Anything other than cruciate ligament damage?

[stowsettler]

My 10yo boy hurt his leg yesterday, overdoing it a bit with his new ball. All of a sudden he started carrying his back left leg, although he didn't yelp at all when he did it. He's a (largish) JRT. Last night he got himself in a bit of a state so I called the out of hours vet, who advised a little bit of paracetamol, which calmed him down a treat and obviously helped with the pain.
This morning I took him in to the vet, and after examining him agreed that it was his knee, and that she couldn't rule out cruciate ligament damage. She gave him a jab and he has Metacam from tonight, but she said that she would expect to see some improvement within 24 hours, provided it WASN'T his CL.
Although he's calm now, eating, drinking and toileting normally, he still shows no inclination to try putting any weight on his leg. I'm very worried that it is CL damage, because of this seeming lack of progress.
Am I being too impatient? If so, what else could it be?
TIA.

We had a cruciate with one of ours at a smiliar age. The op went well albeit quite expensive and 3 month recovery time, but was then back to his normal self. Hopefully in your case it is more of a sprain.

CL injury or global knee injury is by far and away the most common injury to occur in the situation you describe. There is lots and lots of evidence that in dogs that weigh less than 15kg it is best to try 6 weeks of rest and anti-inflams before surgery if it is CL. If the that doesn't resolve it small dogs don't need the TPLO or TTA ( expensive ones) they do really well with lateral fabella tie about 800 in most places. Global knee injury though needs referral and is expensive to fix.

Thanks for that, very helpful - and reassuring. He's just under 15kg and well insured so it's not looking too bad financially then. I just hope he copes with any potential long rest! He's not the most relaxed of dogs, needs his exercise!
Looks like a return trip to the vets tomorrow, but still praying for an overnight miracle and some improvement.
Thanks again Lonecat & Garnier.

Let us know how you get on today. Fingers crossed.

Well, he seems a bit better today. Still not putting much weight on it, but noticeably less protective of that leg. He's not dragging it, but actually holding it off the ground - so I'm hopeful that it may be that nothing's actually ruptured in there.
I spoke to the vet this morning, rather than going in, and she agreed we should give him a few more days on the Metacam and rest him up, and see how he goes. Feeling a bit more hopeful today - although I do think he'll need some sort of ongoing treatment.

I've got a collie cross and she has done both her CL she had to have an op both times. She has done well but can't sit quite right and sometimes struggles jumping up on to the bed (she used to be a great jumper). She is a bit stiff at times but then she is getting old now so could be that too. She didn't drag her leg either, just held it up also she didn't seem to be a lot of discomfort either before or after the op and it was a struggle keeping her quiet but i managed first time with a baby and second time with a toddler. I hope everything goes well.

OK, so my boy goes under the knife tomorrow, confirmed as CL damage. I'm dreading it. I was a blubbering mess when I picked him up after his X-ray last Thursday and I'm already getting quite tearful at the thought of what's to come. The worst thing about it is that he'll probably have to stay in overnight tomorrow - he's quite a nervous dog at the best of times, I can't imagine how he'll feel.
I know I'm daft, blame the pregnancy hormones, but I just want tomorrow to be over and my boy back with me.