Dogs with Cruciate problems

Those of you that have had dogs with Cruciate problems do they not weight bear at all. Sometimes or all the time when they learn to compensate on the unaffected limb ?

Do they drag the affected leg at any time ?

Do they have problems rising from a sitting position and maybe wince when rising ?

Even though Dillon was struggling yesterday he was weight bearing on his bad leg but was dragging the leg to begin with later in the day he was walking a lot better and lifting the paw from the ground to walk. He received a Rymadil at 7am and one again at 7pm between those times around late afternoon he was walking almost normally. But inbetween then and going to bed he did have the odd blip with stiffness.


My youngest son was home and he said it reminded him of when he had a dead leg for a week silly accident on a trampoline with his friends and boxing. He could only drag his bad leg and that also meant the good leg was compromised.

I know I will know more hopefully on Monday but I am curious to know whether he is actualy presenting with similar problems to cruciate or someting else. I also appreciate it is difiicult to say with not being able to see him move about. But I am just wondering if anyone whose had a dog with cruciate problems has experienced similar symptoms to Dillon. I am paranoid about rear end problems as you can imagine with what I went through with Ollie.



Its just that these symptoms seem similar to hip dysplasia too. He comes from Parents and relatives of good hip and elbow scores although I know that does not mean any off spring may not suffer problems however many generations are going to be clear.

Many thanks for taking the time to read and suggestions.

I had a lab pup with hip dysplasia and Shady with cruciate problems. Both were very similar to look at . Both would be stiff getting up and at their lamest as they started moving. With Shady it was hard to tell how lame she was till she had an odd calm spell as she would spin, jump and run like a looney on her bad leg as if nothing was wrong with it, but she lived on a constant rush of adrenalin.
If anyone had seen her just before her op they would not have known she was lame because she was not calm enough to see it.
With my lab pup who was 6 months when he was diagnosed with hip dysplasia, he had a slight limp most of the time unless he forgot himself and had a mad few minutes.
My lab came from parents with excellent hip scores and the same mating had been done twice before and the hip scores from those offspring when they grew up were excellent too, which is why I bought Tico with confidence that he would have good hips. At 4 months old I saw the first signs and an x-ray at 6 months confirmed he had the worst hips ever. Although I think testing is good I have to say my GSD Sabre and Shady my rottie xgsd came from completely untested parents who's owners were awful ad yet they had, according to their x-rays as near perfect hips as you could ever hope to have.
Lets just hope Dillon has neither and has something minor that can easily be fixed.

I am hoping so Bev. I know Ollie's wasn't hip dysplasia but it was his rear end and I know I am paranoid and thinking the worst. I should wait till Monday and see what the experts have to say. Its been such a long wait.

Oh poor you, you must be so worried.

I don't know about the weightbearing/not weightbearing thing, other than what I said before, i.e. that the dog will appear to improve over time if it is cruciate, before it starts to get very bad again. Our dog's op was about a week after she had the initial injury, and she was on Metacam (longterm for a different problem). In that week, in spite of the Metacam, she never put her leg to the ground.

However, although I can totally understand your concerns about what else it might be, I do feel that your vet's original diagnosis could well be correct. After all, the joint feels totally different when manipulated if the ligament is damaged, and if it was nice and tight and normal then the vet would have looked elsewhere for the problem?

I do hope that on Monday you get some definite answers.

bruno did all of the above if that helps Lynn, he drags his leg, he rises with difficulty, but then will run out into the garden so you can't see if he is using the leg much, so it was intermittent

Thank you both very helpful.

I'm sorry I dont have anything to add but fingers crossed you get some answers on Monday about the lovely Dillon.

When mine did his cruciate he mostly didn't weight bear at all, he would drag his leg as I heard his claws dragging along the pavement. He would also struggle to get up and would stumble forward in a clumsy way to stand up.

Sounding very similar. We do not get the stumbling and I cannot hear his claws but he does sometimes drag the leg.

Sounding very like his cruciate then.

Kiara was weight bearing a couple of days after her recent operation. She adopts a strange squat when having a wee, she has her leg forward and doesn't weight bear in it

I find if she's walking slowly she uses it, if she tries to run she lifts it up and doesn't use it at all, I've never seen her dragging it, it's eiter up or down