My little 16 week old girl started limping and holding up her back left leg yesterday. I have never had tendon or ligament issues in almost 10 years of breeding. I looked carefully at paw, leg, and pad and see nothing. It came on very suddenly. Any ideas? We have a vet appointment on Thursday.

I'm sorry to hear about your pup. Pano maybe?

I have her on crate rest. Anything else I should be doing for her before vet sees her?

It could be OCD in the hock. Torn cruciates don't usually happen at this age.

I would say Cosequin . I don't like to offer other meds, but if you are seeing the vet - they might offer anti inflammatory drug and pain reliever

I am leaning towards Pano as her right leg seems sore this morning, but that could be due to it bearing all the weight. I'll have to see vet's opinion.

For now, I've cut her 26% protein food in half and added rice, pumpkin, beans or carrots in place of the other half to reduce protein. I'm giving vitamin C and a glucosamine/chondroiton/MSM supplement. Still on crate rest or spending time in "place" on her dog bed near me. Poor baby.

I too have a pup that has the exact same issues as yours. Mine is 20 weeks old.

Been the to vets and they thought a torn muscle so put pup on crate rest and meds. Seemed better for a few days and is now limping again on and off.

Has not limped for a few days, but something just does not seem right in pups movement so we too are heading back to the vets for x-rays to see if we can find out what is going on.

Good luck with your pup and hope all is going to be ok. It is certainly a worry.

I have also been having the same issue with my 9 month old girl. All of the sudden she started limping on her left rear leg, then wouldn't walk on it. Been to the vets 3 times in three weeks and just found the answer. We thought it was a torn muscle too so we had her on crate rest, then we thought maybe lymes disease, turns out its severe hip dysplasia...in a 9 month old pup....Hopefully no one else gets bad results like me...Good luck!

We have had this happen and it was a torn cruciate. Puppy slipped on decking while playing and acted the same as you are describing. Went to ortho and we actually had to wait until she was old enough to do surgery because of the growth plates. She's doing great now and has had no problems since.

My first thought is a subluxating patella and possible torn, or partially torn cruciate. If you lie the pup on her side or back and very gently flex the knee a couple of times do you feel a popping, or the patella sliding over the knee sideways? I had this in one very young puppy at this age and it ended up with patella and cruciate surgery at a little over a year. I really hope this is not what your puppy has. My puppy had "bowed" knees starting early and this was not something I had ever seen before nor since. Incidentally this pup ended up OFAing Good and Normal elbows and is a very healthy "pet". I never bred her and she has remained here as a great family member for almost 10 years now. We love her super personality. Check for Lyme Disease, but it is rather young for that.

Sorry to hear about the pup. Does the limping come and go?

I have an 8 month old who has had severe limping which was most noticable on a concrete walkway. After a couple of days with no walks she seemed better, but then it seemed sore agin. This was in a front leg. I have read some info on Pano and they say to squeeze firmly on a bony part of the leg and see if there's a reaction. No reaction here.....

She may still be young enough for it to be strangles. Sometimes it starts in the joints.

My breeder bitch had this as a young girl, between 6 months and nearly two years. especially on concrete. Since I train on grass at home, it always seemed to show up at obedience class. lame on her right front. So, it seemed to come and go

It was recurring enough, that I took her to a canine chiropractor and acupuncturist. As it turned out she was VERY out of alignment in her C1 (?) right near her head. The vet had to do acupuncture to relax her muscles before he could realign her. The change was almost instant, and she never limped again.

So it might be something to look into. Kodi went on to earn 26 performance titles, including a UKC OTCH, OM3, UDX3, JH, SHR, RAE, URO2 etc.etc.etc. She OFA'd hips excellent, elbows normal.

Hope this helps!!

We had a puppy returned to us at 5 1/2 months by her owners that had been diagnosed with a cruciate tear, I took her to another orthopedist for a second opinion and she was diagnosed with an Avulsion Fracture of the Cruciate. It is similar in presentation but because in the very young and very old their ligaments/tendons are stronger than their bones they are more prone to Avulsion Fractures, where the ligament essentially is broken or torn from its attachment to the bone.

She had the same rehab as for a Cruciate rupture,but no surgery because she healed so beautifully that she didn't need it. I used an Infrared Laser therapy that we rented for her as well as swimming and a book of exercise/therapy that the Ortho gave me to follow.The hardest part was keeping her quiet enough as no horseplay was allowed.

Same happened to one of my puppies and after weeks and weeks of tests and rest we finally did a lyme test. Tested positive. She is fine now but it took two years for her to recover. I now test for lyme first thing.

We are limping off and on, it's never very consistent. Like today, she is fine only limped once going down the stairs. Stairs seems to be the only real place she has an issue. She has been running around for most of the day being fine. I am going to look into acupuncture for her. Seems like a good idea!

I have a male puppy I bred who started limping at 6 months old. He was playing in the yard with his littermates and he landed wrong and he began to limp on his left rear. I crate rested him some and he would limp on and off for weeks. He had days where he did not limp and days that he did. Took him to a specialist for x-ray and he had luxation of the patella. I could hear his knee popping and see it slipping on the side when he would walk on occassion. We had the surgery done on him when he was 9 months and his knee was reset and two pins added. Specialist said he could have surgery at his age and it would not effect his growth plates. He recovered great from his knee surgery and did not show any signs of a limp 2 months after.

Then two months after his right knee went out partly due to the him compensating for his left knee with his right. We just had the second knee surgery done on him for his right knee two weeks ago. His right knee required the same surgery as the left did. He is recovering quickly from this second surgery and his knee is healing. What I believed was due to injury in the beginning, I now feel my pups knee issues are genetic. Like the poster I quoted above, I had my boy's hips and elbows x-rayed and no signs of any hip or ED.

I have decided since I have already put all of this into him that I am keeping him as my pet. He is a very well behaved boy and I think even as a breeder sometimes we keep one for ourselves just because we love them. My advice to the OP is to have your puppy x-rayed to find out what is really going on with it.

Vet says it is Pano, which I suspected especially because last night it switched to the right back leg limping and then back to left back leg this morning. Vet can feel hot swollen growth plates. After she showed me, I can palpate them also (I am an RN, so palpating irregularities isn't so new to me).

She said to keep protein at 26%, to continue giving Glucosamine/Chondroiton/MSM along with Vitamin C. Pup is ideal weight for age, so she said not to cut back on diet. She also has pup getting 1 baby aspirin per day and staying on crate rest for 2 weeks.

I was stupid in that I switched pup 3 weeks ago from Proplan chicken and rice for all life stages (26% protein), to Diamonds Extreme Athlete (32% protein). My adults are on Diamond's Extreme Athlete, so I had thought pup would do fine on it - too much protein, it probably brought on the Pano.

My vet has the top show/HT curly coat in the US, I really trust her judgment.

We are so very thankful it isn't anything worse, wow, I see with posts above, it could be much worse! Thanks for all your replies.

Glad you got it checked out & hopefully this will be short-lived!

My 5 month old has chipped a bone in her hock and obviously an injury from playing with the other dogs.

Pup is to not play with the other dogs, go on short walks, lots of swimming and is on low dose of meticam.

Only time will heal, but so glad it is not one of the alternatives.

That is a tricky area to have an injury however. I would give your puppy fish oil and the Phytoflex from Nature's Farmacy. Hope she heals up.