# Hard Play. Limping Leg



## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

well, I think I messed up Lucky. He chased the water I was spraying out of the hose in the backyard around and around the yard...full speed...for a really long time (for him. Lucky is not much into a real workout). Besides that he chased cats, birds, jumped in and out of the pool....

Today was the most he's ever used his muscles, and he most likely used every one of them.

He is limping so bad....he can't hardly walk and his front leg seems swollen.

Even though I worry about his joints ...I tend to think he has a sprain. He did a lot of twisiting and turning today and actually yesterday he chased a ball, fell on his side and slide several feet.

I'll see how things go tomorrow to see if it improves. And I'll be a bit more careful in the future.


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## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

Keep us posted.....I know that on the days that Samson plays and runs the hardest, he'll limp some....but I've never noticed any swelling....


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## monomer (Apr 21, 2005)

Sidney sprained his left front paw (at the wrist) this past winter by leaping through the air with all four way off the ground while catching frisbees... his airborne antics can get absolutely ridiculous at times but I can't seem to stop him from doing such things. So on one really wild leap he started limping after the landing... game over... we immediately went home. My wife chewed me out and we took Sidney to the vet. The vet said let him rest for a few days but by all means allow him to play as hard as he wants, allowing him to be a retriever now is what will make his life happiest even if he might develop arthritis is his later years. So we started feeding him Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate with Vit C (purely as a preventative measure)... and after a couple of days rest we went to the park to play fetch in the snow again and this time he caught the same ankle in a hole in the ice and it spun him around and... re-sprained the same ankle... my wife was real angry with me. This time I let Sidney rest a full week (it like to have drove him crazy... I did walk him around the neighborhood though). He's been at 100% ever since (knock-on-wood).

If I were you, I'd take Lucky to see the vet just to be sure nothing's busted (you know how stoic some dogs can be) and then enforce a couple of days rest before letting him play again.


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

monomer said:


> Sidney sprained his left front paw (at the wrist) this past winter by leaping through the air with all four way off the ground while catching frisbees... his airborne antics can get absolutely ridiculous at times but I can't seem to stop him from doing such things. So on one really wild leap he started limping after the landing... game over... we immediately went home. My wife chewed me out and we took Sidney to the vet. The vet said let him rest for a few days but by all means allow him to play as hard as he wants, allowing him to be a retriever now is what will make his life happiest even if he might develop arthritis is his later years. So we started feeding him Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulfate with Vit C (purely as a preventative measure)... and after a couple of days rest we went to the park to play fetch in the snow again and this time he caught the same ankle in a hole in the ice and it spun him around and... re-sprained the same ankle... my wife was real angry with me. This time I let Sidney rest a full week (it like to have drove him crazy... I did walk him around the neighborhood though). He's been at 100% ever since (knock-on-wood).
> 
> If I were you, I'd take Lucky to see the vet just to be sure nothing busted (you know how stoic some dogs can be) and then enforce a couple of days rest before letting him play again.



Monomer....you made me feel sooooooo much better. So you abuse your dog to huh. But really, Lucky just doen't get much room to run and leap. He was having sooo much fun. I've never seen him so happy except for the time he chased a cat all through our yard. 

If he's limping like he is now...I'll take him into the vet tomorrow. If it has dwindled to almost nothing, I'll wait. I was going to take him in to the vet
anyway for other issues, and will have a long talk about his joints.

And Rick, as far as the swelling....I notice it but Tim doesn't...so if it really exists...its not much.


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## monomer (Apr 21, 2005)

Lucky's mom said:


> ...So you abuse your dog to huh...


You know what 'they' say... Abuse is in the eye of the beholder... and Sidney's beholding a lot of fun! From Sid's point of view, I simply cannot abuse him enough.

I'm guessing if Lucky's limping, he hurt something. If you said he started limping after resting for awhile, I would just suspect a little muscle stiffness but since he started limping right after some athletic acrobatics I would think... its better to take him to see the vet.


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## ty823 (Feb 7, 2006)

Lucy had a limp in her back leg after we went for a walk along a rocky lake shore when she was about 7 months old. The vet felt her up and decided that she had a partially torn or pulled ligament in her back knee. He said the same thing, to try to keep her kenneled as much as possible for a few days and not let her run around too hard. Easier said then done! But, it did seem to heal itself after a week or so.


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## Maggies mom (Jan 6, 2006)

Maggie is my ad/hd( Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) dog...She is constantly, running, jumping, chasing things in the yard... Last month right before we were leaving for Fla, I noticed she was limping.... and sometimes she would walk different in her stride,I called the vet and took her in..... He said he thought she sprained her shoulder and having growing pains.... he gave me some antiinflammatories and said to keep her clam and rested for 3-4 days..and if she was still limping we would need to do an x-ray. The car ride down to fla kept her calm and quite, and after a few days of total rest, she was fine....I would just watch him and see how he does.... if he is till limping I would bring him in to the vet, just to be on the safe side


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

I was thrilled to see that Lucky was much better this morning. After walking a bit he limbered until I could hardly tell he had a problem. But I think he's feeling pretty stiff.

