# Dog limping on front leg...advice



## DeputyDawg (Nov 27, 2006)

Wondering if anyone can give me their thoughts on what maybe causing my 4yr old lab to limp on his front leg. He will limp one day and then he maybe fine for the next. Then he will go back to limping for the next couple of days. Ive checked his paw and the leg and see nothing wrong. My wife and I let him sleep in bed with us and he jumps down alot. I suspect that when he lands on the front legs is when he injures himself. Somedays he limps like an old man and other days its just a slight limp. Nothing wrong with the back legs. We dont do any field trials or any serious training. He's just my buddy that goes out hunting with me once in awhile. I know that eventually I will have to take him in to see a vet, but I am hoping someone may give me an idea of whats wrong and maybe some type of treatment. 

Thanks for any advice.


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## Bustin' (Jun 5, 2007)

I had a female that the vet noticed a slight favor of one leg even though the other had a soy bean stalk stuck in between her toes. I had her elbows x-rayed for OFA a few weeks later and there was arthritis starting, at only 2 years old. Just a thought?


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## DeputyDawg (Nov 27, 2006)

Ive checked his paw, and nothing wrong. When he was a pup he poked a hole in between his toes and that caused an infection. So that was something I looked at first. It seems to me that its around what I would call his ankle area on his right front leg. Once in a while I will see him lick that area so that is why I think its that area.


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## Jim Person (Jan 5, 2003)

could be a tick disease like lyme.


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## Guest (Feb 9, 2012)

Mine went on for a few years like this finally found out he had a biceps tear.


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## Bridget Bodine (Mar 4, 2008)

Things that COULD be wrong
Shoulder OCD
soft tissue injury
Elbow Dysplasia
Lyme Disease
issues in the foot

So read that it could be MANY things

You won't know unless you go to a vet and have appropriate testing done


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## Jim Person (Jan 5, 2003)

Agree on the soft tissue injury too. I have a dog thet took a tumble in a hunt test a couple years ago and hurt her leg/shoulder. To this day it still bothers her from time to time. I really hjave to loosten her up and warm her up before we run.


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## jeff t. (Jul 24, 2003)

DeputyDawg said:


> Wondering if anyone can give me their thoughts on what maybe causing my 4yr old lab to limp on his front leg. He will limp one day and then he maybe fine for the next. Then he will go back to limping for the next couple of days. Ive checked his paw and the leg and see nothing wrong. My wife and I let him sleep in bed with us and he jumps down alot. I suspect that when he lands on the front legs is when he injures himself. Somedays he limps like an old man and other days its just a slight limp. Nothing wrong with the back legs. We dont do any field trials or any serious training. He's just my buddy that goes out hunting with me once in awhile. I know that eventually I will have to take him in to see a vet, but I am hoping someone may give me an idea of whats wrong and maybe some type of treatment.
> 
> Thanks for any advice.


First thing to do is stop allowing him to jump down from the bed, your vehicle, or any elevated surface. Lift and lower the dog instead. You can also make or buy steps that lead to the bed and train the dog to use them instead of jumping down. 

It could be a shoulder, elbow, carpal or foot. Hopefully your vet can palpate or identify the problem via radiograph. If not, an orthopedic specialist would be the next step (if not the first step).

Here is a link that describes shoulder injuries and their treatment
http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/pdf/Proof_ShoulderConditionsa.pdf

Here is a link to the elbow injury known as "jump down syndrome"
http://vetsportsmedicine.com/surgery/documents/JumpDownSyndrome.pdf

Lastly, here is an article on carpal injuries
http://www.vetsportsmedicine.com/surgery/documents/CarpalAndTarsalInjuries.pdf

I wish I wasn't so familiar with all of these.

Good luck


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## frontier (Nov 3, 2003)

Periodic limping that's chronic can be a number of things, but a vet consult is the first step or perhaps an ortho vet 

I've had that type of limping be something as simple as pano (usually in a younger dog 4-12 months of age)

4-year old had chronic limping... ortho vet discovered the cause with a fluid tap and culture... chronic infection in the shoulder joint that required over 90 days of treatment with a specific antibiotic.. problem solved = no recurrence

limping - at least 2 times has been both Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Erchliosis when tick profile results came back
once treated for proper time, problem resolved


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## Julie R. (Jan 13, 2003)

I've had my share of mystery lameness problems. Lyme disease is fairly common around here and accounted for several cases of on/off limping. Last summer my most accident prone dog started limping on one front leg; it would come and go and was more pronounced on gravel or hard surfaces. 

