Growing Pains???

[GizmoRedNosePit]

Is it posible for puppies to have growing pains??

The reason I ask is when I took Gizmo into the vet about a two and half weeks ago, I told the vet that she is limping she cheked the leg out and it was fine, even x-rays, and the only thing we saw was that her growing plates were joining or something like that. Basically she is going to grow up anymore! She was on strict rest for bout a week to two weeks now she is limping agiain, on one leg. Can this be a growing pain, well a joining pain?? Does that make sence?? :-?

[gooeydog]

Which leg is it? If it's a back leg, it could maybe be a torn Cruciate (knee) ligament. These are common in pits and other heavily muscled dogs, as well as in some small breeds. Does she limp only at certain times, like when she first gets up after laying down, or a day/a few hours after hard exercise? I've heard of older pups/young adults having lameness for no apparent reason, and it seems to disappear after a while and leave no lasting effects.

[GizmoRedNosePit]

It is a back leg her right leg actually, we took an x-ray and everything looked fine...if it is torn would we be able to see it? I hope it does go away, but yes after the dog park, exercise and laying down she will limp and then lift it up.....

[gooeydog]

They don't show up on xrays, but with some of the dogs, you can actually see a popping motion going on in the knee. If you have to take Gizmo back to the vets to get her stitches out from the spay, you might want to ask the vet to check it again.

[Guest Anonymous]

It's been a while since one of mine have had ACL repair, and I can't remember it it was detected by xray or not, but I do know that a good vet can detect it by manipulating the leg. They can tell that there's very loose movement in the knee joint.

I believe that bruising is a lot of the cause of some idiopathic lameness in young dogs because the run and play so hard and with such gusto that they can't even stop in time to avoid objects and sometimes there are rocks and stones which they can come down on with their foot in a way that causes injuries. Of course, this is just my own opinion, but it should be watched carefully, and I know you are. If it were any kind of hip dysplasia, the dog would have to be anesthetized for a proper evaluation during xray. Let's just hope it goes away on its own.

[Guest Anonymous]

Had the same problem with Hazel, Giz, she would fall or trip and then her front leg wouldn't work, like it was paralized or something... took her to vets and nothing showed up, they rolled her leg about to check for displacement and still nothing. It hasn't happened in a long time though. It was pretty scary at the time.

[Horsefeathers!]

Giz, I have heard of "growing pains" in dogs. That's about all I can tell you about it... that I've heard of it. I did a quick search and came up with some sites concerning pano (growing pains) in dogs. Maybe you can read some of it and see if any of it makes sense. Good luck with Gizmo.

http://www.inkabijou.co.uk/pano.htm
http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/depano.html
http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/lpano.htm


If you type "panosteitis" into a search engine, you should get lots of links and plenty of reading.

[GizmoRedNosePit]

Thanks everyone for responding.

The thing is she will be fine when playing or anything like that and then out of the blue she will start limping. I am hoping it is a bruise as is she does play NON STOP! When we got her stitches removed her leg was fine, but it started a few days later....So I dunno what to do.

The vet did play with her leg from hip, to knee to little bone between knee and foot. She did jump a little when she was pushing firmly as she says but we will too. So I dunno. The place where she jumped/fliched was around her knee I think...That was about three weeks ago....Kinda of furry....

[Horsefeathers!]

Oh, then you really do need to read some of that pano stuff. It sounds really similar. If nothing else is obvious (xrays and such), it's worth a shot to check out. After this query, I began reading a bit on those sites I showed you. It's very interesting.

[GizmoRedNosePit]

I started reading some, but it is soooo high tach like for me! I'll have to sit down and read it soon, but when nothing is going on, so I can concentrate! :roll: High school student that graduated in 2001 and hasn't read that much since! :roll: Stupid me!