Lame dog

Dopeydapple

Dopeydapple

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Tala is going to the vet on Wednesday as she's lame on her front leg. I took her in September but it was very slight and very intermittent ( think 1/10 lame for 3 or 4 steps once or twice a week), vet couldn't feel anything and she presented sound so he said keep an eye and come back if worse. Last week it got a bit worse and a bit more regular, then yesterday became very pronounced as she got up from sleeping but would mostly walk off, coming and going a bit on a walk. She's not happy at being stopped from having playtime in the garden and her walks being 10-15 minutes round the block, poor girl is used to 3-4 hours of walks per day. She is enjoying the scent work games in the house though, bless her.
 
Well she got very excited at the vet which masked the lameness, typical! She didn't have any pain response on exam but both her front paws are very irritated between her toes from her licking them. She has piriton incase the toe issue is an allergy and a cone of shame to stop her from licking. He's given us metacam and said to keep her to short lead walks for 3- 4 days then see how she is off the metacam. He says if it doesn't get better in a few days he'd suspect it may be elbow displacia and she'd see an ortho for a CT. Have just messaged OH to see how she is on her walk after the metacam this afternoon (I'm working) and he says she's still hobbling so quite worried now 😢
 
Vet called yesterday in response to me asking for different/ extra pain meds ( he's added pardale V in and she's doing better on that), I said about how badly she's chewing and licking her paw, and whilst the timing coincides either the leg pain he wants her seen and sedated to thoroughly examine it in case she's got something in there. Went in to make appointment for that ( it can be done with ortho app but hadn't heard on date for that so wanted to take a slot before it disappeared), they can see her on Monday for paw and they will see if ortho will squeeze her in then too as they don't have any appointments till 12th March. Fingers crossed she can get everything checked out then and we can get some answers. The drowsy effects of piriton have worn off and pain seems a bit more controlled now so it's a bit harder keeping her quiet and resting so really need to move things along.
 
Is she insured? Physio can be very helpful if vet will refer you (or you can just do it privately but not if you want insurance to pay). My last dog had elbow issues quiet young, he was a rescue and they believed when he was a stray he was hit by a car and it was never treated so he developed joint issues. He had a course of physio, laser therapy and water treadmill and I can say it helped 100%. He only had to have painkillers intermittently after that when he aggravated the joint e.g. by slipping or jumping off something and landing funny. Metacam didn't work for us at all but Previcox was very effective when I needed it. He was also a very active dog - collie x spaniel, and had a good hours walk every morning, a quick 20 mins at lunch time, an hours walk in the evening followed by 1-2 hours running around the yard and coming riding with me. He'd have been insane with less (he'd been rehomed and returned to the rescue 3 times before I adopted him, say less...) He was first diagnosed when he was about 6, but after 6 months of the physio he went on to live a very active life without needing pain medication until he was about 12/13.
 
KikiDee said:
Is she insured? Physio can be very helpful if vet will refer you (or you can just do it privately but not if you want insurance to pay). My last dog had elbow issues quiet young, he was a rescue and they believed when he was a stray he was hit by a car and it was never treated so he developed joint issues. He had a course of physio, laser therapy and water treadmill and I can say it helped 100%. He only had to have painkillers intermittently after that when he aggravated the joint e.g. by slipping or jumping off something and landing funny. Metacam didn't work for us at all but Previcox was very effective when I needed it. He was also a very active dog - collie x spaniel, and had a good hours walk every morning, a quick 20 mins at lunch time, an hours walk in the evening followed by 1-2 hours running around the yard and coming riding with me. He'd have been insane with less (he'd been rehomed and returned to the rescue 3 times before I adopted him, say less...) He was first diagnosed when he was about 6, but after 6 months of the physio he went on to live a very active life without needing pain medication until he was about 12/13.
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That's good to hear, I was assuming there will be some physio but waiting till after the investigations so we know what we are dealing with. Funnily enough Tala had been rehomed and returned to rescue 3 times before we got her too and her initial intake paperwork had her listed as a stray
 
It may be different depending on what you're dealing with but fingers crossed they can find a solution. 🙏 With mine the joint had been damaged so it essentially 'slipped' out sometimes which caused trauma to all the surrounding tissue and the acute lameness and then lame for a few days after. My vet didn't recommend surgery but the physio we did essentially built the correct muscle mass around the joint to support the joint better and prevent it happening, I was surprised how effective it was as he was previously on/off lame at least once a week but completely resolved unless he did something particularly stupid. Previcox was a wonder drug for us, he had 1/2 tablet when he had an episode which made him immediately comfortable again. I couldn't feed it long-term as it upset his stomach but it was very useful as and when I needed it for a day or 2 at a time. Surprisingly he didn't actually develop any significant arthritis in the joint until into his teens and that was fairly easily managed, and it was actually a totally different condition that I lost him to in the end.
 
