Sprained Or Strained Muscle?

[Guest GreytMuse]

Atticus was playing fetch in the yard last night and all of a sudden started yelping and holding his left leg up off the ground. We had a very bad night -- virtually no sleep, yelping and screaming when getting up or down or changing position while laying, lots of panting. Poor, poor guy. We camped out next to him all night on the floor, since that seemed to calm him down.

 

The leg seems to bother him least when walking, and he will put his weight on the leg to walk. He does yelp when the ground is uneven. Upon examination, he has no discoloring inside his thighs, no asymmetrical lumps, nothing in his pads or toes, nails or webbing. This is the same leg where he had his career-ending hock injury, but the fact that he is bearing weight on it makes me think it isn't the hock re-injured.

 

I called the e-vet last night and they said it sounds like a pulled muscle, and the most they could do was offer pain meds. Do you think this warrants an e-vet visit today, or a regular vet visit tomorrow?

 

The good news is we got him to eat this morning, which gives me hope that it's just a muscle injury. Is that what it sounds like to you all? Any experience with this?

 

My apologies if this is rambling, but I am working on very little sleep here!

[TheFullHouse]

If there's no swelling or bruising, I would think it could wait until you can see your regular vet, especially if he's putting weight on it. He may have a soft tissue injury that will get better with time. That's usually what happens when they're running and hurt themselves. If he's still limping badly tomorrow I'd have the vet check it.

[CaliforniaGreys]

I would think it could wait as well. I deal with pulled muscles all the time here. What I have found to be a big help(as well as pain meds of course) is to massage the area with Traumeel gel. I'm not a big fan of homeopathic remedies but this one really does help. The vet who does our acupuncture told me about using it.