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724368 tn?1230914361

rottweiler 1yr hurt leg . limping .back right leg

my 1yr rottweiler was playing chasey with a dog at the dog park when my dog layed down (gave in) being the other dog was being too playful and she yelped. she started to limp. we rested her for 3 weeks and gave her an aspirin a day for a week only (shes been on hip & joint tablets since she was 5mths - no reason i just thought theyd help her to stay strong, prevent future hip probs etc) she seemed better after 3 weeks, i took her to dog park, walked her there she seemed okay, she started playing running with dogs and yelped again, she limped pretty bad on back right leg same leg as before.  i now have her at home resting again and i believe i will rest her for about 2mths this time before taking her aroudn other dogs, i am giving her 1 aspirin a day although im pretty nervous bout given her that. im unemployed so im going to take out pet insurance this week then get her to the vet asap.

any advice in the meantime, ps ive also brought some hip and joint rub on glucosamine by vetsbest.

let me also mention im not sure if its her foot, her leg or her hip, it seems sore to touch on her bottom leg but im not sure..... someone at the dog park said it looked to be her hip but im really unsure.
its been a few days since it went out the second time, shes her normal self, im noticing shes got diareeha a bit, shes walking but limping, still being her ratbag self.....
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724368 tn?1230914361
here is that link which im going to post a few times as im not sure its going to show up on here.http://www.gopetplan.com/index.html


www dot gopetplan *******

gopetplan

there you go.
Helpful - 0
724368 tn?1230914361
hi, thanks for taking the time to write, ...well i know how it is to have knee probs cuz i had a torn meniscus etc in my left knee and my knees locked up 12 times since surgery so i hope my poor baby wont have this.

today she is doing so much better, i couldnt afford to take out insurance this week as they wanted a deposit, i found an excellent pet insurance after reviewing thoroughly a tonne of them. NONE of them would cover hip dysplasia, elbow dsyplasia, or other chronic conditions to do with the muscular area etc.. I FOUND ONE ..that is petplan WOW its great it covers everything ..all conditions and its only a 2wk wait for illnesses and the day after coverage for accidents etc. with 100% covered and $100 deductable its going to cost me $66 a month for her, i dont think thats alot if its covering for life those kind of conditions. it covers everything from prescriptions, to xrays to surgery etc.
here is the link for anyone interested. I am taking out the insurance on wed as its $141 down.  i feel i am going to need it being i rang the vet the other day and it was $130 or something just for xray of the foot, prob another $40 for pain medicine, $45 for the visit and who knows what else when they find out whats wrong so to me $66 a month is not much to pay if im goin to be reimbursed for these kind of vet visits. i highly recommend this insurance to everyone being you can adjust the deductables, the percentage they pay back etc ..to suit yourself.

so after reading more on the web im wondering if my baby has a broken toe, although i cant tell but she seems to only care when you touch her foot area, her leg, her hip her knee doesnt worry her at all. ive been massaging glucasimine into her leg etc and no bother at al until i get near that one foot.  im hoping its something like this as im told 6-8 weeks if its an outer toe etc you can just leave it and it will heal however if its a middle toe or something you realy should do something about it...well im not that knowledgable but im assuming im going to want to get xrays done to know for sure.

what sux is because i dont really want to take her to the vet cuz im unemployed and really broke right now, it sux that i have to wait another 2 1/2 weeks before i can take her if im going to want the insurance to cover her, which i think will be the smart thing to do and as it is she is lookign alot better and not limping as bad. I will not just let this go though i do plan on taking her....as id like to know what was the cause of it. it sux i cant be honest to the vet though but what can you do when your broke.  if it turns out its something major the only way im going to be able to get the $$$ is to borrow and if i have insurance its going to be alot easier to get from someone if they are sure they are going to get it back....

well thanks to everyone for caring and taking the time to give me advice ...it means a lot.

xoxx sam & schatze.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Because of the expense, I hope that it isn't a meniscus or ACL issue. I hope the exam shows something else. However, I tend to agree with Myown because of the way it happened. I think soon to be vet also suggested this.

