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Unexplained lameness


L and M Ranch
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Hello everyone. I have a 7 year old male that has become very lame in the last month. Grade 5 on a scale of 1 to 5. It has progressively gotten worse since Christmas. He was helping move some calves from one pen to another and went to jump a feedbunk (from on top of a snowdrift) and pile drove into it. It wasn't a pretty sight. He seemed fine almost immediately though. The only thing I could find was a split toe nail. There was some redness with that for a few days so I put him on antibiotics. That got better. Within about a week and a half of hitting the feedbunk he went from a slight head bob to three legged lame. We've done xrays and they are being sent off to Kansas State for further evaluation as my local vet said he's only finding a bone spur on the back of the left shoulder head. Really didn't think it would cause this level of pain in this dog. (We call him the energizer bunny because nothing slows him down!)

 

Does anyone know if bone spurs could come on this quickly and cause this much pain? His shoulder joint looks great mechanically so vet doesn't think it's a case of wear and tear but trauma. Doesn't surprise me with Jag! I'm contemplating putting him on Adeqan while we wait for the University to get back to us. Any thougths on this?

 

Thanks for any help.

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[quote name=L and M Ranch' date='Jan 27 2010, 08:13 PM' post='337796'

 

Hello everyone. I have a 7 year old male that has become very lame in the last month.

 

Any thougths on this?

 

 

Hey Laura,

 

I went through this with a dog last summer. He wasn't even working when he went lame ... we (my vet and I) tried everything. Finally took X-rays and sent them to a specialist. He came up with so many things that it could be I asked my vet should I just "shoot him" :@) He would get better and then go back to limping... no matter what I did (exercise/no exercise, crated non crated). Nothing seem to help.

 

Finally I went to a Chiropractor/Acupuncturist vet. I have never taken a dog to one (although I do go :@)

 

I was AMAZED at the results. He was 50% better after the first "go around" and completely sound after 4 visits. I have a post around here somewhere about my experience. He's still sound and hasn't limped since.

 

Might be worth a try.

 

Good luck,

 

Update here: I looked up the post I had on my guy and it's here:

http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.php?showtopic=25713

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Nan went dead lame on her front leg. Lots of rest etc...didn't work. Vet advised rest and it didn't help.

 

Took her to a Chiro. Turns out her shoulder had popped out and had been out for a while. She is so tough- it was that way for a while before it really showed symptons. She also needed some major adjustments in her mid back and hips. We had a few visits and I also learned how to massage her.

 

She runs fine now but the trip to the Chiro did wonders. During trial season she goes once a month.

 

Do you think Jag has a bone bruise? have you take him to a Chiro?

 

Diane~

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Thanks everyone! I'm going to start him on Adequan today as it can't really do any harm and will most likely do him some good at least somewhere in his body. I live in a very rural area and don't know anyone that does dog sports to ask about a Chiropractor. I tried to google one for Rapid City (our closest big city) and have had no luck. Any suggestions? I'm sure I can find one in Denver but that's 6 hours away and would be tough to get there very regular. I'll look though as it may be the only option for my area.

Thanks,

Laura

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My cousin who works at the zoo in Manhattan, KS has rescue Great Danes... she took one of hers to her regular chiropractor... they worked on it...never hurts to ask a local ..even a people chiropractor might know of another who will be willing to try it on a dog.

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Laura,

Years ago I had a weimaraner that would have bouts of unexplained lameness on her rigth front. Thought it was a soft tissue injury and as she was a very over the top hyper dog just figured that she wasn't getting the down time it needed to heal. Long story short it turned out to be a back problem.

 

Anytime I get unexplained lameness I always check the spine.

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I would test for lyme , Jags symptoms sound very suspicious.

Than definately look into a canine chiropractor.

Human chiropractors have no clue of the canine skeletal system. Not that they couldnt help Jag , but they can also do a world of harm by just "trying something". If it were my dog I would go to a canine anything before I too my dog to a human doctor , no matter how good they are.

Im sure the canine chiroprator will want to take a few xrays before adjusting if he /she suspects something.

I wish you luck and a speedy diagnosis and recovery.

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Laura,

 

I've had 2 dogs with shoulder injuries that did not show on xray, at 2 different ortho vets.

 

The first dog was working in the muck, came up lame in the shoulder. xrays never showed anything. long story short, when he had surgery (he had lost over 50% of his muscle mass by that time and was not dx at the first ortho vet) they found large amt of rotator cuff injury and that a tendon had slipped over the shoulder joint and had worn away the joint. They repaired the rotator cuff and tendon, but nothing could be done for the worn shoulder joint. This dog would be intermittently lame and wouldn't shed anymore, and to complicate things he also had lymes during this time, which didn't help trying to sort out a diagnosis.

 

Second dog, slipped and fell on wet steps ( I saw it happen), came up lame. Xrays never showed anything at either ortho vet. Had surgery and they found he had a huge traumatic OCD from the fall, and since he didn't have surgery right away, also had alot of irritation in the shoulder caused by the OCD, which extended his recovery by several months.

 

The first dog I do give adequan to at times.

 

Let us know what happens with Jag.

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How long after tick season would signs of TBD show up? We had one of the coolest summer's on record and only had ticks for the month of June and he was on Frontline. Is it a blood test?

 

Nancy, what made you decide to try surgery on both dogs? Did the xrays show any bone chips in the joint?

 

Laura, can you email me some suggestions for chiro's as I'm not finding anyone up here. Thanks! lmhicks@gwtc.net

 

We got the report back from Kansas State University on the xrays. They saw just what my vet did. Some extra bone growth on the back of the humeral head of the left shoulder (basically a bone spur) but didn't feel that should cause pain as there weren't any chips and the joint looks great otherwise. No OCD type of lesions of any kind. They recommend going with an ultrasound now to check for soft tissue injuries.

