Hi all, my Golden Retriever bitch 19 months old has been limping on and off for some time now. It is her back right leg that seems to have a problem, after the first problem several months ago she was put on Metacam and given complete rest  although she seemed better quite quickly we kept her on limited exercise gradually increasing the amount she had.  All was fine, she went off lead for some exercise and again all was ok, however this week she came back from her walk and run and that evening after sleeping couldn't put her foot to the floor.  We helped her into the garden but she walked back into the house with only a very slight limp.  The next morning, no limp, no pain when I felt her leg, no swelling, I kept her on the lead for her exercise and all was normal until the evening again when she got up after a long sleep she was lame again, but again after two or three steps the limp had gone. 

Any idea on what could be causing this? Could it be damage to the ligaments in her back leg?

Many thanks

Jan

Jan,  sorry can't give any ideas but if it has been going on for some time then I would be back to my vet asking questions.

Have they x-rayed her hips?

If she does start limping after exercise then i'd be inclined to give her none other than your garden and think about hydrotherapy if its soft muscle tissue damage.
I'd be inclined to get the vet to x-ray her if she keeps going lame especially after a good week of no exercise.

COuld it be Panosteitis (sp). It's a virus that makes the marrow in the long bones spongy, and can work it's way around the limbs. I've had 2 of my Rotties with it, and they just grow out of it (with pain management), but I think it tends to hit jueveniles, so your girl might be too old for it.

Sorry to hear about this, could it be patella luxation?  Your vet may or may not be able to diagnose this without a referral, but a specialist would be able to assess immediately.

For the moment, try and prevent your girl from using the stairs or jumping onto furniture or even jumping up in general it could make the problem worse.

Sounds just like my Dobermann was with a torn cruciate ligament. I faffed around for 2 years doing rest/restriction (he could be sound for days, weeks or even months at a time). We saw a specialist and he advised a solid 6 months on the lead, treating him as if he'd had surgery. He ended up having TPLO anyway. I now think the other knee may be going the same way!

Thank you all for the really quick replys, some good ideas as well.  The last time my vet saw her when she was actually showing signs of pain/limping she had a good feel of her leg, she said the leg and all joints felt very stable, the only place she felt slight inflamation was at the hock joint but only once and very slightly.  Her hips have been x rayed she received an A-A score with a comment of Excellent hips on the score sheet, so that shouldn't be the problem.  Will an x ray show up ligament damage or is an ultrasound better for this?  I hadn't thought about Patella Luxation but will look into this, thank you, a torn cruciate is what I am worried about but can't understand how she is lame one minute and then sound the next, I have taken her to a show two days or so after lameness and she is sound and no one can see a problem including the judges.  I think I need to get an appointment with a specialist.
thank you so much for the ideas so far very much appreciated.
Jan

My dog looked sound the majority of the time when he had a torn ligament. He looked normal when walking, trotting, even running (apart from twice when he held the leg up for a couple of seconds after sprinting after squirrels) but would be lame after resting, really struggling to stand, but then would seem to walk it off very quickly.  Other dogs that I've known with the same injury haven't been able to walk, let alone run! The first time we saw the specialist he thought, based on what I had told him, that there was the start of a ligament tear but said my dog looked totally sound when trotting so sent us away for 6 months to try to get the joint to stabalise with scar tissue rather than having to resort to surgery.

The ligament won't show up on an xray but fluid and swelling in the joint would. There is also something called a "drawer test" they do which can confirm ligament damage, but my dog never showed this. I think you would need an MRI to absolutely confirm. The specialist was almost certain my dog had a torn ligament based on symptoms and fluid/swelling on the xray around the ligament site (our normal vets could not see this and sent the xrays off), so he went in for surgery and the diagnosis was confirmed once he'd opened the leg.

Hope that it is not this for your sake (and your dogs!) as it's a long process.

> I hadn't thought about Patella Luxation but will look into this

You shouldn't need an expert to confirm this.  An experienced vet will be able to feel if it's slipping out.  I always get my vet to check my toys, and he is spot on.

Not all vets can though, our old vet was treating my last dog for HD (which he did have) and thought the knee joint popping out was actually his hip. It took a specialist 2 mins to diagnose correctly.

I think the patella problem mimics the cruciate in that the leg seems fine for a while and then it can slip out.  However, with a patella problem the dog will hold it's lef off the ground until it slips back in or is massaged back into place, I'm not sure this happens with cruciate.

> However, with a patella problem the dog will hold it's lef off the ground until it slips back in or is massaged back into place

true!

You are describing exactly how my dog was.  it ended up she was finally diagnosed by a specialist as having a ruptured cruciate ligament and she had TPLO surgery in june this year.  She is now fully recovered and back to normal.

You are also describing what one of my friends dogs does.  Chiropractor said spine was out of alignment and it did improve after she had some treatment, though occasionally comes back.

Check the opposite front leg too as often when dogs try to compensate for the sore leg they lean in the opposite direction and put pressure on that leg which causes them to limp (hope that makes sense!!).  It's a bit like people with bad backs often end up with sore hips because they walk differently.

Also, be careful of giving yor dog too much rest as this causes the muscles to atrophy and can often make what ever the problem is worse.

My GR has been showing the same symptoms as yours and the vet is thinking of arthritis and has her on anti inflamitory medication. She is 7 yrs old though and not a young dog like yours.

TBH the causes of lameness etc are legion and you may need to a specialist referral to determine the actual cause either to an orthopaedic specialist or neurologist and an MRI scan will pick up any issues which are invisible in x rays.

Fortunately this is not a problem if you are insured but a bit of a nightmare if you are not. One of my dogs needed an MRI plus a couple of other things that came to £2.5k after being referred to the AHT.

My 8 year old collie had on and off rear leg lameness, rested came sound but then lame again.  Took to chiropractor......nothing....vet..nothing...rest and metacam..nothing..became worse gradually in his general health...had him xrayed, nothing...physio...nothing...hydro up to 15minutes on treadmill...nothing..then collapsed after 30seconds.brought him out, lame for a few strides then sound.  Back to vet, almost booked for MRI but specialist felt if neurological he would be lame all the time.  Blood tests for everything - negative.  He's an agility dog and by this time he couldn't jump and lethargic.  At wits end sent his hair for analysis and it came back bacterial infection.  3 months treatment.  At end sound and signed off by vet - muscle tone improved everything fine.  She felt that bacteria could affect the muscles including the heart muscle.  He's now on treatment to keep bacteria down - he does eat soil which doesn't help.

Lyme Disease can cause lameness too, and is notoriously difficult to diagnose.

Thank you everyone for your help and ideas, it's been a real eye opener to see some of the possible causes. A quick update, Megan had an x ray last week, the result - inconclusive, basically the couldn't find anything wrong.  So we went off to the Osteopath, who said he found pain in her thigh he said possibly a torn muscle, then he moved to her hock joint and said she had something wrong there as well possible a tear in the ligament.  So now we are waiting for a scan and a referral to a specialist to see if we can get to the bottom of this!

I will keep you all updated in our progress, and thanks again for your help.

Jan

Any update on this?