# Front leg limp



## DukeVonJour

Hi there, I have a 6 month old named duke. He is 64 pounds. He has had a limp in his front right leg, he wont put his full weight on it. He got 8 xrays today. Vet said no ED, no Prano, and no abnormalities. He does not wince when the do the hands on physical exam of the leg, and he has full range of motion... Please help? what is wrong with him? thanks for the info


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## GSDkid

Well, if it's not ED or Pano, then I have no idea. My girl had Pano when she was about 7 months. It didn't last very long. She didn't have any injuries to her legs and no whining when we touched her legs but she always limped. It eventually went away.

Maybe he has a splinter? Something stuck in his toes? A bug bite? Just throwing things out there. I hope he gets better.


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## kbella999

You might try taking him to a k9 chiropractor if you have a good one in your area.


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## jang

I am having the same problem with Sib-2 weeks now--xrays showed nothing but dr seems to believe she has torn the cartilage in her shoulder..He wants me to take her to a specialist for possible surgery...I would do anything to avoid that...She is only 2 years old and I am afraid of shoulder surgery for her..And since it is so close to mothers day , I can't do aything for three more weeks..Hoping she will feel better by then with lots of rest and TLC


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## DukeVonJour

Yeah I think a visit to the ortho specialist is in the works. Hes on the chewable IB for pups but doesnt seem to being any better.


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## Fiddler

I've been going through the same thing with Gracie for over a year. 
She gets better then starts limping on her right front leg. 
At the last vet exam the Doc got a big reaction from her when 
he turned her head to the right and slightly over her shoulder. We now believe that it is not a shoulder injury but a neck problem. X-rays showed nothing. Vet said possible pinched nerve or muscle spasam. Anti-inflamatories and muscle relaxers have helped. I'm looking into Laser therapy and chiropractic also. I'm also doing a light massage of the neck area every day which she seems to enjoy a lot. 

Best of luck 
Mary


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## Mcluvin

My 11 month old puppy started limping all of a sudden a couple of weeks ago. Next morning he was clearly in a lot of pain. Seemed depressed. Groaned a lot just laying there. Poor pup. It hurt me to see it. 

I searched for german shepherd limping front leg and found this and other threads. I kept reading about Pano and thinking it seemed too simple. Called breeder and she said it may be. She's a great breeder and has good lines. Knows what she's talking about. Took him to the vet who said he could do xrays or just try pain meds first. I decided to get the xrays for peace of mind. Hips and elbows looked great. Pano it was! Easy to see on the xray. 

I put him on the pain meds and he did much better after a few hours. After three days and very little limping, I took him off the meds to see how he does. Did fine. No more problems so far. Waiting to see if he gets it on a different leg. What a relief though.


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## MaggieRoseLee

Alot of vets are NOT good about identifying pano. Heck I had one friend with a GSD that the vet said it HAS to be Hip Dysplasia and you need to QUICK get to a surgeon to fix it. 

I sent her to my vet and, brace yourself, it was pano. So while my dog's also hurt themselves alot (broken toe anyone???) and it's good to take them to a vet to rule stuff out... also read what you can and watch your dog.

Watch this dog limping


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## RonFlo

I think my sascha has pano. Also she doesn't have any appetite to eat her food. The vet said it's normal and she will just eat when she's hungry. For you who have experienced pano with your pups. Is this normal? Did they lose their appetite for food?


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## Ellimaybel

RonFlo said:


> I think my sascha has pano. Also she doesn't have any appetite to eat her food. The vet said it's normal and she will just eat when she's hungry. For you who have experienced pano with your pups. Is this normal? Did they lose their appetite for food?


 Gunther is going through it now and he lost his appetite. Since he has to eat with his medicine I mixed a little shredded cheese, gravy, or crumbled crackers in the bowl. These work for us because if the yummy smelling pieces he's after are all mixed in he winds up licking the bowl clean


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## GSDav8r

I think our Luger just developed this yesterday. It's a holiday or we'd have him in to the vet today; we will be going tomorrow. Watching that video and reading everything here makes it sound _exactly_ like Pano, but nothing's certain, of course. He's ~6 months and about 60 lbs, maybe a little more now.

We feel so bad for him. He's just not his normal happy self. He just limps around, lays down all day, seems depressed and lost his appetite.


