WWYD Vet or no vet? - dog not bearing weight on back leg after accident

[WeAllHaveWings]

I think I worry about our 4 year old labrador when he gets hurt than ds! Probably because ddog is so placid it is difficult to judge if he is in any pain.

Yesterday when out walking off lead he came running towards me, jumped over some long grass and I assume landed awkwardly. He was screaming in pain for a few minutes, holding his back left leg up and then just lay down on the ground. I checked his leg over and no external injuries and he didn't flinch when I moved it about, I got him up and he still wouldn't put it down and was shaking, his leg below the knee was floppy/swinging and he lay back down. I called dh to come and pick us up in the car as I honestly thought he'd broken/dislocated something.

Ddog was still on the ground by the time dh arrived (5 mins), but when he got up leg seemed ok. He was walking on it and I couldn't see any noticeable limp.

Today, still cant see any noticeable limp and all looks/feels okay, but just noticed he had a limp when going downstairs in front of me.

If I lift his back left (sore) leg its fine I can move about and he doesn't react. If I lift his good leg he cant bear his weight on his sore leg alone and he has to sit down.

Should I take to the vet or give it a few days? Hate to think he might need treatment or be in pain but not showing it.

Just had an update from the vet, the good news is it looks like his cruciate is ok, but I am now thinking it would have been better being his cruciate as it would have been a short term issue which could be fixed

We pick him up at 5pm tonight and I need to know if there are questions I need to ask.

She says, he has problems with his patella, it is quite "crunchy" (whatever that means!), and they think his knee has popped out on both occasions. X-Rays show he is bow legged at the back which wont help the weight balance on the joints. This morning he is not lame again.

They are recommending conservative treatment for now, lose 5-6kgs (he had a health check just 3 months ago and they said his weight was fine) to make him very lean, metacam for pain, anti inflammatory, yumove advanced joint care, rest and slowly building up his exercise again. If that doesn't help then they will look at referring to see if more invasive treatment would help.

Does that all sound ok, are there questions I should be asking?

We will need get a stair gate and keep him off the stairs for the foreseeable and restrict him to lead only walks. Will cut his food back 10-15%, he rarely gets treats (or so I thought as dh has just admitted to feeding him slices of ham or bits of cheese from the fridge daily which I've never seen him doing before and these will be banned now!).

Lots of dogs have luxating patellas , my dog has bilateral issues . There are a few different options for surgery but we have decided to treat ours conservatively , so I keep his weight down , don't let him jump ( except for on and off furniture ) , do lots of walking up and down stairs / hills which build up the muscles apparently and also feed him a joint supplement . So far this has worked well for ours but he is only a 13kg terrier , surgery might be a better option for a larger , weightier dog .

Dog was ok today, up until 6pm, he was lying down, got up and let our a scream and was lame again and panting extremely heavily seemed very distressed. . Phoned vets which doesn't shut till 7pm and took him straight down.

Vet says knee joints etc are all in place but his leg is so tensed up/rock solid they couldn't feel much else. Back home with tramadol. If the tramadol doesn't keep him comfortable we've got another appointment at 9am tomorrow, otherwise we have enough tramadol for the weekend and an appointment Monday afternoon.

I forgot to ask the vet if I should still give him his metacam tomorrow morning. Are they ok to take together?

Is she showing any other symptoms like wobbliness on his backs legs, tenseness or tenderness of his abdomen or back/neck?

DDog2 has IVDD and that initially manifested with sudden pain (including yelping when she got up), stiffness of her back legs (which was much worse in one than the other) plus being really tensed up around her abdomen and over her back. It was initially misdiagnosed as arthritis in her hips and it wasn't until they did an x-ray of her back that they spotted the problematic disc.

It's always the one side and same knee. Once it settles down he is ok, but horrible when he is looking so distressed. Tramadol has kicked in and he's sound asleep now.

Mines never been distressed by his knees , he is a bit stiff / limps occasionally if he's overdone it but that's all , sounds like surgery might be a better option for yours .

An update if anyone is interested. Ddog has ongoing issues with his knee popping out every couple of days. He's scheduled for surgery at Broadleys veterinary hospital in Stirling in mid October. I was surprised it was Stirling but met someone from the local gundog club and they have given the orthopaedic vet at my local practice and the surgeon in Stirling a glowing reference so sounds good. Our vet says he could do the surgery now but because he is a large dog, and we have insurance, Stirling will use different techniques which will give him the best long term outcome so it is better to wait. Vet bill so far is already >£450.

Until then we are continuing metacam/ yumove, careful on lead walking and have fitted a stair gate. we have tramadol but haven't been using as we can usually pop it back in ourselves within a couple of minutes. It's going to be a long 5 weeks waiting and not sure yet what to expect post surgery, local vet has already suggested hydrotherapy which our insurance covers for 10 sessions, but we'll need to pay the rest at £30-£50 a session, but If that's the only thing the insurance doesn't cover that's ok.