# Limping in 5 year old



## CAROLINA MOM (May 12, 2009)

If you haven't already done so, I would have her front leg checked, she may have an injury of some type. 

I am giving my boy a joint supplement that also contains turmeric, it's a natural and potent anti inflammatory. I give him a fish oil and vitamin E tablet also. 

Hope your girl will be doing better soon.

ETA: There's also a new advanced formula of Dasuquin that I've heard is really good. So far I've only seen it available through Vet Clinics.


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## lynnhder (Jun 25, 2014)

Duplicate posts, threads merged together.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Its not normal for a 5 year old to limp. Have you had her checked for tick borne diseases, especially Lyme?


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## lynnhder (Jun 25, 2014)

*limping*

Thank you for your replies!


She has tested negative for Lyme. We have started to shorten her walks a little, which seems to be helping. I suspect it's arthritis, so just talked to the vet who says that Dasequin is better than plain glucosamine/chondroitin because it delivers the medication better, some kind of formula. Not sure if that's true, lol - haha, not sure I want to spend $95 a bottle on it!


Her twin brother has never limped....I guess I figured that they came form the same show dog parents, so would have the same illnesses, but that can't be true since he is the king of hot spots and she isn't. I originally wanted purebreds to rule out so many diseases, since we've spent thousands on dogs in the past who had a lot of hereditary issues - but, that can only go so far and nothing can guarantee health anyway, just like people.


Has anyone had better luck with Dasequin over the people version?


thank you all so much!


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Did your vet send the blood test for lymes out to a lab, or just run an in house test in the clinic? If they only did the in house test, please ask them to send the lymes test out to a lab. Robbie's snap test at the vet clinic was negative, he still had symptoms, so the vet sent it out to the lab. The lab test came back positive for lymes. I would also want xrays of the front legs too. 5 is really young to have arthritis bad enough to cause limping. I would really be looking for another explanation. 

Supplements are good, and you should give them, but please don't let her be in pain because you have a concern over Rimadyl every day. If she is in pain, give her the Rimadyl. And if you give it to her on schedule, rather than when she is already in pain, you will prevent the pain from ramping up. She doesn't need to be painful when you can prevent it.


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Where are you located? (rough area) 

The reason why I ask is it could be somebody could recommend a sports rehab vet who could trouble-shoot what's going on with your dog. 

Because she's favoring a rear leg and NOW the front legs - to me it is very concerning if you don't have a definite idea of what is wrong. I'd particularly be worried about other conditions which "exhibit" with sore muscles - which is the limping you see. That's why people are bringing up testing for TBD's... but there could be other stuff, I think. 

A sports rehab vet should be able to verify if anything is out of joint. They should be able to do chiropractic adjustments then to fix. Your dog may need to have routine adjustments done for a while until you reach a point when the chiro can start spacing out the visits. 

My youngest boy had something happen earlier this year - which caused him to have a twisted pelvis and several things out place from his neck and down his spine. He's an acrobat around the house and also does jumping for obedience - so between the two (him flipping over backwards here at home) - he did a number to his back which caused mystery limping two months ago. 

He is currently on a 6 week schedule for me taking him back to the chiro for adjustments if needed, however he went from having 6 or 7 different spots needing adjustment to only 1 in the last visit. It should improve over time. 

When I took him in for the first visit - the chiropractor had me in tears because he gave me the lowdown on the worst case scenario... his opinion was there could have been an injury to a hip which was causing the pelvis twist or it could have been a deep muscle injury which would take a very long time to heal. Fortunately, two visit later - we definitely have ruled out both possibilities. 

My Jacks has a little arthritis somewhere between his hip and lower back causing him to need routine adjustments for lumbar area. He goes in every 3-4 months for this. Usually just 1-2 spots. <= When he was five... I was shaken to see him come out of a crate before class and be hobbling all over the place. This is a dog who is solid muscle and very sound, so to see him limping - you know it's really bad. He had a pretty bad injury to his back/pelvis area and it needed about a year of me going back and forth to the chiropractor. And he has never regained the strength he had before the injury. 

Before the injury - he was able to do "squats". This is him sitting up on his haunches, standing up completely on the back legs, going back down to his haunches - and repeating. At the time of his injury, he could not swim, balked about walking, and absolutely could not even sit up on his haunches. He currently is back to being the very best as sitting completely up, but he probably will never ever be able to do the doggy squats ever again. It doesn't matter because he's back to being his normal active self. And very strong otherwise. 


^^^ These dogs just needed adjustments to stop the limping. The vet working with Bertie right now has a contact at MSU that he was ready to refer me to if there was any reason to suspect a more serious injury or condition. Other alternatives for healing - particularly with muscle injuries - would laser treatment and acupuncture. Other vet where Jacks goes - she does the same, but there's water therapy as well.

Sorry for rambling. I'm offering the above as a route you can take if this is some kind of injury. Make sure you rule out any possible disease or condition that is causing muscle weakness or pain... that's the caution as far as using rimadyl right now. It's not normal for limping to switch from the rear legs to the front legs if just arthritis.


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## lynnhder (Jun 25, 2014)

Thank you both for your responses. For some reason I didn't get a notification that you guys had added to these posts.


I'll ask the vet to send out the Lyme test, thank you Mylissy. And I guess we'll have to fork over the $$ for more vet visits, x-rays - stupid VPI won't pay any more than $200 total for the condition, even though I appealed it and the vet tried on our behalf. They are horrible.


When I called the vet they said "dogs can develop arthritis early, just like people". Well, maybe not.


