goguenm
November 2nd, 2012, 09:32 AM
Hello everyone,
I have an almost 4 year old Am Staff mix whom has been with me since he was 8 weeks old. He has always been a very energetic and sometimes crazy dog (as anyone with this breed will know) and for the most part has never had any health issues.
This past February (2012) we noticed he was limping and favouring his back left leg after getting up from laying down. We gave it a few days and after taking him to the ball park with a friend he was limping after running around so we took him to the vet. The first vet I took him to said it was his CCL but they wanted to do xrays etc to verify and they suggested surgery that a vet there did for $2,000.00.
We were kind of put off by the vet automatically assessing it as a CCL injury and recommending a $2,000.00 so we took him to another vet for a second opinion. They did x-rays and looked at his leg and couldn't feel or find anything so they thought it could either be a very slight pull in his CCL or just a pulled something else in his leg.
Since, we have taken him to the very every 2-6 weeks (every 2 in the beginning working up to 6) for a Bowen Treatment (which he does very much enjoy).
It is now November (approx 9 months since we first noticed the lameness) and he is fairing a lot better than he was in February but he still has some issues. Before, if he did anything physical he would be fine until he got up from laying down and depending on how much running around he did he would either not walk on it or have a pretty bad limp but after being up and on it for a few minutes the limping would be less and less. Now we don't let him go crazy but sometimes he does get a little excited and we will notice that he's fine until he gets up from laying down and he has a slight limp and after a few minutes he doesn't limp anymore. He still favours it (you can see when he's standing that he's bearing more weight on the right leg) but he is doing much better.
The vet mentioned a couple of weeks ago that maybe we should look into a brace seeing as he is still having some issues but she doesn't think he needs surgery. This dog used to go everywhere off leash - in the dog parks, beaches, runs in the woods etc. so it really sucks that I can't allow him to do that anymore. He is always on leash when we go out because I don't want him to run around and make his leg worse again.
I know I've read that if it is his CCL the road to recovery is a long one but his leg really isn't as bad as I've read a CCL injury can be. Everything I've read is the dog doesn't walk on the leg at all where as his leg really isn't that bad. Only in the beginning if we let him run around he wouldn't walk on it at first but after being up a little while he would. I don't understand why it only bothers him after getting up and after he's on it for a bit it doesn't bother him as much (still favours that side as always but doesn't limp).
I want to know if anyone else has experienced anything like this in their dog?
I apologize for the super long post but I wanted to try and give as much histoy on the issue as I could :)
I have an almost 4 year old Am Staff mix whom has been with me since he was 8 weeks old. He has always been a very energetic and sometimes crazy dog (as anyone with this breed will know) and for the most part has never had any health issues.
This past February (2012) we noticed he was limping and favouring his back left leg after getting up from laying down. We gave it a few days and after taking him to the ball park with a friend he was limping after running around so we took him to the vet. The first vet I took him to said it was his CCL but they wanted to do xrays etc to verify and they suggested surgery that a vet there did for $2,000.00.
We were kind of put off by the vet automatically assessing it as a CCL injury and recommending a $2,000.00 so we took him to another vet for a second opinion. They did x-rays and looked at his leg and couldn't feel or find anything so they thought it could either be a very slight pull in his CCL or just a pulled something else in his leg.
Since, we have taken him to the very every 2-6 weeks (every 2 in the beginning working up to 6) for a Bowen Treatment (which he does very much enjoy).
It is now November (approx 9 months since we first noticed the lameness) and he is fairing a lot better than he was in February but he still has some issues. Before, if he did anything physical he would be fine until he got up from laying down and depending on how much running around he did he would either not walk on it or have a pretty bad limp but after being up and on it for a few minutes the limping would be less and less. Now we don't let him go crazy but sometimes he does get a little excited and we will notice that he's fine until he gets up from laying down and he has a slight limp and after a few minutes he doesn't limp anymore. He still favours it (you can see when he's standing that he's bearing more weight on the right leg) but he is doing much better.
The vet mentioned a couple of weeks ago that maybe we should look into a brace seeing as he is still having some issues but she doesn't think he needs surgery. This dog used to go everywhere off leash - in the dog parks, beaches, runs in the woods etc. so it really sucks that I can't allow him to do that anymore. He is always on leash when we go out because I don't want him to run around and make his leg worse again.
I know I've read that if it is his CCL the road to recovery is a long one but his leg really isn't as bad as I've read a CCL injury can be. Everything I've read is the dog doesn't walk on the leg at all where as his leg really isn't that bad. Only in the beginning if we let him run around he wouldn't walk on it at first but after being up a little while he would. I don't understand why it only bothers him after getting up and after he's on it for a bit it doesn't bother him as much (still favours that side as always but doesn't limp).
I want to know if anyone else has experienced anything like this in their dog?
I apologize for the super long post but I wanted to try and give as much histoy on the issue as I could :)