# Limping— Urgent care, regular vet, or wait and see?



## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

Jo was just zooming around the house attempting to get Charlie to play with her (apparently an hour and a half at the beach was not enough to fully tire her out!) and suddenly let out a series of yelps. I didn’t see what happened, but I think she tripped over a corner of carpet. She came into the kitchen, where we were, and wasn’t putting weight on her back left foot. I gently felt the leg all over, and she didn’t yelp or pull away, but was clearly very upset- tail down and shaking for a couple of minutes. When I put her down, she walked (with a limp) to the bedroom and put herself in her crate, which she doesn’t typically do during the day- but did a lot the first few days after her spay when she was clearly in pain.

This has never happened to Charlie (he’s not much of an athlete lol) so I’m trying to decide what we should do— but even if it’s something minor, the lady thing I’d want is for it to get worse. Her normal vet is a rehab so very good on injuries, but they’re closed on Mondays, so should I just try to keep her quiet and take her in whenever they can see her? Or should I try to get her into urgent care sooner? Or am I totally overreacting and we should just wait to see how she’s doing later and, if she stops favoring it, not worry about it?


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

I should add— we do have meloxadyl left over from her spay, but I’m worried that if we give it to her, she will feel better even if she’s still injured and push herself….. thoughts?


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## Pucks104 (Aug 16, 2012)

I don’t think I would give her meds. If her pain is really bad take her to an emergency vet. If it isn’t so bad then confine her so she doesn’t move too much (crate or small pen) and see the vet as soon as available. If she seems to recover in a bit, it could be a luxated patella. Leo has a mild luxating patella and once in a while it will pop out and cause enough pain that he will yelp and pull up lame. A short rest seems to help the kneecap settle back into place and he is good to go. If this is the first time this has happened or if she won’t put any weight on the leg get the vet to check her out. In case she has torn something


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I am very sorry to hear this. A couple thoughts. Could she have caught her nail on the carpet and torn it? Not sure if you have loop carpets but those are easy to catch nails on. Did you look deep into the paw pads? Could she have picked something up at the beach that is now starting to irritate her? I would think a luxating patella would work itself out unless it is a very high grade. I would think you would have seen some sign of patella luxation before now if it was a high grade. Not sure if it could be a CC tear. I am not familiar with those. I am terrible at knowing whether or not to wait to go to the vet so not much help. However, I bet the emergency vet is just going to give drugs and then you will wind up at the other vet anyway. Perhaps others can advise on whether it is safe to wait. My thoughts are with you. The little beasts can really take it out of us at times. Hang in there!


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

@mudpuppymama to the rescue— I had notices there was nothing bleeding so I knew her nails weren’t torn, but I took another look at her pads. She had a little tiny piece of pink crayon embedded at the end of her nail (she’d found one after my friends’ kids were here Saturday and chewed it into a hundred pieces) She winced when I picked at it but I think I was able to get it all with a tweezer. And now she seems to be walking fine— so I think she must have landed stepped on this tiny piece of crayon to embed it in her nail and then it went deeper when she turned or something. I’m of course going to keep a close eye on it to make sure there’s no infection, and will take her for an x ray if she starts favoring again, but she suddenly seems normal again so hoping that was it!! Thank you both for sharing your thoughts. Was hoping it wasn’t patella but her vet said her hips, knees, and elbows all looked great last time we were there so fingers crossed!


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## Pucks104 (Aug 16, 2012)

LWalks said:


> @mudpuppymama to the rescue— I had notices there was nothing bleeding so I knew her nails weren’t torn, but I took another look at her pads. She had a little tiny piece of pink crayon embedded at the end of her nail (she’d found one after my friends’ kids were here Saturday and chewed it into a hundred pieces) She winced when I picked at it but I think I was able to get it all with a tweezer. And now she seems to be walking fine— so I think she must have landed stepped on this tiny piece of crayon to embed it in her nail and then it went deeper when she turned or something. I’m of course going to keep a close eye on it to make sure there’s no infection, and will take her for an x ray if she starts favoring again, but she suddenly seems normal again so hoping that was it!! Thank you both for sharing your thoughts. Was hoping it wasn’t patella but her vet said her hips, knees, and elbows all looked great last time we were there so fingers crossed!


