I posted about my puppy gimping around on his front left side. Has been well for over a month, maybe more. When I came home after three days gone where he had most of his time in his crate or watched indoors by my wife, he was gimping around again. We walked a little outside and now he is evan holding it up sometime. He is five pluss months old now. He is kind of heavy at 58lbs. but looks thin and is not over fed. I am hoping it is just some growing pain or something he will out grow. He will be watched and mostly crated for the next three days by me. Should I have the leg X-rayed? I don't want to as I want him to get the least amount of any meds. over his lifetime. Any sugestions? Thank you all again.

I would definitely get his leg x-rayed. I had adopted a wonderful male rescue in May of 2004. I noticed he was gimping on his hing leg. It then went away for a few weeks, then back again. I thought for sure he had hd but upon closer inspection he had a cut inbetween his toes kind of on the inside of his pad. I would check him over there also. Good luck and let us know what happens <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Mitch,
do a search here for Pano, or google, how to inspect dog for Pano. That is what it sounds like, though one can't know for sure over the internet. Pano can be detected through X-ray, but the only possible problem with that is having a vet that has experience in how to read it, and if they don't, your vet needs to be honest enough to send your x-rays off to someone who can diagnose it. I would feel around all the pads for splinters, cuts ETC.... I would then gently bend the ankle and attempt very slight side to side movements looking for reaction from the movement which could possibly indicate fracture somewhere, there is a method to check for pano by pinching the long bone in certain areas, I did it recently but kinda forgot and instead of giving you info on the guess, I'll try to get back to you with the "Pano inspection method" unless someone else can jump right in. Call and talk to vets and ask about their experience with diagnosing Pano, if they have attitudes for asking, they probably don't know. Get the pup to a vet for x-rays to be at rest, if it's pano, it's not a big deal.

Went to the vet today and had ex-rays done. did find some pano in them. I am glad it was not anything worse! Elbows and shoulders looked good. Should I just work him until he shows signs of discomfort or limit his physical activity for a while. Now I know I am not damaging or slowing any heeling by excersising him how much can we do?