# Dog started limping seemingly out of nowhere...



## rob_d (Apr 21, 2009)

Hello, my 9 year old mutt dog Cassidy suddenly developed a limp as of yesterday afternoon. We came home and noticed she was walking gingerly on her right front leg. She was fine before we left the house that day. She is not an active dog at all and doesn't really play much at all and never has. We have no other dogs that she might have rough housed with.

We also heard her yelp a couple times, but this was without us touching her at all. As I examined her leg up and down later on she showed no signs of pain..no yelping or pulling away or anything. I know dogs can hide pain but this seems pretty weird. I also did a search in and around her paws for any obvious debris and found nothing. She does have very hairy paws though.

I should also add that she is eating normally and still can get up and down the stairs with seemingly little difficulty (we live in a second floor apartment so she has to go down the stairs to go outside to the bathroom). She will walk with us on her leash with no objections, though we've been keeping her walks as short as possible after noticing the limps. She also can get on our bed and on couches with seemingly no difficulty. Furthermore, she still gets excited when we walk into the house after being out. The one thing I did notice different is she seems to avoid rolling over. She usually always rolls over when we pet her to try and get us to rub her stomach but I have not been able to get her to roll over since I noticed the limping.

First off, I know that nobody here can diagnose her based on this. I am just looking to see if others have had similar experiences. I have her a vet appointment for Wednesday, but that is two days away and it's the soonest they could get her in. To further complicate matters the vet we've been going to for years is out of the country this week and we have to take her to a different vet at that office. I also don't have a ton of money and if something expensive is required I'm not sure what I'll do. Before anybody gets preachy and gives me the line about not owning a dog if I can't afford it realize that the economy has hurt a lot of people including me. I've gone from a $50,000 per year job down to working part-time as of right now. Am I supposed to just give up the dog I've had for years because I'm going through a rough patch? I don't mean to sound ornery but I've read some responses like this as I've been looking into this matter.

I'm just very concerned and I don't want her to be in pain for two more days. She has never had any health problems at all and I'm quite stressed about it. At the same time I certainly can't afford to take her to the emergency clinic at this time.


----------



## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

You might give her an aspirin (No Ibuprophen, or anything else, like Tylenol, Advil, Aleve...all of those are bad for dogs.)

The dosage for dogs, ranges from 5 mg-15 mg per lb. Use 10 mg per lb to be safe. That works out to 1 aspirin tablet per 32 lbs of dog, every 12 hrs.

Your dog should not have any blood disorders or liver disorders, or history of ulcers, if you want to try aspirin. I would not give her any more aspirin after tomorrow afternoon, because you don't want to mask the symptoms when she sees the vet. The aspirin will help with pain or imflamation though.

Good luck. Please update us after the vet visit.

PS- The not rolling over makes me think it might be something high up in the shoulder. Just a WAG.


----------



## rob_d (Apr 21, 2009)

Update: Took the dog to the vet today and after explaining everything I have noticed and doing an examination he thought she may have slipped a disk in her back. He could feel nothing wrong in her leg and found nothing in the paw area. He gave her an anti-inflammatory shot and said to see if that helped over the next 24 hours. He also said that if it is a slipped disk it should heal itself over time. He suggested I carry her up and down the stairs and not let her jump up on stuff for now. Basically R&R. Hopefully this helps. We'll see how she is tomorrow.


----------



## spotted nikes (Feb 7, 2008)

Glad it doesn't sound too serious. Hope she feels better soon. Thanks for updating.


----------

