May 06, 2011
My dog sometimes limps, we had him x-rayed and the vet said everyting looked okay, just some slight atrophy. What would you suggest?
Full Question:
Hi Cindy,I'll try to make this short. We live in a small town in Texas. Our family dog, Luke, limps sometimes and really gives in to his right rear leg. Took him to vet several times and finally asked him to xray his leg. He said everything looked okay just some slight atrophy in his hip but nothing to worry about. Of course that really worried me.
Luke has been on a raw diet since he was 12 weeks and is not over weight. He is large for breed and weighs 53 lbs. He runs and jumps a lot playing with balls or other toys. We are not a very active family so I'm sure it is not over exercise but he does love to jump and turn flips in the air. Sometime he is fine but almost daily now he limps or holds up his leg. He doesn't show signs of pain when I manipulate his leg. How can I tell if it is a pulled muscle or something worse? Does massage help?
I've been reading your articles since we got Luke and know that our vet is not the only vet that does not agree with our decision to feed a raw diet and we disagree regularly about medicine and "special" packaged food. I've been okay with that until now but I'm really worried about Luke. I have lost faith in our vet. The nearest vet on your list is about 3 hours away.
He seems much too young and active to have anything atrophied without it being a problem. Any insight would be so appreciated. Thank you for all the information you provide and the hours of fun I've had watching and listening to you both. I expected Ed to be so tough after reading some of his articles but then I watched him on the DVDs!!
Janie
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Did the vet only xray the lame leg or did he do hip xrays? If he only xrayed the affected leg, I’d find a vet to do complete hip films. Here is an article about this.
Regardless of what the xrays show, I’d start supplementing him with salmon oil & Vitamin E.
Soothe Joints
Syn-Flex
Comfort aches
It could be a muscle, tendon, joint, bone or ligament issue. No matter what the vet says atrophy of muscle in a young healthy dog is something that should be figured out.
If you take the dog to a new vet, just make sure they know how to take proper hip films. Print the article and take it with you if you need to. Good luck!
Cindy Rhodes
Regardless of what the xrays show, I’d start supplementing him with salmon oil & Vitamin E.
Soothe Joints
Syn-Flex
Comfort aches
It could be a muscle, tendon, joint, bone or ligament issue. No matter what the vet says atrophy of muscle in a young healthy dog is something that should be figured out.
If you take the dog to a new vet, just make sure they know how to take proper hip films. Print the article and take it with you if you need to. Good luck!
Cindy Rhodes
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