So glad. Hopefully it is that simple and heals quickly


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

Good to hear Jo is feeling better! Several months ago Truffles started limping and it appeared her front paw pad was torn. It was a weekend evening so I took her in as an emergency. Turned out to be a callous!!! The vet trimmed it off.


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

Oh wow what a relief. I am so happy for you. I guess since I have a couple of “diggers” who also walk on all sorts of crazy surfaces full of weed seeds, pebbles, acorn shells, etc., I have had to get a few things out of the paw pads so I always check there first if anyone is walking oddly.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

mudpuppymama said:


> Oh wow what a relief. I am so happy for you. I guess since I have a couple of “diggers” who also walk on all sorts of crazy surfaces full of weed seeds, pebbles, acorn shells, etc., I have had to get a few things out of the paw pads so I always check there first if anyone is walking oddly.


And any thing that gets into the nerve of the nail can be excruciatingly painful… good catch!


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

Well, turns out there were multiple issues going on… Yesterday at the play date she yelped a couple of times and then was favoring the same leg at the play date, so I decided to take her to urgent care, bc her normal vet wouldn’t have time for xrays before we go out of town next week. After a very long day (every time we were getting close, a critical case would come in…), we finally saw the doctor, who said her left patella was definitely Luxating. She thinks grade 2– she said it was easily pushed out of place, but also easily went back in. They did X-rays to rule out any ligament damage, and she said the ligaments looked ok, but there’s definitely a little inflammation around the patella. Luckily she said the other patella is totally fine and her hips also looked good in the x-ray. So we were prescribed two weeks of rest to start for my very active little girl… trazodone time again! 😞 

Luckily, her regular vet is also a full rehab facility, so I am hopeful that we can get in there soon and a good plan that strengthens her leg and avoids further progression and surgery. If needed we’ll see an orthopedic specialist as well for another opinion.

A few questions for the wonderful experts on here…

-Once they have a Luxating patella, can it ever go away or downgrade? Or is it just about management to make sure it doesn’t get worse? 
-Is it ever NOT congenital? Like can it just be from an injury? I know that for OFA they don’t look at their x-rays until they’re 2, but last time she was at the vet they said her hips, elbows and patella’s all felt good. I know her breeder will be very disappointed as she takes health testing and structure very seriously… and her full brother from the prior litter is currently top 10 in confirmation in the country. I know these things can happen even with all the care in the world, but just wondering about cause. 
-I’m assuming sports are out now? Of course we had just signed up for pre-agility after being on a long waiting list. We just did pre-pre-agility for adolescents at the same facility, and the instructors thought she’d be great and really love it because she’s so athletic, high energy, and handler focused… But I’m guessing tight turns and jumping are out…? 

Picture of my sweet stoned girl watching the World Cup…


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## Jackie from Concrete WA (Mar 23, 2015)

Can't answer your questions but I'm glad you found the source of the problem. Willow has a mild luxating patella too but it doesn't seem to bother her. She just gives a little hop once in a while.


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I am sorry to hear about JoJo. Here is my luxating patella experience…

My almost 14 year old yorkie has a luxating patella. When he was young, it would act up terribly. It would get stuck and not always go back right away and he would hop on three legs for quite awhile. When it did this, he would actually WANT to walk and as he walked it would somehow work back into place and he would be fine. I started restricting him from all furniture jumping and stairs. I also decided to try and strengthen his legs. He LOVES to walk anyway so we would walk several miles per day, up and down mild hills. I started feeding him a raw homemade diet with plenty of good natural sources of glucosamine and chondroitin. His luxating patella eventually never acted up any more. We never did any crazy exercises or therapy, just plain old walking. He is almost 14 and is in great shape. I think the diet, exercise and furniture/stairs restriction helped him. Many dogs have luxating patellas and it doesn’t stop them from doing much of anything, including agility. Note that I never restricted him from anything other than the furniture jumping and stairs. This is one condition where I am not sure rest provides any benefit. The leg needs to be strengthened to help hold the knee in place.


