So about 4 weeks ago my cattle dog came in from blasting around the yard limping on his right front shoulder. He was bearing weight on it so I just chalked it up to straining something and figured I'd just let it heal. Well Maverick is a 14 month old cattle dog and doesn't know the meaning of "take it easy". He keeps on overdoing it and isn't healing all the way. It gets better and then he does an especially wild lap around the yard with my year old AmBull which results in him straining it again. I could crate him during the day if I needed to but is there anything else I can do? I picked up some tumeric today to give him. He hasn't been to the vet as he still uses the leg completely it just obiviously gets a little sore. I'm not doing x-rays so I figured it wasn't worth going in just to be told to get him to take it easy for a bit. My mom's suggestion was to ice and heat it while he's chilling on the couch with me. I should mention also that Maverick is not the stoic type. He's actually quite physically sensitive and he let's me squeeze and maneuver his leg just fine.

Has he been vet checked?

One of my GSDs is bat$#!+ crazy. More like a mal or terrier with his energy level.

A yr or so ago he hurt a rear leg.

I tried crating him but both my dogs being outside dogs it didn't work.

I wound up getting a prescription from the vet for Acepromazine.

It took a couple of days to figure out the best level to give him but then I had him on it for almost 3-4 weeks and all was well.

I initially hesitated to give him a sedative because I didn't want a dopey dog.

With the right level it slowed him down to the level of a "normal" dog.

I did some gentle shoulder extension stretches and he put full weight on that leg normally for a few minutes. Dropped by my vet and he was fine with me just trying to restrict his activity for a few weeks and then bring him in for a full evaluation if he's still gimping. I like this vet. He doesn't start reaching for steroids and nsaids the minute you mention an injury. Not that they don't come in handy but their usefulness declines rapidly after the acute stage of an injury.

I may have to go in and ask for some ace but I'll try some of the herbal stuff first.

I hope he gets better with rest.
Did you look at his toes?

His toes are good. I've flipped him over and gone over that paw with a flashlight to make sure it's okay. No heat, swelling, foreign objects, cracks, etc. The pain is centered at his shoulder. You can see his face change when you tuck the leg all the way back in against his body and if you do too quick of an extension.

We go into crate rest lockdown tomorrow for at least a week. Maverick will never regulate himself especially with my Bulldog egging him on. I got him a new cushy crate pad but he can only have it when supervised at least for awhile. He can shred things extremely quickly.

Well, the worry would be ocd in the shoulder, or an elbow, I suppose. Hoping it is none of that. Psychologically, I haven't found ACDs that I have known, or owned, to be very rewarding patients.

The vet tentatively ruled out OCD but would really need me to get him x-rays($) or an MRI($$) to completely rule it out. The treatment would still be the same for mild OCD so I'm hoping crate rest does the trick.

He's actually doing pretty good with crate rest. I got him a new antler and he's mostly kept himself busy with it. My Bulldog is having a tougher time with it than him. None of the other dogs in the house will blast around the yard and wrestle with her for hours like Maverick will. They'll play but only briefly. I did some extra training sessions to hopefully take the edge off her.

My guy had some vague lameness in one leg as a pup- yearling, which we worked up to the best of the ability of a small practice with an X-ray machine. Despite my discounts it was still expensive. I had a prescription for rimadyl, which controlled the pain but made him irritable and hyper.
I found that the worst thing for this lameness was wrestling with another dog and digging. We never found any radio graphic support for a clear Dx, finally decided it might even be a neck thing. Anyway, he has largely outgrown it, enough to be a working farm dog.
So hang in ther, with luck it will go away.

Has pano been ruled out?

He's skeletally mature so I wouldn't expect to see Pano. It's not the diffuse pain I've seen with Pano either.

He spent the day riding around in the car with me and at the rest stops he was mostly bearing full weight on it. I think he just needed enforced rest.