calcification on shoulder tendon.

[carol pearson]

10 year old Ozzy has had arthritis for about 3 years. He has managed quite well with natural supplements and acupuncture for a while but we had to stop this. I have given pain relief when needed but always looking for something more natural even the turmeric paste which did not agree with him.
About 18 months ago he hurt his left shoulder although we dont know how, rest and metacam and this seemed fine.
But about six months ago he started limping intermittently. I put this down to arthritis in this left shoulder and had to give him metacam. Not happy with metacam long term started looking again and found a mobile cold laser therapist.
After about 8 sessions saw a big improvement but the therapist had to go away a will be back in a couple of weeks.
So advice from vet and therapist was exercise little and often which is what we were doing anyway even going up and down a small hill too  fields. Therapist and vet advised hill walking was good.
Sorry going on a bit.
Anyway really bad limp even with metacam and tramadol so decided to have shoulder xrayed although a bit worried because of his age. But he has always come round really well from anaesthetic (he has had a few).
Turns out he has a calcified tendon so poor thing all the exercise has been making it worse. But also vet said that is why he reacted well to the laser therapy. (Will hopefully carry on with this asap)
So it just shows xrays can be very useful even if you are not happy and worried about them.
The only problem we have now is he is having to rest and he cant understand why he is not going a walk.

[its.sme]

Sorry to hear Ozzy is not well.

Will he be able to eventually get back to exercising , If so would swimming help as its non weight bearing and better on the joints?

Sharon.

[carol pearson]

I had actually just had a referal form filled in for hydrotherapy mainly because I felt his back legs seemed to be getting a bit weak. But the vet said to hold of on that for a while but yes hopefully we will give it ago. The only reason I have not done this before is because he does not like water so thought he would get too stressted.
I am hoping the laser therapist will give me a lot more information because I know she works a lot with horses who have problems with tendons

[its.sme]

I've just read up on Cold Laser Therapy and it looks like a good idea, very positive with no side affects.

I'm sure a good Hydrotherapist will work with your boy to put him at ease, he will have a buoyancy aid on and it might take some time to get him used to it, there was a recent post that showed the benefits on swimming,

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=114858.0

Hope he feels better soon.

[carol pearson]

Thanks, I cant wait for his therapist to come back, she is in Italy at the moment with some horses.
Yes because he is not walking far anyway any more he does need more exercise so will have to try hydrotherapy.

[its.sme]

I think hollyd443 works in this field, have you thought of sending a PM to gain more information ?