Little Bryan - early dysplasia? Sprain?

Hi all, I'm hoping for some insights. That aside, he has a ton of energy and goes for walks and trips to the dog park. Sometimes when he'd go for an extra long walk or a run, he'd be fine but later after resting at home he'd get up stiff on his back left leg/hip. We thought oh he's just not conditioned for those sprinting runs at the park. He'd recover fine shortly. Several weeks ago we took them to the park and he ran and ran, having a great time. We came home, he trotted around, but after laying down he was definitely limping on that side. We waited 2 days (for vet appointment and to see what was happening) and noticed swelling, so we went to the vet and the vet said it was probably a sprain and took an x-ray. They found his left leg bone is slightly curved, but figured he was born this way, not a big deal. And ever so slight dysplasia in that left hip. So he was put on anti-inflammatories and he recovered. So last Wednesday, Aug 30th, we went to the dog park and he didn't really run too too much, but he did run, and again...we came home and he was really limping on that leg. This time bad, like he doesn't want to stand too long if he can help it. He's back on the anti-inflammatory and we will take him back to the vet. This morning going down the stairs to go potty was fine, but going up he stumbled and I had to carry him the stairs. It kills me that he has something going on with that leg. I think we may need to do an ultrasound and check this out further. I wonder if he actually tore something.

Honestly, I've never had a pet sprain something in my entire life of owning dogs since I was a child. So this is new!

 

Woops, I just realized I edited out a sentence at first. Bryan is one of my 4yr old boys. He's on a diet to lose a few pounds (nothing crazy). I don't think it's hip dysplasia, really, I'm pretty sure it's a sprain - but - I think something chronic might be going on as he seems to have had this limping-after-running thing for some time. It's only recently that it's become bad. Ok, NOW you can read the full post. LOL

 

UPDATE -- After all this time, limiting his walks, use of stairs, etc., his limp is gone. We even went to the park and he was able to run and come home and not be lame or even store. Maybe a tad stiff since he hadn't run in a while. Vet thinks that it was a knee injury that has healed. We're still going to keep an eye on it and take him to a specialist to evaluate, though. But he seems really well now. Of course now that he hasn't gone up the stairs for (11 stairs to the top floor of the house) he has decided he doesn't DO stairs. He CAN if he doesn't think about it. He's a little neurotic and gets nervous easy when it comes to stairs. It's his quirk. LOL But he goes in and out of the house, long walks, runs, etc., and seems great. But yes, we are still watching closely for anything odd.