Muscle injuries

Controlling Activity Post-Injury: Cookie’s Iliopsoas Injury—Battling the Zoomies

What to do when you need to restrict activity of your active dog post injury or surgery? Crate rest is fine very short-term but eventually, the dog needs to get moving. The same goes for chemical restraint such as Trazodone. Explaining that they need to curb their enthusiasm to your wild dog doesn’t always get through. Plans are great as…

by Jana Rade

Iliopsoas Injury Symptoms: What Did Cookie’s Iliopsoas Injury Look Like

If you have a dog with a difficult, can’t put your finger on it, lameness have your vet check the iliopsoas muscle. Iliopsoas injuries can not only be hard to treat but also hard to diagnose and detect. Signs can be as subtle as a male dog no longer lifting a leg to pee. Cookie’s story After all the medical…

by Jana Rade

Canine Iliopsoas Injuries Symptoms: Sometimes You Don’t Even Know What You’re Looking At—Cookie’s Hind Legs Transiently Fail To Work

Canine iliopsoas injuries symptoms can be anything from subtle signs that you can easily miss to profound lameness. These injuries often go undiagnosed in dogs. Things you might notice in your dog include difficulty or stiffness when getting up reluctance to jump gait changes/ outward rotation of the affected leg stance changes intermittent lameness not lifting a leg to pee…

by Jana Rade

Jana Rade

I am a graphic designer by day, dog health advocate, dog writer, member of the Dog Writers Association of America, and an award-winning author in my spare time. Jasmine, the Rottweiler of my life, was the largest female from her litter. We thought we were getting a healthy dog. Getting a puppy from a backyard breeder was our first mistake. Endless veterinary visits without a diagnosis or useful treatment later, I realized that I had to take Jasmine's health care into my own hands. I learned the hard way that simply seeing a vet is not always enough. There is more to finding a good vet than finding the closest clinic down the street. And, sadly, there is more to advocating for your dog's health than visiting a veterinarian. It should be enough, but it often is not. With Jasmine, it took five years to finally get a diagnosis for her initial issue. Unfortunately, other problems had snowballed for that in the meantime. Jasmine's health challenges became a crash course in understanding dog health issues and how to go about getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. I had to learn, and I had to learn fast. Helping others through my challenges and experience has become my mission and Jasmine's legacy. I now try to help people recognize and understand signs of illness in their dogs, how to work with their veterinarian, and when to seek a second opinion. My goal is to use 20 years of hard-earned experience to save others from the steep curve of having to learn things the hard way, as I did.

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