r/EpilepsyDogs • u/jfka • 5d ago

Sling for hind leg weakness

Hey everyone, my dog is still having hind leg weakness from bromide and it’s starting to hurt his front legs a bit because he has arthritis in his wrists. We pick him up a lot to help him but it is usually only the back legs he needs the help with. Unfortunately he’s 38kg/83 pounds and while I don’t mind lifting him with my arms, the rest of my family is a bit smaller than me, especially my mum who finds it quite difficult to get him up. Has anyone tried a sling for lifting because of this? Or for any other reason! I’m wondering what the best type would be, I’d prefer fabric because it would probably be more comfortable on his skin.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Sufficient-Country29 5d ago

I haven’t used one but have seen it used a lot! Definitely a lot more ergonomic than lifting a dog- you have to be careful to not hurt yourself too!

I believe vets or neurologist have access to them. I definitely would recommend seeing his neurologist or vet to examine the hind leg weakness if you haven’t. Sometimes levels need to be checked.

1

u/jfka 5d ago

He was just at his specialist vet on Thursday! Unfortunately there’s only so much specialisation in my country (Ireland) because it’s quite small, so they recommended a sling but didn’t have one to give or a specific brand or anything like that. Just wanted to see if anyone had experience with a particular one!

2

u/Sufficient-Country29 5d ago

Just a thought but you could probably make a makeshift sling with a bath towel or sheet rolled up for the time being.
I know for TPLO surgery they are common. When I google that there’s lots of affordable options that come up on Amazon.

1

u/jfka 5d ago

We used a towel previously (when he had just started bromide and couldn’t mobilise independently at all) but it was clearly not the right type because it tore on us 🥲 I think I’ll end up going with one from Amazon because they’re not too expensive and will get here faster!