We took Spencer to our family vet today. He doesn’t think that this is anything serious, most likely a soft tissue injury or some sort of sprain. Spencer was running around FINE last night around midnight. When he got up this morning and had the limp I at first thought that maybe his leg was asleep; but when it didn’t get better in 10 minutes I realized that couldn’t be the problem.
He is bearing SOME weight on it; but about every third step he tries to hop along with only 2 legs.
The vet is doubtful that it is a break or fracture since for a dog Spencer’s size that would usually be an injury that kept them from putting any weight on the leg. His hip seems fine and so does his foot. No obvious injuries to the foot.
We went ahead and left him overnight at the vet for them to be able to observe him and in the morning they are going to run him to their other office for digital x-rays (the office we normally go to is about to move, the building they are in can’t handle the power needs for the digital x-ray machine that they already bought). That way we can at least have a baseline x-ray and can hopefully rule out any bone problems.
I’ll be honest, I am a little worried since this last tumor started with Spencer having a slight limp. That was the only symptom he had in June; but the limp quickly got better and I didn’t give it a second thought until August when we found the tumor. Who knows if that limp actually had anything to do with the cancer…
The vet thinks it is unlikely that this is a new tumor since Spencer has been on chemo for 15 weeks. There is definitely nothing that we can see.
The dog/house sitter will be picking Spencer up from the vet tomorrow (hopefully). The vet doesn’t expect any surprises and really, if most dogs had gone in with this they would at most have gone home with an NSAID and told to watch it and not be too crazy. But… between Spencer being a tripaw and the cancer… we are just being cautious.
My youngest daughter didn’t want to have Spencer stay and didn’t want the dog sitter picking Spencer up tomorrow. She said she wasn’t sure if she could trust him with taking good care of Spencer. haha We went over and hung out with the sitter for a bit and she feels better now.
If something bad does come up tomorrow, I’ll likely fly back from our trip. Luckily my mom and step dad are going with us, so they can stay with the kids and get them to all of their ski lessons and stuff. But I sure hope I don’t have to miss all of it!
I’ll update tomorrow night once I know how the x-rays come back (and I’m settled at the rental house).
Sending positive thoughts your way for good x-ray results!
Keeping the pawsitive thoughts flowing. Yes, any other dog would go home w/ NSAIDs, but also any other dog would be on 4 legs and not have so much extra stress on that leg. I really really really hope it is just overuse injury and nothing more (and hope that you can enjoy your vacation!).
Abby had an overuse injury w/ her remaining front leg this summer and it scared the heck out of me. I thought the cancer had spread and the end was nigh! But the Power of Pawsitive Thinking from Team Tripawds helped out and it was just a toe injury. She was back to her old self in no time after a bit of rest. Here’s hoping Spencer is in the same situation!
All the best,
Jackie, Abby’s mom