This is my first time in this forum, so I was amazed to see your question and have taken it as a sign I should share here...

As you've read, they can fix this. We've also been through it. One of our dogs is a couch potato, but he loves to sprint out the back door to harass the horses or check for deer or for no reason at all. He suddenly developed lameness in his hind leg. We had already gone through forelimb lameness issues with him and they never pinpointed anything, but we still went to the vet and they found nothing. The lameness comes and goes for a while, then I can't stand any more and take him to the specialist. He has ruptured his meniscus and torn his ACL. He had surgery in June, then blew out the other one 4 weeks later (doing nothing at all) and had to have surgery on that one, too. We were slowly walking down the driveway on leash as part of rehab and it went. The vet said that about 40% of dogs who have surgery on one leg end up having surgery on the other leg. Just an FYI. They called the procedure either TPLO or TLPO. Can't recall the initials.  

We saw an orthopedic vet who is great. I trusted him because our regular vet had sent us there before for one of our other dogs, a Dobie/hound mix, who he thought needed a hip replacement and he turned out to be very honest. I was scared to death about it. The ortho vet said since she was so comfortable most of the time that even though she has horrible dysplasia and arthritis and the x-rays were bad, he wouldn't recommend surgery. We had thought it wasn't a question of having a hip replacement but whether we'd have to do both sides. On paper, she's in sad shape. In life, she still acts like a happy, enthusiastic puppy at age 10. That consult was three years ago and she might have a few days in bitter cold weather where she limps or is slow, but otherwise she is fine in that dept. You'd never know there was anything wrong 99% of the time.  

The surgery is expensive. There's no denying that. When you get insurance and can swing it, I would still recommend it. Our dog is completely back to normal. The rehab was brutal for me but not bad for him. He is a Rott mix, weighs around 60 pounds and is always with me, including on the sofa and in bed at night. He wasn't supposed to jump or do anything strenuous for 12 weeks. I did a lot of awkward heavy lifting. Between the two surgeries, he was meant to be out of commission for 20 weeks. I did my best, wasn't always perfect, but everything turned out well. We had x-rays at 6 weeks and again at 12 weeks for each leg. There are pretty long scars which look a little scary, but that's all. I have my over-sized lap dog and part-time pillow back. He's 11 years old and our vet said to expect maybe 14 or 15 years. I was worried I'd lose him before I was anywhere near ready. The only complication we had was a week after the first surgery when he had a lot of blood/fluid draining and some infection. I hadn't massaged hard enough, so that was my fault. Second surgery, we had no trouble at all.  

(And yeah, most of my family thought we were absolutely insane to spend that much money on a dog...which would explain why I prefer the company of our animals to that of my family sometimes).

Good luck to both of you! I hope your knee is fixed soon, too.  
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724368 tn?1230914361
thanks for that, well i will be getting the pet insurance think im gonna take it out with petcare insurance . im presently trying to contact a couple of the vets that use them with the eve program, apparently the eve program allows just you to pay deductable to vet then the vet gets paid the rest, theres vets in every state on this list but alot of them just wont honor it which sux.

reason you take out insurance is cuz you cant afford the high vet bills.

alot more animals would be well and not sick if the vets would allow you to either make payments or do this eve program.


Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My husband had the meniscus operation around the same time too;o)

It's good that you will be getting it checked out. As far as money, most vets will work out a payment plan.

Hope your dogs leg gets better soon. Yours too!! ;o)

MO
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724368 tn?1230914361
hi,

funny you should say that, myself I have a torn meniscus in my left knee with ongoing probs.

Dont they say like owner like dog ???


now were both limping.

i'll have them check that out when i go to the vet, im hoping its just a sprain, or something that will heal.

i dont have money for surgery etc. let alone for myself.