Ortho won't see her when she's in for her paw so she's got to have another appointment the following week. She's sound on the pardale now and I forgot to ask if she should have the meds withdrawn before appointment, will try to remember when she's at the paw appointment 🤦‍♀️
 
Dopeydapple said:
Ortho won't see her when she's in for her paw so she's got to have another appointment the following week. She's sound on the pardale now and I forgot to ask if she should have the meds withdrawn before appointment, will try to remember when she's at the paw appointment 🤦‍♀️
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Did they say why?
 
Saw vet for paw again today, he didn't want to sedate as she's being sedated next week. He couldn't see anything in her paw that made him think it's more than irritation from licking which started after the lameness. He's given her a steroid spray for her feet and prescribed something like apoquel but not, it begins with a Z. We go back next week for ortho vet.
 
KikiDee said:
have they got her on any oral steroids?
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No, steroids was only mentioned today, vet didn't want to take her off metacam to introduce them so I've got a steroid spray for her. Vet said maybe stress / anxiety at the pain could cause incontinence, will bring up with ortho vet next week as we didn't really get into it this morning ( as I said meant to come back to it but cet went to get drugs for paw and we kind of both forgot). She's very bright and happy in herself though.
 
Ah, oral steroids can sometimes cause excessive thirst and the peeing but that's not it then. Gosh how stressful for you, hopefully they can give you some answers soon 😰
 
AmyMay Again said:
Try and get a urine sample first thing in the morning to have it tested for infection or high glucose levels.
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I suggested an infection to him ( maybe less peeing as shorter walks means more staying in bladder longer??) He didn't seem to think that, maybe best to get them to take direct from bladder when she's sedated??
 
Dopeydapple said:
I suggested an infection to him ( maybe less peeing as shorter walks means more staying in bladder longer??) He didn't seem to think that, maybe best to get them to take direct from bladder when she's sedated??
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It's easy enough to take a sample with some shallow tupperware. But it should be first thing. Stick it in the fridge and then pop it to the vet that morning.
 
And now I've got to deal with peed off OH as he thinks today's visit was a waste of time and money and nothing is getting done!!! She can't be seen by ortho until next week, couldn't start the referral process earlier as the vet obviously had to try rest and pain meds first before referring. Couldn't stop her licking her paw as she just destroys socks / boots, pulls collar off and any anti lick spray makes her lick worse so her paw has got so bad the vet wanted to check nothing had been missed there. Don't know what OH expects me or vet to do at this point 😫
 
Dopeydapple said:
And now I've got to deal with peed off OH as he thinks today's visit was a waste of time and money and nothing is getting done!!! She can't be seen by ortho until next week, couldn't start the referral process earlier as the vet obviously had to try rest and pain meds first before referring. Couldn't stop her licking her paw as she just destroys socks / boots, pulls collar off and any anti lick spray makes her lick worse so her paw has got so bad the vet wanted to check nothing had been missed there. Don't know what OH expects me or vet to do at this point 😫
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It's very hard waiting for these appointments. But I sort of agree with your OH.

Roll on next week x
 
druid said:
She was prescribed a topical steroid and Zenrelia (I assume) to improve the skin situation until Ortho see her - that's not doing nothing by any stretch of the imagination?
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I've tried to point that out to him. He's annoying in that he buries his head in the sand about things then suddenly decides something is a problem and needs fixing NOW. I'm not the most patient of people either and I worry easily about my pets so it's probably just not a good combination. I'm just going to take heart that the vet doesn't think there's an underlying paw problem just a pain problem that we need the ortho app for. So fix 1 thing and the other will resolve itself.
 
I get where he's coming from in the frustration department but something is happening next week. Its hard waiting.
 
I think it feels like a long wait because when I booked the vet on 15th I warned him this was a big thing and would probably need scans so we were kind of waiting to get to that point before we even saw the first vet, now she's seen 2 vets and still has another week to wait for the ortho who can approve the scans I told him I wanted nearly a month earlier 😢
 
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