Hi, my first visit to this site, its great and everyone seems so knowledgeable and helpful, so now Im hoping someone can help my bearded x, Sky.
She is about 5 (got her from RSPCA last year), she has recently started limping with her left back leg (about 4 days ago). When she has been laying down she gets up and wont put any weight on her back leg for a minute or two and then she will walk normally. It doesnt seem to matter which side she has been laying down on.
I've had a good look and feel of it and it doesnt seem to be any different compared to her other leg, and nothing stuck between her pads . She didnt mind me feeling it, and she isnt nursing it, no licking or anything. she is still full of beans and goes mad for the frisbee in the park so im thinking she cant be in much pain apart from when she limps from getting up.
Someone said I could give her half a nurofen but Im reluctant to do this, treating syptom and not the cause?
Im worried it could be arthiritis.
Any comments would be much appreciated, I think I'll take her to the vets anyway £££!!!
Thanks Nicki, Brighton.

Hi Nicki

Welcome to the board, I'm sure you'll spend many many happy hours on here :D
Sorry I can't help with your dogs' problem, but I'm sure someone will be along soon with some advice.

liberty

It does sound like it may be some form of arthritis, but yes I think a trip to the vet is a good idea, if it is caused by joint damage that in turn is causing arthritis then a good deal can be done to help.

You could try her a capsule of DEVIL'S CLAW a day it's a natural steroid & will not have any sideaffects or try this site for homoeopathic advice http://www.ainsworths.com

Please do not given any drugs unless perscribed

Thats how taz was in the beginning :( He'll be 10 in October and has arthritis and the hipdysplasia doesn't help either. Now he is more a floor potatoe as walking tends to be too much for him (any kind of movement)so we now let him decide when he wants to go outside for a breath or two or just lay around. Just walking him 3 blocks tends to get him to walk kinda sideways - we do give asperin every now and then for pain on advice from my vet and thats not to often. Every now and then he does get the puppy in him but that now only lasts about 3 minutes.

I do hope ur dog is ok

ttfn :(

Hi, was wondering how young taz was when he started to get like that? Was it a sudden onset? Did he still want to play and run around as normal but just start limping for no apparent reason like sky after he'd been laying down?
apart from the limping there are no other signs of her being unwell or uncomfortable, I will take her to the vet but I just wonder whether the vet will just prescribe an expensive course of anti-inflammatories but not know the cause of the problem. I feel so often that doctors and vets treat the syptoms and not the cause. I suppose the only way of finding out is by taking her!
Thanks for the feedback x

Hi Nicola
You're right to be wary of using drugs that just treat the symptoms rather than the cause. It's quite possible your vet may prescribe Rimadyl - you may already know that this drug can trigger serious side effects in some dogs. Make sure the vet gives you all the info on what to watch out for.

Hope Sky recovers soon.

Nicola, if you need to give your bitch Rimadyl or any other hormone to give her relive from pain, then please do so. The chances are she has been spayed and is lacking in natural hormone to fight the problem anyway, so even if there is a small risk in giving her hormonal treatment, it is her quality of life that counts not the length of time you can keep her alive. IMO. I have had dogs on this sort of treatment for years, several dogs, so, although she may have a reaction it is worth the risk.

But still make sure you know what side effects to look out for.

magne therapy is good, my GSD has a magnetic sheet in her bed and a magnetic collar she also has flexi paws mixed in her food, she does not run much never has, but she is more agile than she used to be before the magnets and tabs.
There are various sites you can look up about magnets for pets, just do a search on the net if your interested

Just found a goood site http://www.nrg4energy.co.uk/collars.html i am going to get a new one myself the collar has nine magnets in total where as my dogs only has one. Cost £16.95 which i think is very reasonable price

