Limping Dog

Gemmy_2

We woke up yesterday with the dog starting to walk on three paws and limping very dramatically if on all four.

He does limp when he's tiered but not to this extent or for this long. I've had a look at the paw and his leg and there is nothing obvious that looks wrong.

I don't know how long to leave it before taking him to the vets.

It looks like his limp has slightly improved today but only slightly and probably as I taunted him with "look Bruno there's a cat" to see if he was or not.

shegirl

I'd just take him to the vets rather than asking when to take him tbh even more so if you can't see any reason for him to be limping

aliasojo

Take him to the vet now. It could be like when you have toothache...you can't see anything wrong but you know it's sore anyway. He may just get something simple like an anti-inflammatory pain killer to help him but you really need to get him checked. Dogs are not usually drama queens, they don't limp for effect.

Hope he picks up soon.

hethmar

It may be something simple like a bruise or sprain but on the other hand, if this has been going on some time - you say he limps when he is tired? - then it may be something more significant and you do need to get it seen to ASAP.

cyberbob

Check the pads for anything obvious. If you can't see anything and it continues go to the vet. Things like grass seeds sometimes can't be seen and can cause serious problems.

hannahO_2

Ingrown paw nail?

Raggs_2

Our dog used to limp intermittently, I assumed it may just have been a sore pad from long walks. Then one of his paws swelled up badly, we took him to the vets, who stated that it could easily have been a grass seed, took a brief, but not very thorough look (our dog is highly ticklish with his feet, and he was in pain, not a great combo), and prescribed antibiotics (dog had a temperature, so infection was a safe bet).

Swelling went down, dog returned to normal, odd occasional slight limp.

Few months later, foot swelled to huge proportions, he refused point blank to put it down, was depressed and didn't even want to get up for walks (this is a dog who's back legs you can hold, and with his front two he'll sprint around to get to wherever is interesting, like a wheelbarrow).

Tried to take him to the same vet, who, for the second time running (different animal) was available, and neither was any other from that surgery. So we talked to a friend and got a recommendation.

The new vet realised that there was no way he was going to be able to investigate fully, so sedated the dog, opened up his paw, pulled up a 4 grass seeds from inside the foot (some must have been there for months) and an inch long seed/thorn (I assume this is what kicked off the second bout of limping). Leg fully wrapped up, anti-biotics, and within a day we had back our old dog (with a funny green leg). Once the bandages were off, it took him a couple of days to get used to walking on his now softer pad, but now we have our old dog back, and no intermittent slight limp.

In short, I'm trying to say, get him well investigated, exploring the foot (if have grass seeds around, or have had) may well result in the vet finding an underlying cause. Since it sounds very similar to what our poor boy was suffering with.

EmptyPockets

Please take your dog to see a vet soon.

Our dog Suki developed a limp which we stupidly didn't act on straight away - like you, we left it to see if it would go away. We thought it was a pulled muscle, or a slight sprain. The limp went away, but came back intermittently.

It turned out that our dog had bone cancer. We lost her in May this year, and she was only five years old.

No, I'm not trying to shock you or scare you. I'm trying to say this: just because you have checked the dog over, and he seems fine, does not mean that the limp will just go on its own. A dog limping means there is something wrong, and a vet needs to look at your dog.

Good luck x

Sooz00

Gemmy wrote: »

We woke up yesterday with the dog starting to walk on three paws and limping very dramatically if on all four.

He does limp when he's tiered but not to this extent or for this long. I've had a look at the paw and his leg and there is nothing obvious that looks wrong.

I don't know how long to leave it before taking him to the vets.

It looks like his limp has slightly improved today but only slightly and probably as I taunted him with "look Bruno there's a cat" to see if he was or not.

Hi Gemmy - how is Bruno doing now? A lot of the posts offer good advice and it may well be something like a grass seed that has worked it's way into the paw. Your vet should be able to help and I know vets fees can be expensive but it's best to check it out. We tend to see one of the partners at our practice as we find the some of the other vets do sometimes have a tendency to overcharge whereas the partners have more say.

You did say that Bruno limps when he's tired - if you mean tired after exercise in particular, it is worth having that checked too. We recently took one of our dogs to the vet as she limped and became a little stiff after vigorous exercise. They found a slight restriction of movement in her hocks and it turned out she has osteochondritis dissecans (OCD - a disease of the cartilage and bone development in the joints of dogs) and secondary degenerative joint disease (DJD aka osteoarthritis). We've caught it really early and as it's graded 1/10 and surgery isn't appropriate, she is on supplements and hydrotherapy to prevent it becoming worse. She's only just turned 5 so not an older dog as you might think. We have been lucky to catch it so early and hopefully the treatments will prevent her needing joint fusion/replacement later on.

Anyway, hope I've mentioned something that's of help. Hope Bruno is better soon.

CFC

Grass seeds are the work of Satan if you ask me!