Stiff in the rear leg

[winniecnm]

I don't post here very often as my dogs are usually quite healthy, but I am having an issue with Bear I wanted to get some feedback on.

About three years ago, Bear (now 6 y/o) sustained a soft tissue injury to his right hip while disobeying me and leaping onto the back of our pickup truck. He fell backwards and landed with his hip slightly twisted. Vets office decided it was soft tissue injury, he was lame for about three months and then was back to his old self again.

He has had a couple of reinjuries to that same leg and I think he has had limping episodes (lasting less than two weeks each) maybe 2 times since, and now we are going on a third - which started this morning. I usually treat with asprin, massage and warm compresses.

He is weightbearing and trotting, although with a guarded stiffness in the right rear. I am wondering if anyone else here has had a dog with a soft tissue injury and if this transient stiffness is something I should be terribly worried about. I keep wondering how I am going to be able to objectively tell if this is just a reinjury or something worse.. (OS)

Also if anyone knows of a vet in my new area of NE PA, please let me know. And noone that is going to put my dogs in a headlock pls (read my post from last year if you don't know what that was about..)

[sirbrutus010906]

My dog bRUTUS is doing the same thing. He has to have surgery due to him being diagnosed with OCD (Osterochrondrosis) which is the breaking of cartilage and being trapped between the joints. Most of the time surgery is needed. I would have him x-rayed and point this out to your vet just to maybe rule out OCD. Brutus is having surgery in a little over a week and I wish you good luck.

[winniecnm]

His leg is doing much better now after a round of asprin and antibiotics.

However, Nikki injured her right foreleg at the elbow yesterday and it is swollen like a golf ball so now SHE is on the asprin and antibiotics too.

We are taking him in for his checkup and I am going to request new X-rays of that leg - for now he is back to his happy self!