Elbow soft tissue injury - anyone had experience of this?

At the start of December, our Skye (2 years old) skidded on wet grass when chasing a ball and immediately pulled up lame. We got her to the vet who diagnosed soft tissue injury to her elbow and prescribed anti-inflammatories and complete rest . We're now into week 5 of her being totally grounded - short walks (5 mins maximum)to do her business only, not allowed on sofa or bed, no jumping up or down. I can tell she's getting depressed not getting her usual romps and long walks. We've been back to the vet a few times during this period and have been advised to carry on with what we've been doing. We've even taken to sleeping on a low futon so she can be beside us at night and we're also sitting on the floor in the living room so she can get her usual cuddles.

I wondered if anyone else has had experience of this with their staffies and if they eventually made a full recovery (Skye is STILL limping at times), and how long it took to heal (we've been told this can take months(!!!)).

Any advice gratefully received...

This is her usual level of activity!

levitation by marlesghillie, on Flickr

I haven't had experience with soft tissue injuries and hope Skye makes a full recovery soon - you're doing a great job and that's a fantastic photo!

love the photo, its beautiful, sorry ive no experience, hope skye recovers soon

Sorry I can't help ya as I have no experience with soft tissue injuries but I love that picture !

I do feel for you. Pixee does have a shoulder injury from last year, also caused by her previous home, she was beaten! She was put on a no walk and rest, and Pixee loves her walks, so I was somewhat concerened about all that rest. To me rest can sometimes make them stiff and makes the situation worse. You know best how Skye is. I think after one weeks of no walking, not ever up and down the stairs, Pixee had to be carried up/down the stairs, no jumping up or down on her fav chair, she started to bounce off the walls, I decided to change a few things, I went back up the vet, and told them I would like to try those things, being, 10 mins walk on lead twice a day, letting her walk up the stairs but we carry her down instead, letting her back on her chair, but no rough playing, e.g. tug of war, no throwing sticks etc for a few months. My reasons for this being, Pixee was getting stiff and bouncing off the walls which had resulted in her going crazy and running riot round the house, which was doing her more harm than good, the vet gave me the thumbs up saying its because I knew Pixee best. After 2 weeks of this, I increased the walks, but still no rough playing to give her shoulder a chance to heal. It pays off. We still dont do tug of war games like we use to. And have since last year done no fisbee playing cos she turns very sharply on her shoulder, the last thing we want is it hurting her. We may try it again later this year. What we do notice is, after long walks where she has done a lot of running about, she will limp next day, so I reduce her walks to short ones, and Pixee is happy with that too. You know Skye best, and I sometimes think that the vets over do things but where it works with some dogs, great, but others well thats why I did what I did. Hope you work something out for Skye, its upsetting when we have to rest our dogs but its for the best in many cases, just sometimes go with your judgement.

Thanks Lynn! That's very helpful information - it's rotten seeing her so cooped up when she's usually so active. I agree with you that the immobility does seem to make her stiffer, especially at night. Hopefully we can get her back to normal with some perseverance.

PS your dog looks beautiful - how could anyone contemplate maltreating a dog like that (well, any dog actually!)

Sorry I don't have any experience with this issue, hope Skye is back to her usual self very soon