Hello,
my chow rear left foot is going to be x-rayed soon because of intermittent and temporary limping. A previous visit to the vet did not reveal anything. There is no pain when I apply pressure when he was limping and at the vet he was walking normally and a quick visual check did not reveal anything.
He does not put his left rear paw down sometimes.
He will need to be asleep for the X-ray because he does not lie down on the side for anyone.
Should I tell the vet to also x-ray the hips to discover any possible future problems ?
Thanks,
Frank

It sounds very much like a knee injury of the type Ted mentions.  There are many things that can be done for this.  A cruciate ligament injury will not show up on an xray though unfortunately.  The three legged walk or toe touching is often a sign and also a bunny hop when they go over the edge of the door frame to go outside.  They pull the leg up from the hip because the knee does not bend well enough.

I hope that I am wrong and it may be something much simpler but if not there are alternatives to surgery that the vet will not tell you about and will most probably not aprove of but they work.  I have had my orthovet saying "it must be a miracle" in the past because they do not want to admit that you can heal cruciate damage without surgery.  Where are the megabucks in that for them?

Will they also do a drawer test for the knees?  This allows them to feel how much movement there is in the joint and is really the only way to know if the knees are damaged without ultrasound or surgery.  Please keep us posted on how you get on.

Thank you Ted and Sirchow for your quick and very
informative replies.
I will pass by the vet's office and ask if he can do the
knee drawer test when my boy is asleep and whether
he has the ultrasound equipment to inspect the knee.
I do not like the idea of surgery and if an alternative
is well grounded, I will prefer it. I will have to read up
on the matter.
Thanks again,
Frank

Hi Frank--,

I hope you got some indications what might be the problem.
Ted was speaking about YouTube...

Here is a video to what I'm suspecting..Cruciate Ligament rupture...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jg9E2nBt_E

and a surgery:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nU2QZjjByg&NR=1

Peter

Thanks for asking, Peter.
I was able to track down Sirchow mention of Conservative
Management and decided to give him a rest from his daily walk.
So since Tuesday, he has not limped. I gave him a 1/2 hr walk
on Saturday morning. No limp during the day.
On Sunday, I wanted to be sure I was not wasting time in
getting proper vet treatment and I let him run during a 1 hr walk.
No visible problem. But in the afternoon, I saw him hop for a few
steps. And he does not put his full weight on the bad left rear leg.
But it will support him when I lift the good rear right leg.
So I will impose his rest more severely for a couple of weeks
and see how it goes.
I was going to post some pictures yesterday but I am using
Picasa now and the links to embed pictures have a lot of
capital letters and this site will not allow it.

FNG303 wrote on Feb 9^th, 2010 at 7:00am:


Dear Frank,
Maybe I have not read everything well so missed a point, then apologies for the misunderstanding.
But to test a dog suspected of a hindleg problem by exercising him, does not seem wise to me.

When a Chow is limping, the normal thing to expect is a cruciate ligament problem, as several people before me have argued.
Best is to take this very seriously.
So visit the vet and have the dog properly examined.

When you wait, the limping might diminish.
When the problem is indeed damage in the cruciate ligament the reason for no more limping could be that the dog gets used to his limitations and adapts his way of moving. Most times temporarily, as minor damages in the ligament in time might become larger or even end up in a final rupture.
But the failure in the construction will stay and cause the meniscus to be hurt. The development of arthrosis which always accompanies malfunction of a joint will continue.
In time the dog might suffer from a combination of problems and then the pain will be undeniable, even for a Chow.

There are many techniques to operate the knee. Which is the best depends of the weight of the dog, the purse of the owner and the expertise of the (specialist) vet.

Kind regards and please be careful with your Chow!

I am so sorry to hear this latest news.     I hope you can find a combination of suplements that will help to keep him comfortable.  It is so hard to see our babies in pain.

Good luck with all this. I hope you will be able to deal with his pain. I'm sure that with research and time you will.
Paula