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Avatar universal
I would say that it is most likely her meniscus or ACL. My dog recently passed, but several years ago she was playing with a dog and the next day started limping. I knew it had to be her leg. She was misdiagnosed by several vets that I took her to see - they kept saying it was her hip!! I knew it wasn't. Long story, but there is a strong possibility it is your dogs meniscus or ACL and IF its not diagnosed and repaired, the dog will all of a sudden seem fine because it will be putting all its weight on its good leg - then what happens is all that weight will blow out the other leg in time. My dogs Surgeon said I had more sense than the vets I had seen. Because I kept saying it was her leg and they kept saying no, it was her hip. But commone sense, it happened right after rough housing, so it wasn't hard to figure out it was the leg, but not being a Vet, I didn't know how the leg was affected, but THEY should have.

If your vet has your dog lie on the floor and gently bends his leg, he will hear a "clicking" sound if the problem is what I mentioned. This last doc I had taken her to was the ONLY doctor that did that and found the problem immediately. Go to a Specialist - Surgeon. Although the second doc I had taken her too was supposed to be a top Surgeon and he never examined her properly after I saw how it was supposed to be done (bending the leg while the dog is on her side on the floor.)

So if anyone has a dog that suddenly limps - IMO and from my experience make sure they check the meniscus and ACL. VETS should know this, but as usual, just like with doctors for people, we have to read and become experts ourselves before going in for the appointment. It's very frustrating at times.

Good luck,
MO
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724368 tn?1230914361
i stopped giving her aspirin i dont feel good about doing that without vet recommendation.
im also about to start giving her this veterinarians best rub on glucosamine stuff i brought which you rub on her and its suppose to give relief.

she is not yelping she only did that when it happened. shes her happy self, just limping and doesnt like you touching it at times.  


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Avatar universal
What you described playing and then just yelping and its not getting any better seems to me like she tore a ligament in her knee (stifle).  This stifle surgery is expensive so I would have your vet examine her - because of her size it won't just get better - if she was ten lbs and you could carry her around 24/7 that might have been an option but if its her stifle then surgery is the anwser.  I had a boxer that tore both and have worked in a clinic and we see them all the time.  It costs about $1500 but they recover good. You don't really wanna wait because they do develop arthritis if it is this.  Good Luck!
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441382 tn?1452810569
You might want to watch how much aspirin you give her.  While it's not toxic to dogs like it is to cats, it is still too rough on their stomachs to give it to them on a daily basis.  If you have to give her something for the pain, buy some Ascriptin.  It's aspirin that's coated with Maalox so that it's a lot easier on the stomach.  Either that, or use baby aspirin.  But before you continue to give her any type of medication, if she is in pain to the point where she is yelping, she needs to be seen by her vet.  She could have a serious injury, even one that needs surgical intervention, so rather than let her linger with it, get it checked out and make sure she's OK.  

Ghilly
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675347 tn?1365460645
COMMUNITY LEADER
I'm not sure that giving her aspirin is a good idea(?) I stand corrected if someone knows this is ok for dogs, but I wouldn't have thought so....
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675347 tn?1365460645
COMMUNITY LEADER
It's a good idea to take out the insurance, then get her to the vet for an examination, to check the hip joint, or other joints are all ok.
I may be wrong, but it's possible she got a bad strain (the first time when playing) wrenched a muscle or tendon (tendons can take a lot longer than muscles to heal) If so, and because of the rest, which would have helped healing, she might have lost just a little muscle-tone, so it was too easy for the weak spot to get all wrenched again.
A couple of years ago similar happened to my dog, who is manic about rushing about! I rested her sprained leg, then she went rushing around with all her bottled-up energy and set it up all over again! In her case the vet said she had pulled a tendon. It got better after a few weeks (and she was bored with gentler walks by then!) But I had to take her out on a lead while it recovered. Slowly I built up her muscle strength again by always thoroughly massaging her leg before she went out, gently stretching it out, and massaging the inner leg area too as well as the lower back, to encourage maximum circulation.  I found however with my dog, that sudden jumping around after lying still was not good, and she needed to 'warm up' her muscles a bit before running hard, as any sensible athlete would.  Sustained exercise, like dog-trot walking for 2-3 miles regularly built up her muscle-strength, but going from resting to throwing herself around too quickly caused a recurrence of trouble in the vulnerable area.
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