I appreciate you all taking the time to describe everything you've been through and to steer me in the right direction.


Mylissy, the system won't allow me to respond to your PM because I don't have enough posts yet. Her limping is a little better, but I think I'll give her some Rimadyl.


Thank you!!!


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## Gleepers (Apr 20, 2016)

My Husky and Malamute both had issues as they got older. Husky had degenerative disk disease, and Malamute had arthritis. I had a lot of luck with some of the products sold by Only Natural Pet, and also with using Devil's Claw for pain and inflammation management (along with some other herbs. 
But like others have said it's going to be really hard to pinpoint exactly what natural options are going to be best without knowing what the cause is. Assuming blood work comes back good and x-rays are inconclusive I think a Chiropracter might be your best bet.


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## Pipersmom (Aug 2, 2016)

lynnhder said:


> Hello - our 5 year old female started limping a few months ago (hind leg). X rays showed no arthritis and some narrowing of the spine (stenosis). We started her on the max does of glucosamine/chondroitin. I've always given them Iceland Pure cod/anchovy fish oil. Her twin brother has no symptoms.
> 
> Now, she has started to limp again - (this time front leg). It's worse after walks, but she limps a little all the time now. I did read the "sticky" posted, that described a lot of good stuff to maybe help with this issue, but wondered if anyone has had better luck with one or the other of the natural remedies mentioned? Rimadyl does take away her limp, but I don't want to give it to her every day.
> 
> ...


Where are you located?
We had several instances of random limping with a young golden. Every time a different limb. It ended up being valley fever. (We are in Arizona )


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## lynnhder (Jun 25, 2014)

thank you for your replies!


We are in Maryland, where tick-born diseases are rampant because it's so hot here and there are so many trees - I took her to the vet and forked over $200 for her to be tested for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I hope that's not it! The vet thought that her front legs were being over used to compensate for pain in her back leg due to spinal stenosis. I don't know. She also said it would cost a bunch more, like hundreds of dollars, to have the Lyme panel sent to a lab - and that she didn't think it was an issue. I don't know again 


So confusing. Thank you all!


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

lynnhder said:


> thank you for your replies!
> 
> 
> We are in Maryland, where tick-born diseases are rampant because it's so hot here and there are so many trees - I took her to the vet and forked over $200 for her to be tested for Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I hope that's not it! The vet thought that her front legs were being over used to compensate for pain in her back leg due to spinal stenosis. I don't know. She also said it would cost a bunch more, like hundreds of dollars, to have the Lyme panel sent to a lab - and that she didn't think it was an issue. I don't know again
> ...


Did you get the results back yet?

I think you need to see a different vet. It should not cost hundreds more to send a test out to a lab. Actually the $200 for RMSF could easily have included a lymes test from the same blood sample, probably for not much more if any.

If she is still limping I would pursue this until you get a diagnoses. Have you done any xrays?


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## Piper_the_goldenpuppy (Aug 26, 2016)

mylissyk said:


> Did you get the results back yet?
> 
> I think you need to see a different vet. It should not cost hundreds more to send a test out to a lab. Actually the $200 for RMSF could easily have included a lymes test from the same blood sample, probably for not much more if any.
> 
> If she is still limping I would pursue this until you get a diagnoses. Have you done any xrays?


Actually, the additional testing you are talking about for Lyme disease requires a special sample to be sent to a lab that does confirmatory testing (not screening tests) for Lyme. 

Lyme testing is controversial, and often has to be taken in the right context. There are two tests for Lyme disease: first, the initial screening test (the ones done in routine labs in many vet clinics and in doctors offices across the country) is sent. It is very good at picking up most, if not all lyme infections, and even will pick up "possible lyme infections," false positives, and previous exposures. It casts a pretty wide net. 

If THAT screening test is positive, that is generally when we recommend blood be sent to an outside lab for an additional separate confirmatory test (which actually is significantly more expensive). Its a different kind of test. The problem with the confirmatory test is that there is a rate of false positives. This test is not recommended for screening use. Unless you have a strong suspicion that the initial screening test was wrong and have a high suspicion for lyme disease, vets and doctors don't generally routinely send for this separate confirmatory test. Usually this happens more frequently if you live in an area where lyme is very prevalent. Unfortunately, if you are in Maryland, you are in the lyme belt, like me, so clear as mud, right? 

In a dog that has spinal stenosis that affects its hind legs (and therefore its gait), its entirely possible that the front legs could develop some arthritis because of compensatory changes in the gait. Some dogs unfortunately do get osteoarthritis at an early age, so its possible that this is whats affecting your dog, and lumbosacral stenosis generally shows up between ages 3-7. Common things being common, thats the more likely explanation, and that might be your vet's rationale. 

With that being said, I agree that its not as typical to see a dog with arthritis at such an early age. Its also odd to have limping in the hind legs so rapidly leading to limping in the front legs (I might think it would take a while of a dog favoring one leg, many months to years) for it to affect another leg. Which does raise the question...is there something systemic going on (like an infection...like lyme or RMSF) that is affecting the joints. 

I think the other question, is how are the dog's hips and elbows, knees etc? Do you have specific imaging of those joints? Did your vet tell you that the spinal stenosis looked bad enough that this could be causing his symptoms? If you have imaging, and none of it shows changes that could explain your dogs limping, I think a second opinion, possibly from someone who specializes in orthopedics might be helpful. If it seems like there isn't a good explanation, then it might be worth considering extra investigation for lyme.


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