My dog has been limping on her right front leg for nearly two weeks. She is ok when she first goes out but as soon as she runs or jumps about she starts limping. She sometimes limps when she first wakes up. She is very active when she runs free and also when people visit she leaps right up to face level. Not everytime but sometimes when she does this she holds up the leg and goes on 3 legs. She holds the bad leg out to the side. I have checked her paw and there is no problem there. I was hoping it was just a pulled muscle but it seems to be lasting a long time for that. Does anybody have any ideas what it may be. I will take her to the vet if its not better soon but as it is not always apparant when she is just walking they will not be able to see it at its worse. 

How old is she?

Hi there, she is 18 months

Pulled muscles and strains etc. can sometimes take quite a while to get better. Have you restricted her exercise at all? If she's very active and leaping around it may prolong her recovery.The fact that she's OK when she first goes out and only starts limping when she runs and jumps, sounds like she needs it resting more. Limping when she first wakes up could be stiffness from recovering muscle. :)

Kath.

No I havent restricted her exercise. I know I should but I feel so mean keeping her on the lead but I suppose you have to be cruel to be kind so I will keep her on the lead for a while and see if this helps.
Thanks
Sue

If you want to see if a dog is limping all the time and not just hiding it by moving fast then walk slowly - this shows up all sorts of things

Restricting exercise is only kindness.  My 4 month old puppy limped for just over a month (touch wood he has stopped  now) we put the limp down to a slip on the kitchen floor.  Now it may seem a little over the top, but I have an older dog that took a year to diagnose a lamesness problem, we resticted Obi's exercise to lead walks only, still giving him an ok length walk so he didn't lose any muscle, I put him on a puppy glucosamine supplement, changed him from puppy to adult food - puppy food can cause a pup to grow to fast in certain breeds - and started taking him to a doggy pool for swimming lessons to strengthen all his muscles in a non weight bearing way.  Now, I don't know what Obi had wrong, or whether it will come back again, but I do know that most problems will not get better on their own without a litle help from us

All the very best for your dog, I hope she feels better soon

Hayley

Buster had this problem and the vet told us to only do about 20 minutes relaxed walking about 2 or 3 times a day. No jumping at all not even into the car. His limping changed from side to side after the first couple of weeks because he was putting too much pressure on the leg he wasnt resting. As he would not stop limping It turned out he had H/D from xrays.  Hes fine now as we caught it early enough. A trip to the vets is needed for some anti inflamatorys to help ease the pain as it heals.