Hey guys, let’s talk about your dog limping front leg issues today, and reasons this may happen. This can be as simple as a sliver or foreign body in the paw to trauma. If you can’t find anything externally causing your dog to limp, it is important to seek a veterinarian, especially if the limping persists. Some common reasons are: strains or tears in ligement or tendon/muscle, something in paw, insect bite/sting, trauma/broken bones, vascular issues, lymes disease, inflammatory condition, osteoarthritis.
Now, depending on where the issue is happening may give us more information on what to do to help. For instance, your veterinarian will usually begin with the toes and work their way up to the neck/spine. Sometimes we need to give the veterinarian any information needed to be helpful. Such as, did you see your dog’s injury? Did this happen suddenly, acutely?
Was it something that is getting slowly worse day by day? Did your dog jump out of something like the car or back of a truck? Did your dog slip on ice or flooring, causing the front legs to go out to the side? Did your dog get it’s foot caught in something and try to yank it out? Have you had your dog on flea and tick prevention during the tick season? Have you seen any ticks on your dog?
All of these are really good questions to ask yourself and remember to tell your veterinarian, to help with diagnosing your dog. Things like a tick you found a week ago could mean your veterinarian needs to titer test your dog, to make sure he is ok and does not have lymes. Or if you didn’t think about the fact that your dog jumped down from the deck or bed, and now seems to be limping.
It could be that your dog is a large breed, and during growing developed OCD, Osteochondritis, in the shoulder, which will need surgery to fix. Or, perhaps you have an older dog who is showing pain, and could have arthritis showing up in the elbow or shoulder area. These are all good reasons to give your Veterinarian all the information you can, so that they can correctly diagnose.
We do have an elbow brace here at posh dog knee braces, that can help to stabilize any issues in the elbow joint, and relieve pain, if it is found to be an issue in the elbow. Let us know if you have any questions!
If you are interested in purchasing a Posh Dog Knee Brace for your dog limping front leg you can order your brace from our store, if you would like to join our Facebook community click here.
Hi guys, this is Nikki, lead veterinary technician with Posh Dog Knee Braces. Today, let’s discus osteoarthritis (OA) in dogs. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in dogs, affecting about 25% of our dog populations. This is a chronic, not acute, disease that is due to loss of joint cartilage (our buffers), thickening of the joint, and bone formation around the joint leading to pain and limping. A lot of our OA patients have other developmental issues or disease, which predisposes them to having OA. This includes Cruciate disease, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia, OCD, patella luxation.
Sometimes, there may not be a reason that this occurs, and a patient just develops for no known reason. Some factors that can make this worse include obesity, gender, breed, exercise, and diet.
Signs of OA are sometimes reluctance to walk or exercise, acting stiff, limping, bunny hoping while running. Pain on palpation, possible aggression or discomfort is also usually present. They hurt and ache.
This is why it is always good to have an xray with limping patients over 6 years old, to rule out other things that can cause limping such as OA.
Treatment of OA includes weight and diet control, such as feeding Raw diet or diets with better protein, less carbs. Limiting the higher impact activities, such as running or jumping, replace with leash walks and range of motion activities. Physical therapy can really help build back those lost muscles, such as swimming. Laser therapy can also really help.
Supplements with fatty acids, such as fish oils, or green lipped muscle have shown to really improve quality. Adequan injections are one of the only leading products right now specifically formulated to fight OA, and prevent things from getting worse, I strongly recommend. Bracing may also be needed, to help alleviate the pressure on the joint, and act as a support and shock absorber, especially if it was due to CCL disease. Bracing may also help build back lost muscle, and alleviate the pain with walks.
Lastly, some form of anti-inflammatory may be recommended, but there are several natural anti-inflammatories that may be tummy safe, such as CBD oil or white willow bark.
Dogs that have undergone surgery, such as TPLO, have been shown in many studies to have more 77% more OA just 8 weeks post op than before on radiographs. So, if a patient has had TPLO, there is a much higher chance that dog will develop arthritis later on.
Thanks, and please visit poshdogkneebrace.com with any questions, or visit our Facebook page we are happy to help!
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