How Can You Tell Which Leg Hurts?

[Guest Greensleeves]

I realize that might seem like a stupid question, but sometimes you can tell they're *limping* or just a little off, but it's hard to see, just from their gait, what hurts. (We had this problem constantly with Whistler--he'd seem to come up lame on one of his front legs, and it turned out to be LSS!)

 

This morning, Flint (age 7, Nelly's son) had trouble getting up on the couch. It was almost like he couldn't remember what to do--he'd walk up to the sofa, look at it, kind of start to lift his front leg to hop on, and then stop, looking confused. He seems fine walking and going up stairs, manipulating his legs doesn't seem to hurt anywhere particular... I want the vet to look at him, but at this point I don't have anything specific or useful to tell them!

 

For a minute I wondered if it might be a vision problem, but I tossed him a kibble, and he caught it just fine.

 

Any suggestions for more "diagnostic tests" we can do at home?

[Guest Hokiebuck]

I realize that might seem like a stupid question, but sometimes you can tell they're *limping* or just a little off, but it's hard to see, just from their gait, what hurts. (We had this problem constantly with Whistler--he'd seem to come up lame on one of his front legs, and it turned out to be LSS!)

 

This morning, Flint (age 7, Nelly's son) had trouble getting up on the couch. It was almost like he couldn't remember what to do--he'd walk up to the sofa, look at it, kind of start to lift his front leg to hop on, and then stop, looking confused. He seems fine walking and going up stairs, manipulating his legs doesn't seem to hurt anywhere particular... I want the vet to look at him, but at this point I don't have anything specific or useful to tell them!

 

For a minute I wondered if it might be a vision problem, but I tossed him a kibble, and he caught it just fine.

 

Any suggestions for more "diagnostic tests" we can do at home?

 

 

My vet told me that you can tell which front leg because they tend to lower their head on the foot that hurts. Meaning if they put the left foot forward and it hurts, then the head will lower during that foot strike (make sense?) Does the couch have any pillows or blankets on it that are rearranged? I know my GH looked at my bed a little differently when the sheets are messed up or there is a pillow in the way.

[Guest GreysAndMoreGreys]

What Hokiebuck said. They will have a head bob that matches what leg or foot is bothering them.

Might be easier to have someone walk your hound away from you and then back toward you so you can really focus on what leg the bob is matching.

[Guest LynnM]

This may sound silly, but if I have a dog with a slight limp that I can't quite place, I narrow it down to front end or back end, and then I watch him walk. Then *I* walk in the same rhythm the dog is using. When I'm "limping", I can figure out which leg I'm keeping the weight off of.

 

Lynn

[Guest Greensleeves]

Thanks. After further observation, we're not even sure it's a leg issue. When we talked about calling the vet, I said to DH, "Tell them what? He forgot how to get on the couch? What are they going to do about that?" And the more we talked, we started wondering if it's maybe not an ear problem related to his allergies--a pressure and/or equilibrium issue. We'll be watching him over the next day or so to try and figure this out and have *something* useful to bring to the vets.

[Guest Snazzy_Chloe]

This is a similar question I asked myself a month ago..

I knew it was a front leg, and I noticed that one leg moved quickly (took a quick step) while the other seemed more normal. The leg that moved quickly is the good leg, as the dog is trying to keep as much of his weight on that leg for as long a period of time as possible. The other leg is the one that is hurting and the dog does not want to be putting weight on.