Thanks for your replies and experiences..


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## gold4me (Mar 12, 2006)

An easy thing to do is get some Arnica tablets and get them twice a day. Probably the adult suggestion. I have used them on my kids and my horse and it REALLY helps with bruises and swelling and inflamed joints or muscles.


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## greg bell (May 24, 2005)

dogs, like athletes, must be in condition to do lots of athletic work/play. Mine is worked hard every day and I never have a limping problem unless they actually step on somthing that injures them. quick turns and jumping are probably the worst. I am on a lot of working retriever forums and most of the advice there is to be very careful with short rietrieves with a hard charging dog.. running on ice is also a bad idea... 
a fairly frequent injury is tearing the ACL ... requiring expensive surgery and a prolonged rehab..just like in people.. 
from what you describe, I would guess just a sprain or simply sore muscles from hard exercise that he wasn't used to. 
my advice for exercise is simply retrieving..but instead of doing the short little retrieves that they bust into with "on a dime" stops and turning, get someone else to go out a 100 yards or so and throw the object and then send em for it.. plus retrieving in the water.. 
Katie should have some knowledge in this area since she does stuff with her dogs that require those quck starts and stops and short turns.. but I would imagine that her dog is also very well conditioned..


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## monomer (Apr 21, 2005)

greg bell said:


> .... running on ice is also a bad idea...


Oh yeah, it was a bad idea...

Be aware it wasn't quite so obvious... it wasn't like on bare ice. We had lotsa rain on frozen ground so it pooled and then froze over and then got lightly snowed on... it sat there for more than a week... what do you do? After more snow had fallen on top and with Sidney jumping outta his skin, I finally relented. I figured by throwing his Frisbee over chain-link fence(s) (at the softball park) he would have to run around these fences to fetch it... this would prevent him from doing any airborne catches. Well, only about 5-minutes into the retrieving thing and as he's running at top speed down the fence line, he suddenly spins in a half circle pivoting around his left leg while rolling his body in a full circle... I cringed, ran over and found the hole in the ice under the snow.

Yes, a warm-up is absolutely necessary before fully engaging in any strenuous activities... that's why I always 'PowerWalk' Sidney first before our bike rides, fetching, swimming, playing agility, etc. and I would suggest everyone else do something similar.


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## LauraEyes2 (Sep 16, 2005)

Your best treatment for now would be strict rest. That unfortunately means cage rest and short leash walks. If you can keep Lucky calm enough that he's not running around inside, then he'd probably be ok not in the cage, but I would try to limit his use of his leg as much as possible for now. For one, if it is just a sprain or muscle strain, the rest is the only treatment for that at this point. If it's something more serious, exercise can worsen the problem. 

Good luck, keep us posted!


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## Lucky's mom (Nov 4, 2005)

Thanks everyone for your support. 
Lucky doesn't want to rest, and really blew me away late last night when he limped up to me with such a bad limp...his chest nearly touched the ground as he walked. And he had a ball in his mouth and was trying to do his play bows and such, pawing at me while practically falling. Really wanted me to throw that ball.

He's resting and doing better, but its still there..if not profound. He goes to the dreaded boarding kennel tomorrow and they get him out for walks three times a day...I'll have to speak to them about his injury to make sure they don't over walk him, but I think the kennel will give him more rest then anything.

I will have to be more careful, but I think the main problem is he was out of shape. I had to walk down 50 flights of stairs once......How I felt the next morning is how I think he is feeling now.

Greg, your imput was helpful too as far as how to avoid serious injuries. I never thought about major injuries and expensive operations. Yikes.

I won't be around for a couple of days.

Thanks again.


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## Goldndust (Jul 30, 2005)

I agree with Greg, it is that time of year right now where were putting our dogs out and they have been inside for the most part taking it easy all winter, conditioning and working them up is a very important part I think of avoiding leg injuries. 

I too just took Kode in a few weeks ago for sprain or strain, think it was more of strain then anything because he seemed fine by the next day thank God, but I took him out too the water for the first time this year and he went nuts. He's in pretty good condition, but I should have leashed him for the first couple times to get him conditioned a bit more to being back in the water and and kept him from getting so crazy out there. He is a charger, and you get this dog wet and he charges more, and he gets even crazier.


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## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

My Hunter pulled a muscle in his shoulder while playing. I didn't see it happen, but he and KayCee and been running up and down the fence, with squirrels going crazy on the power line over the fence. He came in limping. Was still limping the next day so took him to vet and he was put on muscle relaxers I think it was for a few days, and I didn't let him out to run and he was in in jus a few days.


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