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## Pucks104 (Aug 16, 2012)

Leo has a mild luxating patella as well. He is almost 10 years old and other than briefly popping out 2-3 times per year he’s fine. It generally happens when he is chasing about with one of the other dogs. However most of the time when he is doing exactly the same thing there is no issue. I don’t know if regular intensive training would be out or not. I haven’t participated in sport activities with Leo.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

My understanding is that the "painful" part is usually right after it first starts, and the knee is "angry". Once it settles down and the ligaments are just loose, it is no longer painful. I know a number of small dogs with mild LP who run agility. If it were my dog, I'd probably run "preferred", which is 4" lower than their regulation height. It's allowed, so take advantage of it. And if you want to be even more conservative, the single, straight jumps both obedience and rally will CERTAINLY not harm her!

I think it IS almost always congenital, but not all dogs in the same gene pool have the same conformation. If Jojo had the same conformation as the boy who is doing so well in conformation, she probably would not have been sold as a pet. LP is not DX'd on Xray, but manually by the vet, and, unfortunately, it can just "crop up" like this. You should, of course, tell your breeder, but while she will want to know, she should not be OVERLY upset unless a number of dogs in the line start showing up with them. A single dog with a locating patella does not mean there is a problem in the line.

As MPM said, after this acute stage is over, and she is no longer painful, I would definitely work on building up the muscles in her hind legs to support her knee caps, with long laps and, if available, underwater treadmill. And a diet with glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate will help too. All my working dogs get Glycoflex II.


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I think many commercial diets are devoid of glucosamine, chondroitin and collagen which help build cartilage. This is not helping dogs who are genetically disposed. I would definitely add a supplement unless you know for sure it is in their food. And probably the only way you will know if the food contains enough is to make it yourself. I don’t think extra hurts anyway. This applies to all dogs, whether they are sports dogs or not.


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

Thanks for all the replies and advice! It’s a huge relief to hear that they can live a pain-free and active life if managed carefully (and even some in agility which is awesome!) The ER vet made it sound like surgery was inevitable, but my research today and your advice is making me more hopeful. We hit her insurance deductible at the ER yesterday (and her policy goes until end of August), so bring on the underwater treadmill, acupuncture, and whatever else! Charlie is on joint supplements so might as start her on them as well!

I talked to the agility place today and they said that pre-agility is 100% ground work, so of course to check with her vet, but as long as she’s out of her rest period it probably won’t be too strenuous. The first class is people only, and the first class she’d go to isn’t for a month, so hopefully fine.

One more thing— we really want to watch her weight, knowing it’s even more important than ever now, and she’s on a mission to eat as much as possible ever since her spay. Any thoughts on how much I should reduce food by during this sedentary period? Maybe 10%?


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## Pucks104 (Aug 16, 2012)

I have a good baby scale and weigh the Havs and cats regularly ( every couple weeks) just to stay on top of any fluctuations. This is especially important during adjustments to their diet or restrictions to their activity level. It’s better than automatically reducing or increasing food by x amount. Weights can get away from you quickly.


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

I am a bit surprised about the two week rest prescription from the ER vet. I am not sure what that is supposed to accomplish. Gentle exercise would get blood flowing to the area and help strengthen the muscles which is really what is needed for a luxating patella. Two weeks rest seems like delaying the start of that process. Exercise like simple walking would also alleviate stress and the need for sedatives, along with the fear of weight gain. Avoiding strenuous exercise and jumping…yes. Avoiding gentle exercise for a luxating patella…no. The only way to “fix” a luxating patella without surgery is to gain strength. ER vets are sometimes not the best. Since this one told you she would probably need surgery, he is definitely on my bad side.


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

mudpuppymama said:


> I am a bit surprised about the two week rest prescription from the ER vet. I am not sure what that is supposed to accomplish. Gentle exercise would get blood flowing to the area and help strengthen the muscles which is really what is needed for a luxating patella. Two weeks rest seems like delaying the start of that process. Exercise like simple walking would also alleviate stress and the need for sedatives, along with the fear of weight gain. Avoiding strenuous exercise and jumping…yes. Avoiding gentle exercise for a luxating patella…no. The only way to “fix” a luxating patella without surgery is to gain strength. ER vets are sometimes not the best. Since this one told you she would probably need surgery, he is definitely on my bad side.


