# Front Leg Limp



## fibtaylo (Jan 14, 2009)

Cali (9 months old) developed a limp of her right front leg a little more than a week ago. You can move her leg and press on it (and the pad) and she does not seem to have any tender spots. She still does her RLH and plays like normal. However, she is limping and she doesn't really want to jump up or down from the furniture or bed, but will do it when she is really excited and act like nothing is wrong. 

We figured it was just a muscle strain, but since it has been more than a week now, I wondered if anyone had any other ideas?


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

Are her front legs straight or do they have a curve or bow to them?
If they are curved or bowed, it could be that her growth plate closed prematurely and it is causing her pain-


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

Barb, you should really get her to your vet for a proper diagnosis. The first thing that comes to my mind is a loose or slipped patella.


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## kelrobin (Jan 21, 2008)

Barb 
We have been dealing with the exact same thing with Jackson for quite some time. He began limping on his right leg after a fun and wild weekend where he was doing RLH with another Hav, and after it continued, we took him to the vet and they could not find anything wrong. The vet put him on some homeopathic meds in June thinking it was a muscle strain that would eventually heal, and yet it still bothers him when he runs a lot. I have been dreading going back and getting it x-rayed. He is fine and in no pain until I try to bend his leg outward a bit and then he yells. I am thinking torn ligament or bone spur or somethig surgical, and we are right in the middle of obedience training, so I am trying to keep him quiet until we get a chance to get it x-rayed.

Hopefully yours is just a strained muscle, but it would be best to have it checked out.


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## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

Havtahava said:


> Barb, you should really get her to your vet for a proper diagnosis. The first thing that comes to my mind is a loose or slipped patella.


Do dogs have patellas on their front legs? I thought it was only their backlegs?

Dora had her front leg issue when she got into the yellowjacket hive. She never yelled when you pushed on the leg thought but she limped for a few days (we did see her scream when it happened though).

After giving it a few days and no change, I would definitely get her into the vet.


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## Havtahava (Aug 20, 2006)

Amanda, I should not multi-task when reading & replying. The elbows could have a problem.

Like Kathy, one of my girls had an injury just two days after we got her and she also limped in her front leg. We did x-rays (late at night on a holiday weekend of course - $$$). It was a minor strain and the only way to let it fully heal was to restrict her movement. It is so hard to keep a puppy limited in their activity and she re-injured it before the week was over, so we had to work even harder to make sure she didn't have any opportunities to run or jump for two full weeks so it could properly heal. She's never had another problem since then, thankfully. That was five years ago.


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## Jill in Mich (Feb 24, 2008)

Tess strained her shoulder when I first got her. When she limped her shoulder would dip down. The vet recommended x-rays to make sure there wasn't a bone chip (which there wasn't). I then had to restrict her activity for 10 days (no jumping, running, playing, stairs, etc.)


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## fibtaylo (Jan 14, 2009)

Thanks for all the input. I made her a vet appointment tomorrow morning. It will be almost impossible to restrict her movement right now as we are leaving Saturday morning to go camping for 11 days (figures, right, lol).

I will let you know what the vet says tomorrow.


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## MopTop Havanese (Sep 25, 2006)

If she has injured her leg- you will HAVE to restrict her, camping or not!
Might be time to get a crate!


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## lfung5 (Jun 30, 2007)

I know that is one of the first symptoms of Lyme. I'm sure the vet will know better than me. Good luck and I hope she's better soon!


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## fibtaylo (Jan 14, 2009)

As life always goes, by the time we get to the vet today, she is just barely limping. However, the vet did a complete exam and did not find any tender spots or any limit to her range of motion, so she suspects minor soft tissue injury. She recommended that we give her some Metacam for a few days and try to keep her movements liminted. She did note that Cali does have some slight bowing in her legs, but she said they seem symetrical and don't restrict her movement in any way, so nothing to be concerned about in her opinion. So good news for Cali.

Macie on the other hand cost me almost $200 for a "free" dental evaluation. I wanted to have her teeth checked because at 9 months she is still missing a lot of her adult teeth (at 10 weeks, she still did not have all her puppy teeth, but they did finally come in). In doing the exam, the vet noticed that she still has 3 of her puppy teeth, most of her top front teeth are not appearing yet, and that her bite is pretty off resulting in one of her canines hitting the roof of her mouth. She said we may want to take her to a vet dentist at some point soon. Luckily we live about 15 minutes from the University of California, Davis vet school, so finding speciality vets is not too hard...just expensive. 

The scary and expensive part of all that today is that the vet said sometimes liver problems can cause developmental delays, especially teeth. So, we are now waiting for the results of a full blood and urine panel to see if she has any liver issues :fear: I am really praying that she does not.

I won't have access to the internet for a couple of weeks, so I may not be able to post her results for a while, but I will post as soon as I get back.


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Try to enjoy yourself and have a great vacation. Let us know when you get back how things are going. In the meantime...happy vacation. Have lots of fun.


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## fibtaylo (Jan 14, 2009)

I have about 5 minutes before I lose my internet, but I wanted to share the good news that Macie's tests all came out perfect, so we are just going to keep an eye on teeth.yeah!!


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## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Barb, that is such great news on Macie's results. What a relief, huh? Thanks for keeping us informed.


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## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

OH Barb how frightning. My Bella did not have all her puppy teeth, she doesn't have all her adult teeth either. Her liver, thankfully, is just fine.


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## RikiDaisyDixie (Apr 15, 2008)

*good news*

you must be so relieved!


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## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

Great news!!!


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