Dog limping but nobody else can see it

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milo'n'molly

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Ok, so I don't THINK I'm paranoid but we went for a longish walk on Sunday, 8 miles ish but the dog was loose and charging around and back and forth so he easily did double the distance.
This isn't an unusual length of walk on a weekend and the dog is generally very fit.
Yesterday I saw him take a few dodgy steps with a hind leg and checked out the leg but no thorns, cuts, swellings or pain reactions ( but he doesn't really show pain and would jump up to go for a walk if his legs were hanging off)
He was kept quiet yesterday and today and is much improved but I can see he isn't 100% sound. My parents and OH think I'm seeing things but have spent many, many hrs watching daft horses with troublesome back legs and I can see he's just not right.
We were due at the vets anyway for jabs for his passport so got them to look and neither regular vet could see anything wrong.
I have been googling (and worrying myself) and will keep him quiet but I'm now worried what will be the next step if he doesn't improve with rest as the vets were telling me he is fine.
Is there such a thing as a lameness specialist vet for dogs like there is horses?
I know it's early days but it worries me knowing he isn't right.
Any ideas would be appreciated
 
Well personally I would relax a bit. If the vet thinks he's okay then he probably is. He might just have bruised his pad or something like that. Give him a couple of days of garden exercise and see how he goes. Try not to overthink the "what will happen next" scenarios until they happen. Chin up and cyber biscuit for your dog.
 
Sorry that I can't be much help, other than sending sympathies with how frustrating it can be with vague symptoms. It has happened that I've taken bitches to the veterinarian due to very vague symptoms, and sometimes they've not been able to find anything, and I've just had to go home and wait for the vague symptoms to go away, or get worse so that I could take the bitch back to the veterinarian.

Other times, like for example the time when I took a bitch to the veterinarian, and said that I just sensed that there was something wrong when she got up from her dog bed, but I couldn't specify it further than that I thought it took her a millisecond or so more to stand up than usual. The veterinarian couldn't find any signs of something being wrong, but we took a blood sample to test for rheumatism and tick diseases just to be on the safe side, and it turned out that she did have a tick disease.

So, sometimes I've been right, other times I'm just a neurotic dog owner.
(((Vibes))) for that your dog gets better, preferably without needing to revisit the veterinarian.
 
You are probably stressing yourself out too soon. It is likely that only you can see the lameness as you are more used to the dog, but it's probably a strain from the long walk. I would keep him quiet for a few days and see what happens.

If he is still having problems then ask for a referral to an orthopedic vet. They should be able to see the issue and from the type of movement they can start narrowing down to the kind of problem it might be which can then be further diagnosed by x-ray, ultrasound or MRI.
 
Yes, I can be paranoid about my own but am also a dab hand at spotting lameness - equine and canine.

I had a dog that started showing VERY intermittent lameness on one foreleg.....never when there was a vet about and didn't respond to palpation or previcox. I had a canine physio out to him and she gave him a complete workup and was about to leave when she asked me to trot him up one last time and lo and behold as we turned he did a couple of lame steps. Her report plus my nagging got x-rays of the limb which showed that a splinter had entered via a pad and travelled up the limb, occasionally nicking the tendon as he weighted the limb/turned in a particular direction.

Splinter removed, dog sound, job done. Soooo............what I'm saying is yes, we can all be paranoid about our own but sometimes you need to have the courage of your own convictions.
 
I have been in this situation before - I even went to the lengths of having him x-rayed just to check.

Nothing was found and eventually the niggle went, if you are still worried have some more investigations done, maybe try him on painkillers and rest for a week. Maybe he has tweeked a muscle.
 
Thanks, just felt a bit paranoid when looking at him at the same time as vets, parents and OH and I could see he just wasn't pushing equally from both hinds, like I was imagining it.
Anyhow he is much improved but driving me crazy as he hasn't had his normal exercise.
Lesson learnt that its not always as bad as a google search would suggest ;-)
 
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