The rest was recommended because the x-ray showed inflammation or fluid, so the idea was to get that calmed down before getting her strength up. She did say easy walks are okay, so it’s not quite like the strict rest she had after her spay, or like Charlie’s lengthy IVDD crate rest. But this is a very athletic little pup who generally does a lot of running (she will actually throw her toy for herself and pounce on it!) and goes to the beach or for a hike and plays with other dogs 4-5x/week, so it’s still a big shift. Our normal vet is closed Sunday/Monday but we’ll talk to them first thing Tuesday about their recommendation and go with what they say, since they also do a ton of rehab. I feel like with emergency vets it’s almost always wise get a second opinion, especially with anything chronic or serious. They are best trained to deal with critical situations— while I was waiting for many hours, dogs came in with internal bleeding, active seizures, chocolate poisoning, marijuana poisoning, and anaphylactic shock… they are great at getting animals out of danger in those situations, and were fine for the x-ray and initial diagnosis here, but definitely wouldn’t consider her an expert on this type of a situation.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Pucks104 said:


> I have a good baby scale and weigh the Havs and cats regularly ( every couple weeks) just to stay on top of any fluctuations. This is especially important during adjustments to their diet or restrictions to their activity level. It’s better than automatically reducing or increasing food by x amount. Weights can get away from you quickly.


I agree with this completely! The BEST way to control weight in small dogs is to invest in a baby scale and a digital kitchen scale. Neither is expensive, and neither lie. You can dial in the food very specifically, no guessing.


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

Oh no...so sorry to hear this about Jo. You probably know Scout had two CCL surgeries about five years ago. His problem started suddenly. He has no problems running like crazy now! I know you are on the other side of the bay, but I will send you some info.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

LWalks said:


> The rest was recommended because the x-ray showed inflammation or fluid, so the idea was to get that calmed down before getting her strength up. She did say easy walks are okay, so it’s not quite like the strict rest she had after her spay, or like Charlie’s lengthy IVDD crate rest. But this is a very athletic little pup who generally does a lot of running (she will actually throw her toy for herself and pounce on it!) and goes to the beach or for a hike and plays with other dogs 4-5x/week, so it’s still a big shift. Our normal vet is closed Sunday/Monday but we’ll talk to them first thing Tuesday about their recommendation and go with what they say, since they also do a ton of rehab. I feel like with emergency vets it’s almost always wise get a second opinion, especially with anything chronic or serious. They are best trained to deal with critical situations— while I was waiting for many hours, dogs came in with internal bleeding, active seizures, chocolate poisoning, marijuana poisoning, and anaphylactic shock… they are great at getting animals out of danger in those situations, and were fine for the x-ray and initial diagnosis here, but definitely wouldn’t consider her an expert on this type of a situation.


I agree with MPM that everything I’ve read, and have been told has been that the treatment for low grade LP, even in the beginning, is long, slow exercize, not “rest”. But probably not “crazy uncontrolled puppy stuff” either. Since it will only be a couple of days until you can see your regular vet, where they also do rehab, it can’t possibly hurt to let her lay low until then, and then follow their advice to help her strengthen that area safely.


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

krandall said:


> I agree with this completely! The BEST way to control weight in small dogs is to invest in a baby scale and a digital kitchen scale. Neither is expensive, and neither lie. You can dial in the food very specifically, no guessing.


I love my kitchen scale, and we’ve been weighing their food for a while now because scoops are just so inaccurate… I’ll look at getting a baby scale as well.


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

LWalks said:


> The rest was recommended because the x-ray showed inflammation or fluid, so the idea was to get that calmed down before getting her strength up. She did say easy walks are okay, so it’s not quite like the strict rest she had after her spay, or like Charlie’s lengthy IVDD crate rest. But this is a very athletic little pup who generally does a lot of running (she will actually throw her toy for herself and pounce on it!) and goes to the beach or for a hike and plays with other dogs 4-5x/week, so it’s still a big shift. Our normal vet is closed Sunday/Monday but we’ll talk to them first thing Tuesday about their recommendation and go with what they say, since they also do a ton of rehab. I feel like with emergency vets it’s almost always wise get a second opinion, especially with anything chronic or serious. They are best trained to deal with critical situations— while I was waiting for many hours, dogs came in with internal bleeding, active seizures, chocolate poisoning, marijuana poisoning, and anaphylactic shock… they are great at getting animals out of danger in those situations, and were fine for the x-ray and initial diagnosis here, but definitely wouldn’t consider her an expert on this type of a situation.


