Dog lameness; no answers. How far do I go for diagnosis?

[DawgLady]

My pit mix (10 years old) started displaying lameness about 6-8 months ago. I thought it was front end lameness. Took her to two vets for exams and imaging (one was a specialist). No answers. Shortly after, she developed acute hind end lameness. Turns out she had a torn ACL. We went through the surgery and recovery. She still limps and, to my eye, it still looks like front end lameness (although I’m no expert in dog lameness, we horse people unfortunately have some experience in this).

She’s now been to multiple vets multiple times. I’ve spent thousands of dollars. We’re no better off. She’s more comfortable when I keep her on Gabapentin, but still a 3 lameness score IMO. I’m going to have her see a natural vet. Maybe acupuncture or other alternative therapies will help.

She is still totally mobile around the house. She can get on the furniture, climb the stairs, get outside to potty. All of that is no problem. She even still enjoys a slow walk around the block (albeit a bit painfully). Eats and drinks great. Happy to be around her people.

What else can I do? How much time and money do I throw at this mystery lameness? Do I seek out more/different vet care? Or just keep her on painkillers and accept the fact that this is her life now?

[MunchingonHay]

With her age, I would be leaning towards arthritis as a possibility. How is her weight? If she is carrying a little extra padding try to get that off if possible.

My 13 yr old pittie mix gets monthly adaquan. I try to keep my guy’s nails shorter now that he has a harder time getting around on walks. Also, see if there is a vet in your area that specializes in senior / arthritis care. I am lucky to have one down the road in my small town.

[trubandloki]

I agree with Munchingonhay.

I had great luck with Adequan injections.

[kmwines01]

What diagnostics have you done? Have you done an nsaid trial? Could be soft tissue, elbow dysplasia, neck pain, neurologic dz.
Could consider seeing a rehabilitation type vet that does pt and such.

[Bonnie2]

My experience has been that dog vets don’t take unsoundness as seriously as horse people and vets. At that age I look more for quality of life than diagnostic answers. Adequan for sure. NSAIDs as needed. I just bumped my old lady up from rimadyl to galliprant. Pricey but it is working. Steroids help some things but dog vets hate to prescribe them. My dog that was finally diagnosed with a spinal cord tumor got another good month on pred. Hoping you both have many more happy days!

[DawgLady]

Sorry, guys, been MIA for a minute. We’ve been back to the vet yet again and now the dog’s on Galliprant along with her Gabapentin. I still feel like this is just a band-aid. Asked my vet about the Adequan. She’s willing to let us try it, but due to cost, she thought I should give the Galliprant a try first. It’s not helping so far (we’re on day 3).

Here’s the reason I don’t think it’s arthritis: it does NOT get better with motion. In fact, it gets worse.

I’m trying to get my vet’s referral to a local rehab vet, per the suggestion of @kmwines01.

[S1969]

What part of the country do you live in? We are lucky to have an alternative therapies vet co-located with the equine clinic now; something like this would definitely fall into the alt vet specialty areas.

But - again, hard to say how far to go for a diagnosis & treatment. It is also possible that the CCL repair isn’t really successful and that it’s contributing. If you can detect a front lameness - is it the same side, or the diagonal of the injured cruciate?

[DawgLady]

I live in NC, but not near any of the major cities (Charlotte/Raleigh) or equine clinics (Sandhills area/Tryon). But we do have a rehab vet here I intend to try.

The front end lameness is on the same side as the injured ACL. We’re 10 weeks post-surgery at this point. While she doesn’t appear to have any hind end lameness, she is still not bearing full weight on that injured leg.

[4horses]

You go as far as you are comfortable going. At this point, I would just focus on pain management and quality of life. Dogs don’t live forever. I lost Raven at 7 years old and Max at 11 years old. My shepherd is 9 years old this year and starting to have some lameness issues. We use previcox as needed and gabapentin. Even if they find the cause of the lameness it doesn’t mean it’s fixable. Would you do surgery with your dogs age and health?

She’s going to be sore if she hasn’t fully recovered from surgery so I would probably give her some more time and see if she improves and really focus on rest and rehabilitation/ pain management.

[S1969]

@DawgLady

The front end lameness is on the same side as the injured ACL. We’re 10 weeks post-surgery at this point. While she doesn’t appear to have any hind end lameness, she is still not bearing full weight on that injured leg.

Hmm. I would think it might very well be because of overuse to compensate then. What is the normal expectation for full recovery time?

[stargzng386]

Contact the best agility dog training facility near you and say you have a dog with a lameness issue do they have a vet and chiro or massage therapist recommendation? The sports vets are the ones that will treat it more like a horse lameness and you’ll find them through word of mouth. The chiropractor that treats dogs at the agility facility I used to take classes out is a vet plus chiro/acupuncture and has fixed my one dog when no one could figure it out. My dog was limping on a front leg and lethargic and painful. My regular vet didn’t know what it was and referred us to an orthopedic vet who couldn’t tell what it was and recommended an mri. The mri results showed nothing and they scanned her whole body. I went to the chiro vet and she found a rib out of place, one dramatic adjustment later she popped it back in and my dog hopped off the table totally sound. The agility group also have some great supplement and at home therapy recommendations. The group I know keep their elderly dogs comfortable for far longer than the typical backyard owner.