Dog is favoring hind right leg, insight requested

[MunchingonHay]

I need some help. Buma, my 105lb, 8yr old Ridgeback hurt herself the other week by playing too hard and she did a righthanded pirouette, and I feel pulled/strained some soft tissue on that leg near her stifle.

She has since been to the vet where they did x-rays just in case and that showed no break, no arthritis, joints all look good, from her hips to her toes. So they agreed that she had a soft tissue sprain/strain and we came home with Rimadyl and Gabapentin. We did the first course and she was back to normal self.

Fast forward to the end of last week. She started her heat and needs to wear her panties in the house. The first day she had to wear her panties, she cried out in pain when she tried to lay down and I feel its because the velco strap that goes in front of the stifle put pressure on the soft tissue that is causing her pain. She then held her leg up like she could not put it down.

Additional insight on Buma.

• She has a gumball sized lump on the outside of her right hindleg. There is some muscle atrophy on that side along her back end as well as along her flank/barrel on that side
• She will stand square in the front and her left hind leg, but the right will be off to the side more for balance than holding herself up
• She refuses to lay down. She will stand, pace around and cry and will only lay down when she exhausts herself.

She is not active, never has been. (hence why she is 105lbs ). Very rarely will she run and if she does its not for very long. Just a few strides.

She is back on rimadyl and gaba, but it stops this week.

I have a horrible feeling that its cancer. I know I am probably jumping to conclusions. She has other small lumps in other places as well, but the muscle atrophy and her not wanting to use the leg makes me feel something deeper is going on. f

I mentioned to the vet about the lump and they did not seem to care about her lump.

Personally, I am a in a position to run a bunch of tests to see what is going on. If its cancer I won’t do chemo, and I am not removing her leg. I am not writing her off either, but I want her to be comfortable.

Can dogs be on Gaba and Rimadyl forever? She is not comforable currently.

What questions can I ask the vet when I call them when the drug run out on Friday?

[endlessclimb]

Did they check for any CCL issues?

[MunchingonHay]

Not that I am aware of.

[endlessclimb]

I believe that’s manual palpation - I’d make sure they rule that out.

[MunchingonHay]

I will bring that up when I speak with them. I am going to make an appt for Friday.

She does not do well with SX. and I am super afraid of losing her on the table due to her age and weight. We just had 2 molar extractions and she needed four times the amount to knock her out.

Can a dog be on Gaba and Rimadyl for the rest of their lives?

[endlessclimb]

I’m sure they can. I know my sister’s pitbull was on it for years.

[stargzng386]

They can and usually you can increase the gaba dose. There are meds you can add as well. It might be worth seeing a specialist who deals more with lameness even if it’s an ortho. They’ll just have a better skill set to palpate and manipulate to figure out what’s wrong.

[MunchingonHay]

We have an appt tomorrow. I will bring that up too.

[GoodTimes]

The x-rays likely would have ruled out bone cancer. If they sedated to do the x-rays than they likely would have done the “drawer test”, palpation, etc at the same time to check for a full CCL tear, but certainly ask if they did in fact do that.

My guess is that it’s a partial tear. Soft tissue injuries can take quite awhile to heal. I went through something similar with my then 9yo dog last fall. After we determined via x-rays and palpation/manipulation of the stifle and hock under sedation that it was likely a partial tear of the CCL, we put her on house arrest. No jumping, short leash walks only. Did that for about a month, at which point she was sound, so we slowly reintroduced exercise.
I loosely followed the CCL post-surgical rehab protocol.

[clipclop12]

Our 4 year old cattle dog mix was a little lame on her right hind about 2 months ago. We adopted a new puppy and so she started running/playing a lot with the new dog. Four days in she was gimpy. I’m thinking - great, she blew her CCL in all the play with her new puppy brother. We already had an appointment on the books for her annual exam/vaccines so I asked the vet to look at her hind legs. And surprisingly, the vet said both CCLs felt normal/fully intact (she was not sedated, so there wasn’t a full drawer test done but vet did manipulate and feel all her hind leg). The vet said torn CCLs are a super common cause of hind end lameness but dogs can also just be muscle sore. So thankfully in our case, it would appear she was just sore from an increase in new activity level. We did lots of walks and ball fetch prior to the new pupper showing up but these two peas in a pod are sprinting up and down the yard full speed and lots of wrestling - so a very different type of activity (high intensity). We separated them for about a week for their walks/outside time and she’s good as new now.

I hope the vet can confirm/deny they checked the CCLs. It would be surprising that they didn’t check the CCLs at the first visit since it’s the most common reason for hind end lameness but who knows… Getting confirmation of this would hopefully let you start piecing the puzzle together.

The vet also mentioned luxating patella as a cause of hind end lameness in dogs (something else she was looking for when manipulating/feeling our dogs legs). When you say her leg is held up like it can’t go back down - maybe her patella is moving around and getting stuck? Usually a dog will kind of skip to get the patella back in place but maybe hers is “especially luxating” and so it gets a bit more stuck making it hard/painful to put her leg back down normally? Just my own thoughts (as I’m not a vet and never played on on TV).

Jingles for your pupper! Hopefully it’s something you can pinpoint soon.

[MunchingonHay]

Thank you for sharing your experience.

its good to know cancer would have been seen in the X-ray. They did sedate her. I will ask if they did any additional palpation/manipulation while they had her.

The vets at this office are not very proactive and do not do any more than what is necessary which drives me bonkers.

@clipclop12, I did mention her patella. But he ruled it out when I was there the other week. Because that is exactly what it looked like. Its like she can’t put it down. And when I put her period panties on her, the strap goes right along the stifle / patella area which triggered her earlier this week. So now I am confining her to one dog bed, (if she will lay down) and only one room in the house due to her not wanting to wear her panties.

[endlessclimb]

Our CCL dog was 3 legged lame. We got lucky and she was in for surgery within a week - I know others have had to wait months.

[MunchingonHay]

Well, we are back from the vet with no real news.

• He and all of the staff (there are 7 vets) all studied Buma’s x-rays from the other week. And they all agree that nothing is jumping out at them on what could be wrong. Her joints look remarkably well and sound for a dog her age and breed.
• CCL / ACL all good
• Her patella feels nice and tight with no play or movement behind normal ROM.
• There is muscle loss and lameness along with pain but no one knows where its coming from and what joint is causing the issue
• she is on the highest dose of gabba and rimadyl
• ortho specialist was mentioned, and it would be someone down in the Norristown Pa area as well as U of Penn.

The vet believes she has some sort of neurological muscle deterioration is going on.

She is 8.5 yrs old. I am not in a position to pour money into her. I love her and it breaks my heart; if she was half the age… maybe, but not at 8.5. I will keep her comfortable for as long as I can.