DuckSouth.com

Been around for a while, don't post near as much as I use to thanks to the job so on... My dog, daisy, is approaching 8 years old, she had been staying w my parents for ab a month due to me moving. When I picked her up today my mom told me she had been stumbling when running after her toys during fitch lately. Told mom it was prolly nothin other than her bein over exacted she was getting attention. Anyway, tonight, she has let me know something was up. She went to jump out the back of my truck and smooth busted her tail. On concrete, scuffed up her nose and was bleeding. Brought her inside and she had great happy to be back inside attitude, took her outside and she had great energy, came back in and she jumped up on my bed no problem. When she went to jump off u could tell she was scared and jumped into the floor and ran into the wall. Went outside, great energy running around, then wouldn't go up the stairs at first then she did, slowly but with no problems. When she came back down, different story, she slipped and slid all the way down the stairs and into a brick wall. At this point I'm done challenging her to see if it's jus me worrying as I can tell something doesn't seem right. Eating playing and pooping great. Jus this. Getting up and laying down fine. Still has plenty up puppy in her. Two months ago she was going up and down my three flights of stairs quicker than I was. Now this. Obviously any dog owner knows my worries, any idea what could be up?

Thanks.

Jkb

First off never let your dog jump out of the back of your truck (yes I know we all do it) but it is a surefire way to injury and possibly ruin your hunting dog, believe me I've seen 2 year old labs that will never be able to hunt again because they blew a knee out or tore ligaments/tendons from jumping out of the truck, especially at 8 years old. Your dog is the equivalent of a 50-60 year old and you don't see any guys that age jumping out of truck beds.

It sounds like she injured something over the past few months, it could be a hundred different things, you need to take her into see a vet. It could be a wide range of problems from a torn ligament/tendon, to a fractured bone, to a neurologic problem, to a slipped disk. Thelonger you wait to see her/treat her the worse the chance of it getting better, and the more expensive it will get.

I'm in vet school, I worked almost strictly with hunting labs for 3 years before vet school, I know what I'm talking about. If you love your dog, take her to see a (GOOD) vet. You don't have to spend a fortune at the vet to get her evaluated, we can give you a very good idea of what the problem is without any expensive tests or anything and can localize it to a specific limb/area or figure out if it's neurologic, most typical vet exams will run you between $40-80, not that costly at all. Then once they do that you can decide if you want to move forward with x-rays or just treat with anti-inflammatories, etc.


Moral of the story....take her to see a vet, now.

-Spencer-