Hi all.

I have a 7 month old british bulldog and 2 weeks ago she had an operation to have a cherry eye removed, the vet advised me to get her spayed a the same time and I decided to.  She has been recovering for the last couple of weeks and has since had an infection in both eyes which she is antibiotic drops for and where her lampshade had been on her neck it has rubbed the fur off her skin and she had a couple of sores there so she is on steroid cream.  She also had a antibiotic injection last onday incase she developed an infection and the vet saw her on Monday removed her stitches from her belly and said she was looking ok.  Since she went to the vets I noticed she had been limping a little and have taken the vets advice and have not been walking her too far.  On Tuesday I noticed her limp had got worse and decided to rest her for the day and not take her for a walk.  Then she seemed ok yesterday so took her for a walk and we had only been out a couple of minutes when she started limping again.  She even laid down in the park and would not walk so had to carry her home.  But then she seemed ok again and i thought she was just being lazy.  Then as the day progressed yesterday her limp got worse, until just after teatime I noticed that she was not putting any weight on one of her front legs at all.  Last night she tried to get up and when she did she just started squealing and collapsed, she never tried to get up again.  I called the emergency number for my vets and was annoyed as he said that he did not want to see her and to just call round this morning.  I put a cold compress on her leg and have been up most of the night with her, it has broke my heart to hear her squealing knowing that there is nothing I can do for her.  Any ideas on what it could be?

I would not be happy with the vet for refusing to see her & leaving her in pain overnight.

She needs to go to the vet, she can't be left in pain & the limp needs investigating. She may just be put on Metacam (or similar) and sent home to see how she progresses before any xrays are done, it depends on what the vet feels when he examines her. The limp could be many different things, from a simple pulled muscle to something a bit more serious.

Hi jolgeo

I have no idea what may be wrong with your puppy but were she mine I'd be furious with a vet that didn't agree to see her   It's a disgrace and should be reported to someone senior in the practice.  Emergency cover is just that - for an emergency!  To leave a puppy squealing in pain and unable to walk is outrageous.

It sounds as though this puppy has some very serious issues going on - I hope that whatever is causing the lameness and pain can be quickly cured and as an aside would suggest (if you haven't already) you inform the breeder of what treatments she's required to her eyes, skin and now the problem with her limping :(

Please update when you can on what your vet says after her visit today.
best wishes, Teri

This situation had been ongoing for several days.  You would get short shrift if you turned up at a human accident and emergency centre in such circumstances and would be told to take pain killers and see your doctor in the morning.

Not for the eye op but to spay the bitch would have had her legs strapped down to the table and young joints could be damaged this way, if the limp is only since the op then I would be expecting them to investigate that there is no damage from the necessary constraint used during the operation to spay her.

Well i have just got back from the vets.  They looked at her leg bt as per the norm Maggie did not make any noise when he tounched her, I felt like he must have been thinking that I was an overdramatic owner.  She did keep flinching from him but he said that she was either brave or really dense (lovely).  He thinks she has an infection in her paws as he thought they looked a bit red, so the steroid/antibiotic cream he gave me for her skin, he has told me to use that on her and he gave her an injection and i have to take her back tomorrow.  She hasn-t squealed since first thing this morning and has had something to eat just now and is fast asleep.  But I am dissapointed with heri response and may look for a different vet but when I was speaking to someone in there this morning, she said that she has had to change vets numerous times and she thought that these were better than the others she had tried in the area.  I live in County Durham, so if anyone knows any good vets in the area then please let me know.  As for emailing the breeder I dont know if they would be interested as we sent them an email and some photos of Maggie before xmas and they never responded.

What is it about that diagnosis you are not happy with?  It sounds reasonable to me although it is often a response to treatment that confirms things.

I meant their response last night

Ah I see.  As I said, I do not believe this would be regarded as either an accident or an emergency and would have thought your consultation this morning has confirmed it.
Some of the "on-call" veterinary cover business may have resources to cover all types of treatment during the night, although they have other downsides, but many surgeries have their own on call that may also stretch to neighbouring practices to relieve them and therefore responding to minor or chronic injuries can mean leaving little or nothing for priorities.
It's not really in your own interest either as the charges would have been considerably more or, if you are insured, your insurance company may have quibbled about the nature of the emergency too.

> I do not believe this would be regarded as either an accident or an emergency and would have thought your consultation this morning has confirmed it.

How did the vet know, via a 'phone call, that a pup screaming in pain and refusing to move  (2 weeks after being spayed) had a non-emergency skin infection on her paw?

> How did the vet know, via a 'phone call, that a pup screaming in pain and refusing to move  (2 weeks after being spayed) had a non-emergency skin infection on her paw?

The same way that appropriate professional advisors on NHS Direct know how to determine what is an emergency and where it is appropriately treated.  It was clear from the posters first post this was not an acute onset of pain.

> The same way that appropriate professional advisors on NHS Direct know how to determine what is an emergency and where it is appropriately treated.

No, the NHS can talk to pateints and find out what type of pain it is, where odes it hurt etc. and can advise 'take a pain killer' The vets can only go on what the animal presents as and what the owners says to them. It doesn't matter how experienced a vet it, they can not diagnose "my puppy can't walk & is screaming in pain", as "skin infection on the paw" via the 'phone. Also, we as owners can not reach in the cupboard and administer our pets some pain relief untill the vet can fit in an appointment.
Beside, it is an offence to allow an animal to be in pain, how on earth are pet owners meant to comply with the animal welfare act when vets wont adminster pain relief out-of-hours?

> Beside, it is an offence to allow an animal to be in pain, how on earth are pet owners meant to comply with the animal welfare act

The offence is not to seek veterinary opinion.  This the poster did and had a professional opinion on whether this was an emergency or appropriately dealt with in surgery hours.

Ignoring everything else I think this vet is guessing. Just a gut feeling but I would not be too happy and if the dog has not improved in 48 hours I would be asking for another opinion.

> Ignoring everything else I think this vet is guessing.

This is how a great deal of medicine is conducted :-)  You start with the most likely or even the most easily treated and observe the response.  Better to do that than start with xrays, bloods test and specialist referrals surely.

How is Maggie today?