Posted on 04/10/2011 8:21:56 PM PDT by Hildy
I'm hoping for some advice. I have a 12 year old dog. She's a maltese poodle mix, 17 pounds. About two months ago she had some sort of injury to her left hind leg. She couldn't walk on it. We took her to the vet and the X-ray showed nothing. I was sent home with an anti-inflammatory and instruction to keep her off of it. We did the best we could. Well, two months later she can walk on it but she still limps and it shakes. I don't quite know what to do. I'd say it was arthritis, but since there was some kind of injury that set it off, I don't think we can chalk it up to just arthritis.
Is there anything we can give her to help? I feel so helpless. She's the first dog I ever had, so I don't have any experience with older dogs. Any advice?
Thank you so much.
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and the incredible wealth of knowledge. I have some new ideas now to try. I will keep you all posted. Thank so much.
Ping!
Just a heads up that dogs can also get lyme.
Our poor large breed suffered from arthritis in her later years and we weren’t aware of the lyme until her health really began to deteriorate and blood tests were run.
Good grief..... go peddle your doom and gloom on another thread.
Did they check the knees? My little boy is going in for reconstructive surgery this week.
They should also check for soft tissue cancer around the hip. My other little girl has had four surgeries to remove and each time she was shaking before the cancer became a lump.
Interesting. I will add this to my list.
Yes check paws and give him vitamins
Might be a dislocated knee. If it is, it will set you back about $4,000 for diagnosis, prep, operation and after care.
Ideally you will want to spend as much time as possible with your baby to keep them from being well...dogs and jumping and running.
We just finished a meeting and between us and a couple of friends our little guy will be supervised for three weeks so he doesn’t reinjure himself.
Also, little tip:
If your dog does have an operation and there is post op bleeding, do yourself a favor and go get maxipads.
That’s right Maxipads. They soak up blood better than towels, ABD’s or gauze pads.
They cost less as well.
Get any brand Maxipad, overnight and they must be unscented. The scented ones can cause allergy, stain and infection.
I have them in my med kit and prefer them over gauze.
I actually had to use them on an old woman 5 years ago, who fell down some stairs and really scrapped herself up badly.
She wouldn’t stop bleeding and I asked if she was on any blood thinner. She was...cummadin.
No problem, some stiptic and celox covered with the maxipad and voila! Bleeding stopped.
Everyone thought it was weird but when the paramedics arrive one onlooker quipped about the crazy idea of maxipads.
One of the paramedics said it was a great idea so long as they weren’t scented and that’s what they use instead of ABD’s. They even thanked me for cleaning her up.
I had peroxided her and iodined her. They really didn’t have anything to do except take her for xrays.
Not bragging, just giving you a real world experience with them as an example.
Now that I think of it....
Check this out. Your dog probably gets groomed and pretty well.
But what if the hairs in between in their little paws are not being trimed?
That’s right. The hair between their little paw pads. It just grows and grows and grows on some dogs and you gotta cut it.
I wouldn’t think it to be a problem on your dog type but, never know.
I should not have hit the post button on that one.
Vet blamed it on ‘very slight’ hip displasia, exacerbated by him being overweight. I got him skinny - but he still limped for a year - former vet tech friend took one look at him limping and said it was his paw not his hip.
Sure enough a fox-tail finally worked its way out of the TOP of my poor guy's foot! He was limping around because that thing went all the way through his foot!
Have your dog checked for tumors - ultrasound will reveal if there are problems. I lost my little 4 lb 3-1/2 year old Yorkie over the weekend. He was doing fine one day and the next day I found him almost catatonic. Rushed him to the pet emergency facility and they could only do so much there. I took him to a pet hospital and they took an ultrasound and he had a large tumor in his bladder that had spread to his prostate and surrounding lymph nodes. It was inoperable. I held him for almost 3 hours and told him what a good boy he was and how much I loved him. He passed quietly with his head nestled under my chin. I sure do miss the little guy. He was such a joy.
Being a dachshund, I would suggest having her back checked.
Great advice in your post - you covered it all - I was thinking patellar luxation. Small dogs jump on and off furniture and, as they age, wear and tear takes its toll.
Does your dog do this all the time or just randomly? My dachshund at two years old, (she lived to be 14) would limp, hold her paw up and the leg would shake. It would last for a few minutes. The vet initially diagnosed this as a pulled muscle. As it turned out she was having mini seizures. The disease progressed and symptoms worsened but we controlled the seizures through the years and she had a wonderful long life.
May your children have more compassion for you in your declining years than you just expressed.
Do NOT give your dog aspirin. It is really hard on the stomach for dogs. Buffered aspirin I thibk is OK. Check with your Vet.
read it again. that is compassion.
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