limp/ growing pains/protein
Submitted by wozrob11 on January 5, 2011 - 7:26pmmy little buddy Brutus has developed a small limp in his rear leg it looks like it comes and goes its not a huge limp at all just that some times he keeps his weight on his other leg but it is noticeable. i've read a bunch of post on "growing pains" . he will be 10 months old on jan 11 i was just wondering if some one could fill me in a little bit on the growing pains thing. also i just recently switched his food to TOTW pacific stream and this is his first non puppy food i read that food over 21% protein will cause limping and the TOTW pacific stream is 25% but i hope that a 4% add of protein would not cause it and now that i think of it the limp started when i got him totally switched over to the TOTW which was monday of this week .people weren't lying when they said a bully was a full time job LOL but i love him !any input would be great thanks.
Sounds like a soft tissue injury he keeps aggravating
I don't think it is from his food. He may have jumped wrong or slipped or tripped. And if this is the first time he has hurt himself this maybe scary for him :( I would try non coated aspirin every 12 hrs just for a day and see how he is from there to see if you have to give it to him for another day. Anything longer than that I would take him to his vet to make sure he didn't mess himself up really bad.
Skasqueeeeeeakaaay!!
Katie & Chumlee
If you just switched him recently from puppy to adult food...
he's probably been on the puppy a little too long, too much fat and protein. We never use puppy food for our guys, just go right to adult. TOTW salmon is fine, we feed that to all three of our guys and they do great on it. It could be growing pains or he aggravated a muscle or something. Give it some time on the new food and also give him a glucosomine supplement, that will help. And try to keep him as quiet as you can considering he's a puppy and needs to play.
Growing pains/Panosteitis
My boy had growing pains in his right front leg when he was 6 months old. I took him to the Vet for a correct diagnosis. The Vet took an xray of his leg and you could see a mottled appearance of the bone on the xray. My Vet prescribed Rimadyl to help with the pain which he described as being like a person walking around with a rock in their shoe. The pain meds did not help the limp so I took him back to the Vet. My Vet sent the xrays to a Radiologis to read to make sure he didn't miss anything. The Radiologist requested an xray of the opposite leg so they could compare the two. No abnormalities were found so the diagnosis was growing pains.
I began giving my dog glucosomine/chondroitin supplements daily as well as calcium. He stopped limping after about 3 months. I don't know if the supplements actually helped or he just grew out of it. But, growing pains can typically last until the dogs are through growing at about 18- 24 months. I also feed TOTW and believe the protein is level of the food is fine.
My boy has very heavy bones as you can see by the photo below.