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## trcy

My dog started getting pano at about 6 months. It lasted a long time and traveled to different limbs. Most recently it was in his rear leg. I did not have xrays done. The breeder watched him walk and said it was defiantly pano. We went through pano with Riley too...so I was kind sure what it was. 

It causes them a lot of pain, but it does go away. We encouraged him to rest and on really bad days he got meds.


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## simba405

A good but vague test is to squeeze the bone on the effected leg (upper bone) . Dog should yelp 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## wolfy dog

Does Pano last longer if they develop it at an earlier age?


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## Ellimaybel

simba405 said:


> A good but vague test is to squeeze the bone on the effected leg (upper bone) . Dog should yelp
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Good tip, but not always. Hence the vague part. Gunther never yelped with me or the vet. With me when I squeezed he put his ears back and licked my hand and with the vet he showed teeth but nothing else. Just keep that in mind if your dog doesn't yelp.


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## simba405

Ellimaybel said:


> Good tip, but not always. Hence the vague part. Gunther never yelped with me or the vet. With me when I squeezed he put his ears back and licked my hand and with the vet he showed teeth but nothing else. Just keep that in mind if your dog doesn't yelp.


Squeeze harder  

Yelp was probably not a good word. The dog should have a reaction. Especially if it's severely limping.


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## Ellimaybel

simba405 said:


> Squeeze harder
> 
> Yelp was probably not a good word. The dog should have a reaction. Especially if it's severely limping.


To be fair, Gunther's pano had barely flared up when I caught it. Well, according to the vet. According to Gunther he was dying and I was the worst doggy mom in the history of doggy moms ever in the entire universe. Around home the morning I took him was a horrible terrifying experience. Then when they did the x-ray they could barely see it and he had no reaction to the squeezing. Hope nothing ever happens to him again, I don't think my heart could handle the guilt! :wild:


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## onyxkaiser

Kaiser has just developed that exact limp. I immediately thought it was ED... 

He's 6 months old, 28kgs (62lbs). Had a BIG growth spurt from this week to last week, in terms of overall weight. It's Thursday here and we first noticed him limping (exactly the same as that GSD in that video there linked by Maggie) on the Sunday night (21st of Sept). 

I took him to the vet on Tuesday (23rd of Sept), and they gave me anti-inflammatories. Didn't diagnose anything or even mention pano. 

The anti-inflammatories have helped marginally. The limp isn't anywhere near as bad, but he still favours the other leg. Leans on it and stuff.

Has all the energy in the world, wants to play and run around like crazy, and is still eating fine.

Any thoughts?


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## santorin

I've had this twice with my male. First time, about a year and a few months ago, I had an x-ray done and it showed inflammation in the elbow. No ED. Vet squeezed and Bentley let out a big yelp. The anti-inflammatories helped, but it did come back a second time just recently after a lot of running and jumping for the ball at the dog park. Will this always reoccur?


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## onyxkaiser

santorin said:


> I've had this twice with my male. First time, about a year and a few months ago, I had an x-ray done and it showed inflammation in the elbow. No ED. Vet squeezed and Bentley let out a big yelp. The anti-inflammatories helped, but it did come back a second time just recently after a lot of running and jumping for the ball at the dog park. Will this always reoccur?


From what I can gather - if it is Pano then no. He should grow out of it after 2. I'm hoping mine has a random acute injury or Pano. If it's ED... then we're in for a bad time. His limp has improved a lot today can barely notice it and he isn't favouring the other leg as much. The NSAIDs have helped a lot.


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## santorin

onyxkaiser said:


> From what I can gather - if it is Pano then no. He should grow out of it after 2. I'm hoping mine has a random acute injury or Pano. If it's ED... then we're in for a bad time. His limp has improved a lot today can barely notice it and he isn't favouring the other leg as much. The NSAIDs have helped a lot.


Hmm...Bentley is 3 1/2. I guess we may have something different on our hands than Pano. The vet said the x-rays only showed inflammation. I wonder if I need to take the x-rays for a second opinion to someone more experienced with ED/HD, etc. 

I sure hope yours is Pano and that yours continues to improve!


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## onyxkaiser

santorin said:


> Hmm...Bentley is 3 1/2. I guess we may have something different on our hands than Pano. The vet said the x-rays only showed inflammation. I wonder if I need to take the x-rays for a second opinion to someone more experienced with ED/HD, etc.
> 
> I sure hope yours is Pano and that yours continues to improve!