I can see the vet’s viewpoint “sort of” but not really. In addition to strengthening, long gentle exercise helps to wear them out and cut down on the wild behavior. If a dog is not somewhat tired after a long walk, it may not be long enough. I fear a wild Indian at the end of two weeks of sedation and rest. I also am not a fan of sedatives unless absolutely necessary and in this case it does not seem like they are. I imagine when the knee goes out of the groove there is going to be some sort of inflammation. And before this is all over it will likely go out occasionally. So that is to be expected and I would not consider it an issue. The really scary part is when it stays out for awhile which was happening with my yorkie, I understand that. Hopefully over time as the legs get stronger this will happen less and less, however many dogs happily skip once in awhile their entire lives. I am glad you are checking with your regular vet and wish you the very best in resolving this aggravating condition.


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

Of course Perry also has a luxating patella. The vet said we didn't need to do anything for it, but when she was operating on his leg she realized it was flooding more than she had thought and since she was already operating on the leg (for the acl surgery) so did the knee too. 

Unfortunately it still does float a little bit it doesn't bother him at all. The only way I know if floating is because he does do a little hop every once in a while. It doesn't affect his running and jumping at all. 

I'm sure water therapy did strengthen it, but he did still hop every once in a while.


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

It's funny re the discussion of ER vets. Some do have multiple specialities. Perry's rehab vet it actually an ER vet part of the week and rehab the other part


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

@LWalks - Just wondering how JoJo is doing and whether or not you have gotten in to see your regular vet yet.


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

mudpuppymama said:


> @LWalks - Just wondering how JoJo is doing and whether or not you have gotten in to see your regular vet yet.


Thanks for checking in! We spoke to the vet on Tuesday (but couldn’t get her in before we went out of town) and she said that she’d like to have her rest somewhat, and we have an appointment on the 3rd to evaluate for a PT plan. In the meantime, she suggested that we do have her take it easy— walking is ok but definitely no running, jumping, wrestling, etc. That way, hopefully the inflammation will go down and she won’t be painful anymore so we can start building her muscles up to support the patella. 

We’re at my in-laws in TN this week (with both dogs) so have been tiring her out as much as possible w sniff walks, food toys, and training. She’s doing pretty well with it, though she definitely attempted leashed zoomies on the grass around today— tomorrow when it drops to single digits I’m sure she will be very happy to stay inside!


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

LWalks said:


> Thanks for checking in! We spoke to the vet on Tuesday (but couldn’t get her in before we went out of town) and she said that she’d like to have her rest somewhat, and we have an appointment on the 3rd to evaluate for a PT plan. In the meantime, she suggested that we do have her take it easy— walking is ok but definitely no running, jumping, wrestling, etc. That way, hopefully the inflammation will go down and she won’t be painful anymore so we can start building her muscles up to support the patella.
> 
> We’re at my in-laws in TN this week (with both dogs) so have been tiring her out as much as possible w sniff walks, food toys, and training. She’s doing pretty well with it, though she definitely attempted leashed zoomies on the grass around today— tomorrow when it drops to single digits I’m sure she will be very happy to stay inside!


Sounds great. Currently -7 here with 38 mph wind…mine are happy to stay inside too.


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

mudpuppymama said:


> Sounds great. Currently -7 here with 38 mph wind…mine are happy to stay inside too.


WOW! Stay warm…I grew up in New England but I can’t even imagine what that temperature feels like. Even here, my California-raised pups are going to be in for a very rude awakening tomorrow morning!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

The weather is so strange!!! Here in New England, we are having DRIVING wind and rain, but it is VERY warm, 55F! Tomorrow morning, it will be in the 20’s, which, while cold, is not unheard of for end of Dec., and much warmer than so much of the country!!! But still a 30° drop in 12 hours. No snow here though… 

We are heading to my son’s house in VT for the weekend, which will mean a house full of SIX dogs plus two grand kids and a bunch of adults for Christmas. They already have 2 feet of snow, and all this precipitation up there is snow!