 

My vet suggests giving him another two weeks with the Adequan and see if we have anymore improvement with that before going to CSU. It is proving to be really hard for me wait this out as I HATE seeing him in pain. Also, I have him in the house and just out for short walks (off leash but by himself). He seems worse after he's been laying around for awhile and kind of "warms up" once he's been moving.

 

Thanks.

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Laura - Celt showed up lame coming out of his crate one day. We were at the Bluegrass and he'd been doing virtually nothing strenuous. I could not think of a thing he had done that might have caused an injury. The first local vet thought it to be a soft tissue injury and we had him on reduced activity but were seeing no improvement over several weeks. At a followup visit, the other local vet diagnosed it as an ACL tear. He would be hopping when he came out of his crate and then would loosen up and walk apparently soundly after a few to a dozen strides or so. We took him to an ortho vet who felt from exam and xrays, that he probably had just a sprain. She put him on crate rest (three weeks) and Rimadyl (two weeks). He was fine in just a few weeks with the strict rest and medication, and has been sound since.

 

Well, I guess what trying to say is that his soft tissue injury would cause him to be very stiff when rising from rest, and he would "walk out of it" with activity. So maybe what your dog has is a soft tissue injury.

 

Sorry, I'm feeling very inarticulate today. I hope you find out the problem and he gets better soon.

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Thanks Sue. Was Celt able to put much weight on it once he "warmed up"?

 

Jag has been on Rimadyl for over 3 weeks now. I have taken him off a couple of times and didn't see much of a difference in him but my vet felt it would help him anyway. Now that he's on Adequan I'm cutting the dosage way down.

 

He is putting a little weight on it now which is an improvement but still carries it up and out the side a bit if he's going faster than a walk. It's just hard not knowing if we're headed in the right direction with him or not.

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This is just a side note... Pretty suddenly, my shoulder started hurting badly. Finally got an mri, and learned that I have three things going on- all from wear and tear, and they finally added up to an issue. He's a hard working dog, and besides the bone spurs, he may have tendinitis, which would definitely cause pain- and an anti-inflammatory and rest will help. Just thought I would mention it...

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Several years ago Riddle came up quite lame in the shoulder after having worked in slick mud earlier that day (it didn't show up until that night, after she had been lying around for several hours). I laid her up for 4-5 days, she seemed ok, then started to work her again. The first day she'd be ok, then by the second day she'd be lame again. We went through this (the laying up for up to a week) several times before I took her to the ortho vet. He did xrays, checked joint fluid, etc. and finally concluded soft tissue. She was on total zero activity (spent her time on the couch watching tv, and while I was nervous about her even getting up there, she seemed to know what she was doing and got up there very carefully). She was let out a couple of times a day to potty (fortunately, she's not one to run around when she goes out to potty), and that was it. We did that for I think it was three weeks. Then, for the next two weeks, the only activity we did was to swim about 20 minutes a day, at least three times a week. Then we slowly went back to work. She has been fine since,

A

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Laura - Once Celt would "walk out of it" he seemed quite sound. Most of the time, you could not tell anything was wrong but occasionally, moving a certain way, he might do a little hop with that leg. It would be just enough for me to know that something was wrong but, once warmed up, he would only show discomfort with certain movements (I'm going to guess that it was turning one way or the other, and maybe putting some twisting action on the leg).

 

The first vet had us use Rimadyl for a short while (just a few days) along with reduced activity. Nothing seemed to improve and, after a couple of weeks of seeing no improvement, I took him back to the vet office and he was seen by another vet. That vet, mistakenly, diagnosed a tear (exam, xrays, sedation exam), gave us Rimadyl, and got us the appointment with the ortho vet for about a week later. At this time, I felt the Rimadyl was reducing or masking the symptoms a bit (we also had reduced his activity level but not enough) but the discomfort was still apparent on rising.

 

The ortho vet put him on Rimadyl for two weeks and strict crate rest. I would only take him out of the crate to potty, on leash, no other dogs, and going no further into the yard than we had to - maybe 100' from his crate. Ed thought I was being too hard on him but I followed this strictly. After two weeks of Rimadyl and crate rest, we continued with another week of crate rest. I had not seen symptoms during the second week of crate rest and Rimadyl but didn't know how much the Rimadyl was masking. However, during that third week of crate rest only, I saw no limping.

 

We eased him on back to activity, going from short leash walks to gentle pasture walks and on to regular activity - probably not as gradually as a vet would have recommended but watching him carefully for any signs of problems. This was early last summer, and he has been sound since.

 

It certainly sounds like your boy is hurting much more than Celt did, and it is a front leg which I think would be harder to deal with as they carry more weight up front than behind. I just hope that whatever your dog's problem is, that it is soon resolved. Very best wishes!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thought I would give everyone an update on Jag. I took him to WY yesterday and had a chiropractor/massage therapist work on him. She found a spot right between his shoulder blades where he was completely out. She was able to get it back in with some work. He was so sore there that he would fall over on his side if we touched right on that spot after she worked on it. Within 30 minutes or so though he was starting to put weight on the left leg again. It's going to take some time to get the muscle to build back up in his shoulder but as long as we can keep it from popping back out he should heal. I have some "exercises" to do with him several time a day to help with that though.

This morning he was already trying to lope while putting weight on it. He still has a pronounced limp and he's on restricted activity for quite awhile but I'm excited to be headed in the right direction finally!

Thanks.

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