Yeah I'll definitely be getting more than one opinion whatever the diagnoses with mine. Pain in the arse this whole thing. 

And vets really annoy me to be honest. How can you be a professional authority on this... but I can find more comprehensive information on the fricking internet? Definitely not an "exact" science in the slightest, though I know no science claims to be... but this is supposed to be evidence based medicine. 

Anyway, I'll end my rant here. I'm taking Kaiser in this coming week for a check up on it again and I'll post on here whatever it is. Guess it helps some people gather information and make informed decisions.


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## santorin

onyxkaiser said:


> Yeah I'll definitely be getting more than one opinion whatever the diagnoses with mine. Pain in the arse this whole thing.
> 
> And vets really annoy me to be honest. How can you be a professional authority on this... but I can find more comprehensive information on the fricking internet? Definitely not an "exact" science in the slightest, though I know no science claims to be... but this is supposed to be evidence based medicine.
> 
> Anyway, I'll end my rant here. I'm taking Kaiser in this coming week for a check up on it again and I'll post on here whatever it is. Guess it helps some people gather information and make informed decisions.


Gathering information to make informed decisions is a good thing. Sending positive vibes for you and Kaiser on your next visit!


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## onyxkaiser

santorin said:


> Gathering information to make informed decisions is a good thing. Sending positive vibes for you and Kaiser on your next visit!


Ok so on Thursday (25/9) last week I took Kaiser into the vet. His limp was non-existent, but every now and then he sort of favoured leaning on his stronger leg. Vet did a test of his joints, and said it's very good news that it has healed up and subsided, and that even though his elbow and shoulder joints seemed to be a little tender, it is looking like it was an acute injury. Though she did mention the possibility of OCD. 

The day before yesterday I watched him hurt himself again being a silly pup bounding around the back yard, and was yelping and couldn't walk properly. I brought him inside, laid him down on his bed for two minutes, and then he got back up again and was walking around normally. No limp, no pain, nothing. Wanted to run around again. Took him to the dog park yesterday and today and he had a ball. Nothing wrong at all. 

Strange, but it seems that just given he's growing so fast (two weeks ago was 28kgs, last week was 29kgs, this week he's 30kgs) and he's seriously unco-ordinated; I think he has just been over-doing himself. I think. You never know without an x-ray I guess. But we seem to have dodged a bullet for now.


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## onyxkaiser

EDITING THIS QUOTE: HAD THE WRONG DATES!



onyxkaiser said:


> Kaiser has just developed that exact limp. I immediately thought it was ED...
> 
> He's 6 months old, 28kgs (62lbs). Had a BIG growth spurt from this week to last week, in terms of overall weight. It's Thursday here and we first noticed him limping (exactly the same as that GSD in that video there linked by Maggie) on the Sunday night *(14th of Sept).*
> 
> I took him to the vet on Tuesday *(16th of Sept),* and they gave me anti-inflammatories. Didn't diagnose anything or even mention pano.
> 
> The anti-inflammatories have helped marginally. The limp isn't anywhere near as bad, but he still favours the other leg. Leans on it and stuff.
> 
> Has all the energy in the world, wants to play and run around like crazy, and is still eating fine.
> 
> Any thoughts?


It's Monday the 29th now. And he's back to normal.


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## CJ8Max

Do the dogs grow out of Pano? Or do they have it for life? What is it that they see on the X-rays?


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## CJ8Max

CJ8Max said:


> Do the dogs grow out of Pano? Or do they have it for life? What is it that they see on the X-rays?


I belive my Max has this, has anyone used Arnica?


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## Bella67

Pano usually develops in not only GSD but other large breeds between 6-18 months, there is no known cure for it but pain killers do help, it does go away by it self within almost all dogs. Chloe does have pano, and she started showing signs around 6 1/2 months, she is now 8 months. She hasn't been limping or showing any signs of pano in a couple weeks now, when she did have it, it was in her front left leg and had a limp when she walked. So, after doing research (I was afraid she broke a bone in her foot, but I was wrong thankfully) I limited her walking around and basically made her sleep all day pretty much. Within a couple of days of resting it went away and I haven't seen it since.


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## Bella67

You can see here (she's on the left) how she wasn't puting any weight on the left leg, that was when she had pano.


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