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

krandall said:


> The weather is so strange!!! Here in New England, we are having DRIVING wind and rain, but it is VERY warm, 55F! Tomorrow morning, it will be in the 20’s, which, while cold, is not unheard of for end of Dec., and much warmer than so much of the country!!! But still a 30° drop in 12 hours. No snow here though…
> 
> We are heading to my son’s house in VT for the weekend, which will mean a house full of SIX dogs plus two grand kids and a bunch of adults for Christmas. They already have 2 feet of snow, and all this precipitation up there is snow!


Missouri is a place of mild winters. Well I don’t know what has happened but that no longer seems to apply! It is -8 today with windchill of -32. I have never seen this in my life until a few years ago. Now we get some brutal cold periods every winter, Minnesotians and Canadians I salute you! You guys are tough.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Yes, Missouri has had CRAZY weather the last few years!!! And we have had this terrible drought in the North East… also unheard of here!!!


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

krandall said:


> Yes, Missouri has had CRAZY weather the last few years!!! And we have had this terrible drought in the North East… also unheard of here!!!


It is going UP to 8 degrees today…never thought I’d be happy to see a high of 8! However, right now anything above zero is considered good! I put the dogs coats on them but my yorkie freezes up and cannot move after about 5 minutes. He is one who has to walk around a bit before pooping. Really regretting that I did not train indoor potty. He is learning to do his business FASTER and thankfully only poops once a day!


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

mudpuppymama said:


> It is going UP to 8 degrees today…never thought I’d be happy to see a high of 8! However, right now anything above zero is considered good! I put the dogs coats on them but my yorkie freezes up and cannot move after about 5 minutes. He is one who has to walk around a bit before pooping. Really regretting that I did not train indoor potty. He is learning to do his business FASTER and thankfully only poops once a day!


Ijust dug the dogs’ coats out for our trip up to my son’s house… we WILL bring a litter box along, but I’ll keep that up on in the third floor guesr room for early mornings and for Kodi at night. So I’m sure they will be going out. And it’s a lot colder there than it is here. They haven’t needed coats here yet!


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

krandall said:


> Ijust dug the dogs’ coats out for our trip up to my son’s house… we WILL bring a litter box along, but I’ll keep that up on in the third floor guesr room for early mornings and for Kodi at night. So I’m sure they will be going out. And it’s a lot colder there than it is here. They haven’t needed coats here yet!


Mia is WAY more cold tolerant than my yorkie! Very big difference. My yorkie is WAY more heat tolerant. Mia thinks temps in the teens are balmy! However, we now have 40 mph winds and blowing snow so that does make a difference too. We are up to -4! Yikes I have had enough.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

mudpuppymama said:


> Mia is WAY more cold tolerant than my yorkie! Very big difference. My yorkie is WAY more heat tolerant. Mia thinks temps in the teens are balmy! However, we now have 40 mph winds and blowing snow so that does make a difference too. We are up to -4! Yikes I have had enough.


The wind is the problem here too!It’s blowing so hard I had to give Pixel her CBD oil that she usually only needs for thunder storms!!! And mix that with 20° temps, and although it’snot as cold as what you are experiencing, it’s still coat weather for my guys!


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## Melissa Brill (Feb 22, 2017)

mudpuppymama said:


> It is going UP to 8 degrees today…never thought I’d be happy to see a high of 8! However, right now anything above zero is considered good! I put the dogs coats on them but my yorkie freezes up and cannot move after about 5 minutes. He is one who has to walk around a bit before pooping. Really regretting that I did not train indoor potty. He is learning to do his business FASTER and thankfully only poops once a day!


Perry's been in his fleece for a while now and I pulled out his coat the other day... but the problem was that it was so cold that he didn't want to even walk on it. We went out (on the worst cold day) and he started walking on 3 legs - alternating which one he kept up and then hit a point (on our walk back) where he was crouched down, practically sitting on his butt trying to figure out how to keep all 4 legs off the ground (bopping from one to the other with at least 2 up at any one time) - so I took pity on him and carried him back . 

