both shoulder joints to compensate for the weak ligaments.  I worked at it and it worked well, although I've always had teeny slips out of joint it's not been an issue until now.  I'm waiting for physio again this time but the aim is the same, and I'm not convinced it's going to work that well when I was already doing it and had stable shoulders :-(

I'm also getting an MRI done to see exactly what damage has occurred, I've also got what we think is a torn muscle on the same side which I'm putting down to wear and tear (I had pain in the muscle on both should a few years ago that stopped me grooming dogs but never an injury like this - I have a dent in that arm wear the damage is), I think it's been polished off by having to lift River in and out of the car three times a day because of her prolapsed disc.  I now have a ramp for her!  But I think that's making it harder for the GP to examine the shoulder, and with me currently being unable to keep it in joint for any length of time, she's gone for the MRI.

What I'm wondering is if anyone could help me out with an idea of recovery time either through physio or, if that doesn't do much, surgery?  Or what's involved with surgery?  New territory for me, this, I've never had a sub this bad.  PITA really as I was just building up a customer base for casual gardening!