Hi all,

I am pretty baffled at the moment with my 2 and half year old toy breed.I will be taking her to the vet ASAP, I just wanted to see if any of you have experienced it before or would know what it possibly may be?

For about 48 hours she has been walking literally like John Wayne.. (excuse the way of describing it!). She honestly looks like she just got off a horse, when she moves she is spreading her hind legs out and almost looks like she is fully extending each hind leg (more then what I class as normal) right out when she walks/runs. She is collecting the legs up properly as she moves too. I have poked, prodded, extended, collected and really had a good look at her, she appears to be in no pain whatsoever, I can touch her all over and pull and push her legs and she doesn't even wince. Therefore I believe she is in no pain but she is still walking strangely. I have thought about Luxating Patella however she is not in pain along with the fact that she is 10/10 fully weight bearing on all 4 legs (she also has one knee operated on for broken growth plate, at the same time the Vet put a couple of stitches over he kneecap to stop her from having problems with the knee in the future).

It doesn't seem to matter if she has been laying down or standing up, she still does it. She can sit, lay down, jump up etc properly. Something makes me think that maybe she cannot feel her hind legs as such!?

I truely am baffled and wondered if anyone had experienced similar?

Not exactly the same but my Logan walks/runs oddly - he walks with his hocks nearly touching (he also picks them up high and tucks them in a bit) and when he runs, his whole body sort of rolls through a spiral.  His body actually is a sort of spiral, which is what causes it - his right hip is dropped and moving up he then rotates over to his left shoulder, which is also dropped.  So his run follows that.

He is in pain though, and is seeing the chiropractor in a couple of weeks - so no idea if it's a similar sort of thing.  Has your girl maybe knocked herself or something lately, maybe tweaked her back somehow?

Remember dogs are fantastically stoical about pain - one of my old girls had a tilted/twisted pelvis like Logan does now, and 99% of the time I had no idea she was in any pain at all.

Think it would be very difficult to even take a guess as what you describe is not typical of anything I can think of, defiantly the dog should see a vet soon as possible.

> the dog should see a vet soon as possible

...and if you have the technology try and record your dog in action, just in case she doesn't do it at the vets.  Hope all is ok

One of my bitches adopted a strange gait when she had her first season,"man with no horse" her vulva was so swollen she had problems walking properly, never happened with subsequent ones when the swelling wasn't so bad.

Has she injured herself,running or jumping more than normal?

Be interested to hear what the vet says.

Hey all, thanks for all the replies. Injury is a possibility, maybe she is just hiding the pain from me, she gets up on the sofa and jumps down so she may of twisted something do that.  It is most strange, will let you all know that the vet says. Thanks again x

> ...and if you have the technology try and record your dog in action, just in case she doesn't do it at the vets.  Hope all is ok

Oh yes, definitely this - I have done with Logan for the chiropractor as I just can't describe his running quite properly!