Luckily for us he decided (the rest of the frigid cold days) to potty really really quickly - though a couple of times he wanted to just poop and then run back inside until I reminded him that he had to pee too  

Here in northeast PA we didn't get the snow/ blizzard that some places got - but Thursday morning we got a couple of inches and it was very messy because it was warm before and warm immediately after it snowed, then Friday it was frigid and everything froze and the temp was around 0 (even lower with the wind chill).


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

Melissa Brill said:


> Perry's been in his fleece for a while now and I pulled out his coat the other day... but the problem was that it was so cold that he didn't want to even walk on it. We went out (on the worst cold day) and he started walking on 3 legs - alternating which one he kept up and then hit a point (on our walk back) where he was crouched down, practically sitting on his butt trying to figure out how to keep all 4 legs off the ground (bopping from one to the other with at least 2 up at any one time) - so I took pity on him and carried him back .
> 
> Luckily for us he decided (the rest of the frigid cold days) to potty really really quickly - though a couple of times he wanted to just poop and then run back inside until I reminded him that he had to pee too
> 
> Here in northeast PA we didn't get the snow/ blizzard that some places got - but Thursday morning we got a couple of inches and it was very messy because it was warm before and warm immediately after it snowed, then Friday it was frigid and everything froze and the temp was around 0 (even lower with the wind chill).


In super cold temps, even with a coat, the dogs (especially my yorkie) will freeze up and start limping. I pick them up and carry them back in. This typically is when it is also damp with some snow on the ground, or if we have strong cold wind.


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Brill said:


> Perry's been in his fleece for a while now and I pulled out his coat the other day... but the problem was that it was so cold that he didn't want to even walk on it. We went out (on the worst cold day) and he started walking on 3 legs - alternating which one he kept up and then hit a point (on our walk back) where he was crouched down, practically sitting on his butt trying to figure out how to keep all 4 legs off the ground (bopping from one to the other with at least 2 up at any one time) - so I took pity on him and carried him back .
> 
> Luckily for us he decided (the rest of the frigid cold days) to potty really really quickly - though a couple of times he wanted to just poop and then run back inside until I reminded him that he had to pee too
> 
> Here in northeast PA we didn't get the snow/ blizzard that some places got - but Thursday morning we got a couple of inches and it was very messy because it was warm before and warm immediately after it snowed, then Friday it was frigid and everything froze and the temp was around 0 (even lower with the wind chill).


I have realized that Panda REALLY needs her coat now that she is cut down. She has much less undercoat than any of my others, and now that she is short, she is geeting REALLY cold and shivery in the really cold weather!


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## LWalks (Feb 7, 2021)

Update on the little girl: we saw her vet this afternoon, who is certified in rehab, to get her rechecked and come up with a plan. She did agree that it’s a level 2, but said that it only pops out when she extends her leg— she couldn’t get it to move manually when she was bearing weight.

She said it’s hard to say what the outlook will be, but it’s a good start that she’s not showing pain anymore. We’re going to do 4-5 weeks of rehab there, plus some exercises at home, and see where she’s at. She said normal activities should be ok, but really avoid jumping for now, especially running jumps where she would have that full extension. Depending on how she does over the next month or so, we’ll decide what to do from there. She said from her experience, surgery is really more about how much pain it’s causing the dog in its day-to-day rather than the ‘textbook’ level of luxación. Some dogs can seem comfortable with a level 3 or 4 if they aren’t super active, whereas some can really have their quality of life negatively impacted by a level 2. So hopefully the rehab will give us an idea of what the longer term will look like and how much the strengthening will help her. We’ll also start her on glycoflex, and continue to ensure that w keep he slim. 

She also gave her blessing for us to do pre-agility (ground work only) and said we can discuss again after this first set of rehab, but we could still decide it’s worth any increased risk to continue agility— just like human athletes, dog athletes are more likely to have injuries, but that doesn’t mean they necessarily shouldn’t ever do those things, but you do have to weigh the risks and do everything you can to protect them.

So we will see— fingers crossed that the rehab helps and this isn’t an ongoing major issue!


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## mudpuppymama (Mar 24, 2012)

Thanks for the update. It sounds like JoJo is in good hands. If I recall correctly, I believe Shama has luxating patellas on both legs and she does agility. It would be nice to get her thoughts on how agility has affected Shama.


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