We went to several vets, did xrays, palpations, saw a specialist; none of them found anything. When she first started limping I looked closely at her feet (because she's had split nails/pad cuts) and saw what looked like a tiny, pinpoint sized mark on one pad that may or may not have been a cut--vets didn't think it had anything to do with the limp. 

After a couple weeks of the slight lameness she came up 3-legged lame and I went back to the vets, and we definitely figured out it was in her foot, since she's a screaming drama queen and let us know it hurt when palpated. Nothing showed up on xray, and we still couldn't figure out what hurt, exactly or why. Two or three days later, when I came downstairs to let her out of her crate there was an incredibly foul stench and she'd chewed the entire pad off the lame foot overnight. Took her back to vet's and we figured she must've had something in her pad (via that original tiny dot I'd seen) and it abcessed and eventually got so painful she chewed her pad off. Never did find out what it was, but the limp went away shortly after although it took forever for that pad to grow back.


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## DeputyDawg (Nov 27, 2006)

Wow...Julie...I checked his pad and I cant see anything. All day today he looks normal. come tomorrow he could be fine and then he will start to limp again. I will get him in soon, he needs his shots anyway so I'll do it all at the same time. 

Thanks


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## Julie R. (Jan 13, 2003)

DeputyDawg said:


> Wow...Julie...I checked his pad and I cant see anything. All day today he looks normal. come tomorrow he could be fine and then he will start to limp again. I will get him in soon, he needs his shots anyway so I'll do it all at the same time.
> 
> Thanks


Hope your dog doesn't have what mine did; that gnawed-off pad took forever to grow back. If I hadn't noticed that tiny pinprick on her pad at the beginning of the lameness, we'd never have seen it because it was tiny & only visible for a day or two. Vet thinks something like a splinter must've have gotten in her pad, the entry place healed over and it started festering deep in her pad. If you do think your dog's limp is from something similar, you could try soaking the foot in epsom salts to draw the abcess out.


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## Guest (Feb 10, 2012)

Mine was fine for a day, a week, several months it just came and went . Several vets saw him it wasn't diagnosed until I took him to an Orthopedic surgeon even than x rays didnt show since it was soft tissue he said we could do a 3500 MRI than go in and fix it or just go in find it and fix it which we did.


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## SueLab (Jul 27, 2003)

My current dog limped for many months, had his front end scoped...$3,000.00 later the ortho vet stated that he was "pristine". No diagnosis was made. 

Rather than retiring him, I was told about a vet that was on the greyhound board. I finally took him to that an ortho vet that dealt with greyhounds (and was retired from Tx A & M). The problem was arthritis in a front toe. He had also sprained his wrist trying to protect the toe.

I was told that this is a really common problem with all performance dogs (arthritis in the foot and toes) but is not often diagnosed correctly. The treatment was DMSO solution on the problem joint and rest for 1 week, limited activity for another week. The dog has had no more problems.

A friend had a similiar problem and it was not diagnosed until they also went to a vet that took care of greyhounds in Al. or Ms.

Just a thought...


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## skelso (Apr 29, 2009)

As others have said, lots of possible issues that can cause a dog to limp in the front end...

One thing I keyed on in your OP is the fact that you don't run tests or do regular training with him. What's his weight? Do you keep him trim or is he overweight from lack of activity? 

My girlfriend has a mutt she rescued just before we started dating. He would occassionaly limp in his front end. When I asked my vet about it he explained that dogs when sitting put something like 60% of their body weight on their front feet. When they jump down from a height (bed, truck, etc) they land with 100% of their body weight on their front feet.

Think about this, just 6 pounds off a 60 pound dog is 10% of his body weight. How much better would most of us feel if we were even 10% lighter? 

I trimmed him down a bit and keep him from jumping off the bed, tailgate, etc and haven't had any issues since.


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## GG (Jan 29, 2006)

Lyme diseasde is inexpensive to treat and a strong possibality---do it!!!!!!!!!!
GG


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## Steve Hester (Apr 14, 2005)

One of my females came up limping once. I noticed a sore on the bottom of her pad that was oozing a little. Took her to the vet. She had a grass awn that had migrated about 1 1/2 inches up her leg. The vet went in through her foot, up her leg, and dug it out. She healed fine. Damned grass awns!!


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## David McCracken (May 24, 2009)

Jim Person said:


> could be a tick disease like lyme.


X2. Make sure you run all the tests.


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