
Sorry, I missed these last 2 replies!
Well, my pooch had his xrays on Tuesday. We arrived home after he had been settled at the vets with a pre-med and got a phone call from the vet about 45 mins later saying that the bones and joints in the leg all looked fine on the xrays, but that there was a piece of metal right inside the foot and he was going to go ahead and operate. 2 of the longest-ever-hours later(!) they phoned to say that he was awake and could we come and get him right now as he was howling the place down (there were 2 of them in chorus when we turned up :D)
The offending item was a thin straight piece of wire about 12mm long, not much thicker than a staple. The vet is 90% sure that this has been the cause of all the limping. I am completely baffled how a piece of metal could have been in there for that long and not gone septic! There was never a yelp out walking, no blood, he has never chewed or licked at the paw etc. The vet said that the wire was moving around a small area scraping against tendons - when I was resting him he would improve as the wire would settle, giving the surrounding area a chance to heal, exercise would then make the wire move around again which would mean that the irritation to the tendons would gradually build up again, to the point of limping.
We've submitted the insurance claim so will now have to wait and see. There was a bit in the terms and conditions which said that the KC must be notified within 180 days of any incident which may result in a claim - not sure if they are going to call the first ever limping episode as a possible incident

If our other vets had xrayed this could have been solved a long time ago!
I only hope that the metal is the cause of the limping and isn't a total red herring! I am still trying to get my head round the idea that it could have been in his foot for so long, but the vet thinks it is perfectly plausible.
Sandrah, that's interesting about the limp being caused by a back problem rather than a leg problem. I hadn't even thought about it possibly being his back so will talk to the vet about that if the limping comes back.