Hi all, about 6wks ago I was in the kitchen & the dogs were just in the back when I heard big yelp, it was Laddie & he was limping heavily. Vet took xrays & his Tibia showed severe inflamation/arthritis. My thoughts were cruciate damage. Anyway vet gave him steroid injection for 6dys, no change in Laddie. Second opinion & more xrays & my vets colleague saying he needs & absolutely must have operation to repair cruciate but I`m not convinced. Vet put him on lowest dose metacam about 2wks back & until I found a better way I gave it him but I was very unhappy about doing it. I also haven`t seen it making a difference.
Iv`e been doing lots of searching on the net & getting help for alternative treatment for him & one of the things I bought first was a magnotherapthy collar for him. Yesterday I had my first consultation with h/pathic vet & under her advice stopped the metacam & starting him on h/pathy. She`s spoken to my regular vet & turns out he`s now got reservations about the operation! I`m sure glad I started looking round insted of saying OK go ahead.
Sometimes the damage caused by side effects of conventional medicines/operations are irreversible &/or life threatening & don`t give the cures that are promised with them. We all have are own opinions about whether alternative treatments work or not, but it can`t do any harm to find out about them first can it? :) And most of them have no side affects at all.
I don`t know what the outlook for Laddie is but he does look very smart in his green m/therapy collar :)

Christine, Spain.

As Jane said it is always best to ask about side effects of anything you take or give your dogs.

There are no side affects in using magnets.

As far as we know, but they say that about power lines and mobile phones, do you believe them? Nothing against the trying of magnets but it is expensive and if it does not work the dog is still in pain and still lame.

i think expensive is the wrong word to use, i personelly would go to any lengths to see that my dog is not in any pain, and for a magnetic collar priced at £16.95 to me that is cheap. I paid for one that only had 3 magnets which cost my £22 even that was not expensive to me.
I also have a pillow pad for my bed to help my sleep and boy does it workd i sleep like a baby every night

Well that is cheap, I wanted an ankle band and was told £65. guess dog ones are different.

Over twenty years ago I took part in a large NHS study into magnatherapy, the findings were that it did not work and I have not seen any credible studies since to show it does so on that basis they do seem rather expensive :)

Yes but Isable that was 20 yrs ago a lotttttttt has changed since then, a lot of people and animals use magne therapy aswell as aroma therapa. And sorry it is NOT expensive in my view:-D

Many things may have changed since then, but not the principles of physics and biology! Mind you, nor has the 'placebo effect'.

Exactly Jeangenie and as I said I have not seen any credible studies since and I have been looking. The government has released money recently for some of the 'alternative' stuff to be tested in a scientific manner which will I understand include magnatherapy so we shall see. Incidentally the fellow in charge of dishing the funds out has said they will not be testing homeopathy as it is so distant from the laws of science that he feels it is not worth wasting public money on!!!

Science does not & cannot answer everything in life tho.

Christine, Spain.

No but it jolly well helps :D

well all i can say to this is, you do not know the benefits if any until you try. I tired it and it worked.

Taz was about 6 years old, and he still liked to run and play around but not too much. We noticed it because he was laying down and got up to play with Cuervo (our shepherd/collie) and was limping the entire time and never really went away at all. He limps still when he walks. Thats why I don't take him for walks I let him decide because the last walk we did was about 6 blocks or so and he was kinda walking sideways. I noticed that he tends to walk a little more on one side and one of his back legs doesn't lift up like the other one (it does lift just not as high so his toes kinda rub the ground). I'm aware he is old and has hipdysplasia and arthritis. He is happy and still tends to get the puppy play in him but that poops out real fast. I just stopped letting him climb our stairs this year bacause I was scared he would fall, he usta sleep in my daughters room. The brat would remove the baby gate so I made Tiva sleep downstairs with him so he would stay down here. He had a couple of accidents in our living room, now I put him in the porch blocked only by a baby gate at night with a chair in front and no accidents, the porch could fit two of him and there is no door thats why we use a baby gate.

I was told the price for medication would cost me about $200 or more because they have a Saint Bernerd (patient) and that is what it is costing them. She told me that I can safely give him 4 aspirens in total but not every day, only when he looks sore. When we would take him out for walks we would give him 2 before a walk. Now he doesn't really like to walk too much he prefers to lay outside and occasionally chase the Boston's for a min or two his puppy play, he looks so cute doing the puppy bow but then his whole body follows and he lays down..lol When he is 10 he will be 56 years old in human years...

ttfn :)