# Periodic limping on rear leg after total hip replacement



## ajaeger (Oct 10, 2007)

My 8 year old German Shepherd has been limping a lot on his right rear leg. 18 months ago, he had a total hip replacement operation on that hip and we had noticed that he was recovering well after about 12 months. We thought the surgery was successful, when the limping started. In a couple visits to the surgeon, he seemed to rule out a joint issue as the cause of the limping/pain. He said it was "griseolus myopothy" (my spelling must be wrong as I can't google it). The muscle on his inner thigh on that leg is considerably firmer/tighter than the muscle on the other thigh. He recommended physical therapy to help stretch the muscle, but said that this condition usually doesn't respond well to any treatment. Does anyone have any information on this? Thank you.


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## ACampbell (Oct 7, 2007)

As for animals, no advice, but from personal experience, I have some advice to offer. I had knee surgery less than a year ago, I still have a limp and it is still stiff and sore (I also have Osteo arthritis in it so that doesn't help) However, doing physical therapy does help, if not permanently at least for the day. After any limb surgery, it's a long hard road to recovery. Things like osteo-arthritis doesn't show up on an X-ray, because it is partly due to degeneration of cartiledge which doesn't show up on X-rays and requires an MRI. When is he the most stiff, is it in the morning or when he gets up from naps, or all day long - is it temperature dependant (if it's colder is it worse or raining, etc) if it's those kinds of things, it could be something similar to osteo-arthritis (which you can google and has lots of good information on) and it may not be in the hip replaced. Your vet is right to suggest physical therapy, as it can only improve mobility. Your dog may limp after doing something like PT, muscles atrophy without use, so it may take awhile to work that leg back into shape. Unfortunately you can't tell a dog to do leg lifts on a machine, so for that you would have to ask your vet (if they haven't told you already) what kind of exercise might help. Even if it is something like osteo-arthritis, exercise won't hurt it and will help it to feel better, at least temporarily.

(Also, I just googled it, the spelling is Griseolus Myopathy - defined as a neuromuscular disease in which muscle fibers do not function (reasons vary) causing muscle weakness [myopathy defines as: muscle disease] as for the world griseolus, google didn't coem up with anything that made sense with myopathy, and when used together resulted in 0 results.)


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