Oberon's leg/foot

mimiretz

mimiretz

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Oberon hates steps, probably because we've always lived in single-story residences and he never really had to deal with lots of them. Where we are now there's two steps up to our porch. Instead of going up one step then the other he kind of leaps up to the porch near the side, and frequently bangs his leg on the concrete step. Consequently he occasionally limps for a day or two. Well, he's been limping for about a week now and we're getting a little concerned.

He leg/foot isn't tender -- he doesn't react at all when he touch/grab/squeeze it. It doesn't appear swollen, but he does seem to turn his right foot in a bit. And the limp seems to get a little less as he walks for a while; it's worse when he first gets up.

Under normal circumstances of course we'd take him to the vet -- but these are not normal times. We do live not far from a 24-hour vet clinic that we use for all our vet needs. Like a lot of places they now have someone come out and get your pet, then communicate by phone; not sure how Oberon would deal with not having us with him. There's also the very real concern that masks (which are the same as used in people hospitals) are a precious commodity these days.

So the question is: do we give him a few more days? Do we take him in? I will say that today when he got up after his morning nap he was walking just a tiny bit better.

Thanks for all advice!
 
I'd say wait and try to limit his movements. Do you have an xpen you could use for a few days? I know with my boys any time they've hurt themselves limiting their movement is the first thing I do. See how he is after a couple days and maybe if he hasn't improved I'd call the vet.
Here's a link to an article on what to do if your dog has an injury. Hope it helps answer some questions.
https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/health/home-treatments-for-injured-dogs/
 
My Harley had lots of problem with his legs his whole life. If he is in no sign of distress and it appears to be improving then I'd wait a little bit before calling the vet. Just maybe boost him up the steps if he has to go back out and other than that just get him to take it as easy as possible of the next few days. Harley used to limp a lot and I'd spend a fortune on vets only to be told they can't find what is wrong so just rest up.
 
Rest, and if you have a piece of plywood where you could teach him to go up a ramp instead of the steps may help. Plywood can be slippery, but there are textured finishes that you can apply to give traction (Home Depot and Lowe's are open here where I am).

Hope he is feeling better soon!
 
As we just found out with Faith - sometimes limping can originate in the spine as well. Faith was just examined by our retired vet when he came to visit Meadow. 2 other vets and an xray did not find a reason for her intermittant limping, but he immediately found she is having sciatic pain. She is now on gabapentin and deramaxx and we will try and get into the doggie chiropractor who once helped Brooke. We think it's from Elijah slamming into her sometimes while playing....
 
Also, if it's the back leg don't rule out the hock (as I learned). The hock area doesn't swell much as there's not as much blood supply there (we only found out by X-raying both hocks) and Finnie had no discomfort after the initial injury to touch. Also Finnie did seem to turn his back leg in a bit when he walked (and ran funny too).
 
Thanks all. Limiting movement isn't really an issue -- he spends most of the day laying close to me, preferably with his head in my lap or on my feet. We did see some improvement today. Our old dog (mercutio the samoyed) was on tramadol for pain, so we know that's ok for dogs. I use it too, so hubby looked up the dose per weight and we gave him about 3/4 of the recommended dose. That seemed to help. We will keep an eye on him for a few more days.

Piper -- it's his front right leg.
 
Glad he is feeling better. Shelby does the same thing on steps (and she has always had lots of steps). She just seems to always want to jump over the bottoms 1 or 2 steps and then she crashes into them. She is just very clutzy - definitely not a dainty girl.

A few months ago she also started limping, we made her rest and after a week or so it wasn’t getting much better. So I took her to the vet. Of course that was the night she stopped limping. We still did a Lyme test and vet sent us home with meds in the event it happened again. And go figure she hasn’t limped since. So maybe just some rest and relaxation will help.
 
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