# 10 month old dog limping



## VFBundy (Apr 25, 2010)

This morning, I noticed my dog (a 10-month old Lab) had a slight limp in his left front leg when he was playing with the dog next door. Then, they both rolled on the ground and my dog let out a big yelp, followed by a few seconds of crying afterwards. (The crying afterwards really scared me.) But, being a puppy, he got up and started playing again, and let out a yelp again a few seconds later, obviously favoring his left front leg.

I took him home, inspected his leg and paw (bending it, gently pulling it) and got no pain response. I let him rest for about an hour. When I came back, he was in high spirits, getting into mischief, etc. When he "stole" a towel he wasn't supposed to have, I tried to pull it from his mouth, and he fully planted both front legs into the carpet while I tried to pull the towel from his mouth. Again, no pain response from him from planting his front legs.

However, when I took him outside, I threw a couple of sticks to see him run, and there's something "off." No yelping or anything like that, and he seems to be running hard, but his gait seems wrong. It's not so much that he's limping when he's running, but his leg seems to "give" once in a while. (His shoulder will drop and, at times, he looks like he's going to topple, but recovers on the next step. It sort of looks like he's stepping in a small hole.) It happens maybe every 5-6 seconds.

If it keeps up, of course, I'll take him to the vet. But, I'm just wondering what could cause such pain that he not only yelped, but cried (and, he wasn't even standing when it happened)...then come up lame again a few seconds later when he tried to play...only to have me inspect his leg and not get any response---?

Any ideas? His weird gait while running bothers me. It's like he's somehow out of alignment.


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## mitzi (Aug 3, 2010)

Maybe only a sprain but could possibly be a ruptured tendon. Only a vet can tell.


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## Binkalette (Dec 16, 2008)

When Maggie was 9 months old she was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia, It often shows itself as limping in the adolescent stage when their growth plates are closing. One month later, the limp was gone, but it could give her trouble again when she is older if we don't take preventative measures. She gets Joint supplements now daily. When we first took her in we though perhaps she had injured it, and the vet thought the same thing, so she sent us home with some anti-inflammatory pain meds.. it didn't help much, so we tried a different med. Then they gave her anti-biotics in case it was caused by lymes disease, or if there was an infection in the joint.. didn't help, so we did X-rays (I should probably have taken them up on the Xrays the first time the offered.. *sigh*) and she has elbow dysplasia. :-/ I hope your guy just has a soft tissue injury or sprain or something, but I thought I'd share my experience so you'd have some more to look into if it doesn't get better.


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## waterbaby (Jan 20, 2009)

My lab mix at 9-10 months was diagnosed with osteochondritis dessicans in her shoulder. Basically, the cartilage on the head of the shoulder didn't grow at the same rate as the bone and slipped off. She was lame in that shoulder off and on, until finally she was constantly limping. We had x-rays done to diagnose, but tried anti-inflammatories and restricted movement before we finally decided to go with surgery. It turned out a very small piece of cartilage had broken off and lodged in her muscle. The ocd was in both shoulders, but the vet said that it will heal itself with rest over time. It was just a fluke that that little piece had snapped off. That was 1 1/2 years ago and no problems since.

Not trying to diagnose your dog, just sharing my experience. I think joint problems like mine and binkalette's dog had tend to manifest between 8 and 10 months so it's a possibility I would take seriously.


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