sprained paw?

Just a quick story and question about a possible paw sprain?:
On Sunday my puppy was playing on the couch. He rolled himself off and landed funny, I am assuming, on his back right paw. He whimpered and was limping for about 20 min. We took him to the emergency vet, but during the 1hour wait time before we were seen, our Westie started playing and running on the paw. Without being seen, we explained the situation to the receptionist and just left. He was fine all night on Sun. On Monday he was fine, running through the house doing steps, etc. I only just noticed one time that he lifted the leg and jumped on just 3 paws when we went up on the couch. Today, Tues, I took him outside for a little walk and a potty trip. When he went to climb up on the curb, it was as if his leg gave out and he fell right into it. He then started limping on the 3 legs. When I brought him back inside, he started being his normal self again. I scheduled an appt for tonight with the vet, against my husbands wishes! He thinks it will correct itself since the dog doesn´t show constant pain and only just limps occasionally. The dog lets me touch all the parts of his leg without wincing. He is just 9 mo old. Any advice?

I would definitely take him to the vet to get it checked out.:pawprint:

Angie,

My dog did the same thing years back, we too thought she sprained her paw.
We finally took her to the vets, since her sprain wasn't getting better. It turned out she ripped a legiment in her knee!!!!

The vet was so PI***ED at us for NOT taking her to the vet earlier! Our vet at the time said our dog must have been in agony with her injury. We felt like an A** for not taking her earlier, but our dog didn't show ANY signs at all she was in pain! We were so convinced she just sprained her paw.

Please take our dog to the vet ASAP!

Thanks for the feedback. I will go ahead and leave the appt scheduled then for tonight. It is always so expensive to take them, so I know my husband didn´t want to over something that is just a stubbed toe, but it sounds like it´s just better to be sure in case it could be something serious. Our dog is clumsy and is always running into things and he never shows pain even when it seems like the things he does should hurt, so I was thinking that maybe this is the same thing. that he is hurt and is just not showing signs of it.
Thanks again.

In the case of the torn ligament, did they have to do surgery? I really hope he will be ok. It was such a dumb accident, but I guess he just landed wrong...

Yes, my dog did need to have surgery, it wasn't an easy surgery since she was old.Then she needed to be crated for a month, which was horrible on all of us since she wasn't use to been in a cage. (She was a husky, so was very vocal.) She wasn't still walking right, limping a bit so the vet thought she needed to go to physical therapy!! Another week or two of MORE crating and going for very slow easy walks she started walking right.

After the surgery, she was banned from sleeping on the beds or the sofa's. We bought her a huge big comfy dog pillow which she loved.

sorry, I should have asked this all at once. how did the vet determine the tear? I am just preparing myself for tonight! Are they able to tell just from feeling? I am assuming that doesn´t show on an x-ray?

My regular vet knew right off when she saw "Chaos" the husky walking that their was a rip in her knee legiment. Then she had to refer me to the vet who was going to do the operation, (that was the vet who got mad at me) they had to take series of x-rays and then the rip was confirmed. It was a costly surgery,I think the whole thing cost over 1500$ which included the over night stays, pain killers etc.

For me their was no decision wheather or not she should have the surgery. She was, and that was final! but alot of people were telling me to think twice about it since she was old. I was going to invest all this money on her and how many more years would I have her for.

Anyways, she died 4 years later, diffently worth the 1500$ investment!

I definitely agree that a vet visit is in order. My beagle also tore her ligament. We took her to the vet and she had x-rays to confirm and surgery to correct. With her though, she would not put any weight on her leg at all.

A few years ago, she started to limp on her front paw. We took her to the vet which confirmed what I had suspected, a broken toe.

Limps could be the result of many different things. It is always best to get it checked out by a vet.

I'm glad that you decided to keep your appointment and get him checked out. It is always best to be safe than sorry.

I agree.. My neighbor's dog fell and they didn't get xrays and thought he was fine, and his leg ended up shrivelling up... Not to scare you or anything, but a vet visit is best. :)

Hello:
Well, the verdict is in. After going to the vet we learned that our Westie´s knees are not "normal", I believe he was diagnosed with "patellar luxation". The vet said that the fall only probably caused the knee to pop out and may have agravated it, but that for his condition that that was easy to do (he popped both knees in and out of our dog while examining him). He gave us an anti-inflammatory/pain killer to help him for now to ease his current state- in one week if the leg doesn´t seem "healed", the vet was concerned that maybe there could also be a tear in a ligament, but that that was unlikely. He attributed it all to the patellar luxation. Has any one had a medium sized dog with this condition and have you chosen to do the surgery?

Here´s the description of the condition from another website:
What is patellar luxation?
The knee cap (patella) normally fits into a groove in the thigh bone (femur). The patella slides up and down in this groove as the leg bends and straightens. Patellar luxation means that the knee cap has slipped out of the groove. There are several reasons why this happens, including malformation of the groove. Luxation may happen only occasionally, or may happen continuously. The knee cap may pop back into the groove on its own, or your veterinarian may need to push it back into place. Your dog will be lame when the patella is out of place. Over time your dog may develop other degenerative joint changes, such as osteoarthritis.

Thanks, Angie