I've got a springer with a leg he won't put to the ground.  He won't tolerate any weight on it at all and I don't know how it happened or what exactly happened.  One moment he was fine, the next he was hopping around, he was indoors with me at the time with no obvious "accident".  I've got a vets appt this afternoon but he's very unhappy.

There is no sign of swelling, blood or anything untoward either in the leg, hip or foot.  He doesn't want to eat (although that isn't untypical of him) and he is reluctant to move.  He will let me touch him without any trouble and there is no obvious area that is causing the problem although his back looks crooked, probably because he's walking three legged.  Rest doesn't seem to have helped.

Any ideas, I'm starting to worry...

Hope everything is ok when you get to the vets.  My corss Lily acted similarly when she had fractured 2 toes :( Hope it's nothing like that.  You probably have done so already, but have you checked in between the pads?  I'm always having to pull burrs and stones out of my Cocker's pads.

Good Luck.

Yes I have checked him carefully from top to toe.  I can't see anything anywhere.  It's typical that as a working dog, he had this weekend off!  He wouldn't have got anywhere near as much sympathy if it had been the day after he'd been out working!

How long did fractured toes take to heal?  I'm creating worse case scenarios in my head!

Her toes took about 9 weeks to heal.  She was only a puppy and not insured and cost us almost a thousand pounds.  However, when she did start limping when it first happened, she was in pain when we touched her paw so it doesn't sound like he has that.  I hope anyway. 

Good luck at the vets and keep us posted.

Sounds very similar to my bitch when she broke her toe :(

Daisy

Unfortunately it isn't good news.  The vet thinks it could be his cruciate ligament :-(  The confusion is that he has a temperature. He has put him on painkillers, anti inflamatories and anti-biotics and we will wait for 48 hrs to see where the infection is coming from and hope the swelling will subside.  There is always the possibility that he had a blackthorn embedded deep into his tissue which is causing the problems.

He's a dog who lives to work and I don't quite know what we will do, but I couldn't put him through an operation if the outcome was to compromise his fitness.

He is on cage rest.

Not good news :(  Hope there will be an improvement tomorrow and swelling goes down.  Keep us updated and best of luck.

If it is cruciate Jacky, then depending on how it mends it might not be the end of the world. A friend's Golden did his getting hung up whilst jumping a fence. It healed up well after surgery and he still goes out working a couple of times a week. He shields him a little by using one of his other dogs on difficult birds but there is plenty of work to keep his old boy happy.

You will just have to wait and see. Blackthorn is terrible stuff. That was what did Anna's tail right back at the start of her troubles. Last year she finished with a thorn imbedded in a paw. I never even noticed until one evening she was laid on her back and I spotter it looking a bit red! Then last Saturday she finished with a bleeding tail and eye after hunting up a bird in it.

Best wishes, John

Thanks John.  I guess we will just have to wait and see. I knew we had that extra cocker for a good reason!  He thinks his luck is in tonight having been given left overs from tea! (only pasta!)

Any more news yet?

Thanks for asking.  We are due back at the vet in the morning.  He has spent a week resting with no walks at all and it's a sure sign things aren't right as he hasn't bothered one bit.  I stopped the painkillers over the weekend to see how he was and the answer is not as good as I had hoped he would be. 

When I know more tomorrow I will let you know.  He is bearing some weight on his hind leg but has definitely developed a different gait as if to compensate for the difficulty.  The swelling has reduced.

Its very worrying. :-(

Hope it turns out OK, when one of mine injured her leg it was 6 weeks in a cage, no walking etc, and she's another one who likes to work, luckily for Lana everything turned out fine.  Fingers crossed, it's a long hard wait.

One of my beardies ripped her left hind leg to the bone(long story)she cut most of the muscles to the leg, it was a long road but she did recover left her with a slight limp as the muscle etc were forehortened & she severed the cruicate as an extra, She went on to do a far bit of stage work & it never bothered her

We've been to the vet again this morning and we are still perplexed.  The vet either expected to see no improvement if it was a cruciate ligament injury or 100% improvement for an infection due to foreign body.  He says he's about 85%.  The temperature has gone and the swelling has reduced enough for the vet to be sure it isn't cruciate ligament problems but it does affect his knee.

I know myself that the poor boy isn't right.  He isn't too troubled at not being taken for a walk, infact has only been out once in a week and I brought him home again quite quickly as I wasn't happy with his peculiar gait. He will often stay under the table even when my son arrives home (the love of his life!) and need encouragement to say 'hello'.  He is sore when the vet manipulates his knee joint on one side but the temperature has returned to normal.

One other train of thought was the imbedded blackthorn but no obvious injury has shown itself. It could still be imbedded of course.

He's to go back in two weeks or immediately if there is cause for concern.  At least the shooting season is now over so we've got a good long period for recovery ahead but we are facing the thought that he might be part-time next season!

Any suggestions?

To update those kind enough to ask about progress, he has now been diagnosed with a cruciate tear.  He's OK most of the time and then on other occasions his leg just hangs but he rights himself before the vet opens!  If he is bad in the evening I just give him Rimadyl and it seems to help quite a bit.  At least it isn't a ruptured cruciate.

He's on reduced exercise now and we just have to see how it goes.

I think I might put him on glucosamine or similar to see if that helps as I gather he will now be prone to arthritis in that knee.