Grn!ty wrote:

t's been pathetic watching him limp around on three legs for a few days, with his one back leg suspended in the air.

Aww, poor guy. Do you have any indigenous burrowing animals like we do? For example a gopher or prairie dog? Perhaps he stepped in a mere cat hole, your continent is so vast and varied so I don't know?

I broke my leg stepping into a gopher hole while I was erm, slightly gophered. That was not a good day at all, needless to say.

Yeah we have a lot of moles and I'm sure the rabbits have burrows too

It looks like this injury is way more serious than I thought. Although there are no breaks or fractures, it seems his hip has popped out. It's a phenomenon known as Hip Dysplasia in dogs and fairly common in large breeds. Yesterday (Sunday) morning, his leg just froze up totally, so I called one of the neighbors who is employed at the SPCA (Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and he and his very qualified wife came to take a look and that's what their immediate "diagnoses" was. They are not vetenerians but have lots of experience with animal injuries.

It can be genetic or caused by over excercise and too much hard running around before the age of 1 year in puppies. Gosh, if I'd even had a hint of this I'd never have encouraged him to run the way I did...somehow I thought I was helping to develop a strong healthy dog and it's ruined his health. I took so much delight in watching him run around the way he did.

I'll take him for X-rays later this morning to confirm what the problem is. Apparantely the only way to fix this is with surgery and either hip replacement or having a plate inserted to the hip socket to hold the hip ball in place. I'm a bit conflicted about doing that because the success rate doesn't seem very high and there are so many other complications, like arthritis and changing the lay of the spinal vertebrae because he'd shift his body weight to front and the other side. It therefore means lifelong use of anti-inflammatory medication.

It's probably better to put him down and I'm preparing myself to have to do that.

oH NO Graham, I'm so sorry to hear this.Hopefully your vet will have some better answers for you. You are in my thoughts.

Sorry to hear that Graham. I know you are going through h3ll right now and I know you will do the right thing. I too would do what you mentioned due to it is the best.

Thanks folks. I'm quite devastated by this I must say. I'm giving him 1000 mg of paracetamol every 4 or 5 hours to help with the pain. It's not much of an anti-inflammatory but it puts him to sleep for quite a while and does help with the pain.

I know how your feeling Graham, its so painful. The grief is unbearable to make that decision.
I'm going thru the same thing now with my cat of 20 yrs. She has jaw cancer and is on Metecam twice a day, just putting off the inevitable.
But I've had her 20 yrs, your pup is so young to be afflicted.
The best we can do, is all we can do, to think of the animal and not let it suffer in pain.
I often with we had this choice for our human loved ones. Must be the Dutch in me.

I think when the pain levels are just too high for any decent existence is the time to let it go JoAnn. It's a rough call to have to make. I appreaciate being able to share how I felt so much. It really means a lot.

As it turns out, after X-rays and a full diagnosis, there is no bone damage and both hips are firmly in the sockets. Everything is how it should be and the vet says it can only be muscular, tissue or ligament damage. It must have been quite severe what ever caused it...a twist after a fall or tripping in a hole, could be the cause although there's no telling for sure. Dr Brenda (the vet) says it would be great to have little cameras mounted on their heads to see what they get up to

I am very relieved as I would not have gone to the expense of multiple surgery for a dog or any other animal...much rather donate to help needy humans and there are lots of those around. I said to the doctor that if I was a dog, I'd jump up and lick both her cheeks She quite enjoyed the joke and blushed

Just caught up on this. Sounds like you had a scare there for a while, but good to hear it's not bone damage. Hope he's feeling better soon. As for the camera, LOL... you might change your mind after you see what he gets into. Sometimes I've found with dogs it's better just NOT to know, LOL.

Wonderful news to wake up to this morning Graham. Well you know what I mean I hope, not as bad as expected. Sure hope he gets back to normal real quick.