Not my dog but I am concerned. I came home yesterday and my landlords dog was limping very badly. He was not allowing his left rear leg to touch the ground and I saw him try to lift his leg to pee and its hard to describe the floppy half successful effort to do so…
I am no vet but I was an EMT, approached him, pet him a little and gently started palpating his leg looking for evidence of a break or wounds concealed by his fur. I did not find anything nor did he seem to protest my examination. His whole L hip area however feels kinda flaccid, and if viewed from the rear his his hindquarters looks shifted a bit to the injured L side.
My suspicion is his hip may be dislocated, mechanism of injury unknown.
Its not my dog and I could probably never afford to get him cared for if I wanted to (part of why I do not have pets) I informed the owner, she said she would check…next day no changes.
Are there any signs of a dislocation that an experienced human examiner with minimal animal experience could look for to help confirm or deny such an injury?
Thank you, Drach
Hey Drachillix:
I’ve just sent a PM to see if we can get the attention of some of the official Dope Vets. In the mean time, here are some basic questions just to clarify:
Roughly what kind of dog? Labrador-like? Chihuahua-like?
Is he old or young?
Has his limping improved any since you first noticed it? Will he touch his toes to the ground at all, or does he hold it up no matter what? Does he let it drag?
When you were palpating it, did you notice if it was hotter or warmer than the other legs? Any swelling? If so, where?
Were you able to bend any of the joints on that leg? If so, did he protest? If protest happened, when?
How is the dog otherwise as far as you can tell? Bright, lethargic, etc?
Holds it up all the time although I have seen him try a quick turn like he forgot it was hurt and he stumbles badly, the leg does not seem tobear any weight
Nothing noted of that nature.
Gently extended and retracted at the foot and “knee” didnt mess with the hip itself because it does look a little displaced. He did not protest or pull away, just kinda looked at me.
Almost annoyingly happy, I open the gate and he hops up half stumbling in the process and lopes over tail wagging like its no big deal.
Yeah, sounds an awful lot like a dislocated hip, to my marginal understanding of veterinary medicine. Kind of surprising that he isn’t more painful, but the only other case I’ve seen of a dislocated hip was a dog who also had a big chunk missing out of her thigh. If he was older, I’d be more concerned about a compressive tumor, but his being 3-4 makes that less likely. Other possibilities include a luxated patella (not quite the size of dog I’d expect, but a possibility), aseptic femoral head necrosis (again, an atypical size of dog for that problem) or a torn cruciate (this one matches the kind of dog, but patients generally stay sort of weight bearing, but might be in the acute phase with a more marked lameness). All of those have signs that are fairly subtle, so I don’t know if someone who doesn’t have specific training could pick up on them. Another option is straight up trauma. Again, you think he’d be more particular about you feeling his leg if it was out and out fractured, but maybe he’s stoic.
Short answer is that the dog needs to go to the vet and at least get some x-rays. Would it help to tell the owner that, since it hasn’t gotten better in a day, it isn’t likely to get better on it’s own and she is dooming the dog to, at best, years of discomfort?