Mystery injury...

Hi, I've never posted before but I have read the posts with interest. Hopefully someone has had a similar experience to mine and can offer some advice. Excuse the long post but I wanted to get in as much info as possible...

I think my dog may have sprained something in her back left leg. I took her to the vet on Wednesday but he couldn't find anything wrong with her. He examined both hind legs thoroughly and pulled them back in turn, to check her reflexes, and he tried something with her patella to see if it could be displaced but apparently he couldn't move it. He sent me away with some anti-inflammatories and told me to let her exercise as normal but not to overdo.

The reason I'm asking for advice is because my dog's not lame, she is happy and active on her walks, she runs and bounces about as normal but every so often (four times in the last week) she has done something whilst jumping into or out of the car which has caused her to yelp in pain and limp about holding her back leg up. She then trembles uncontrollably and pushes against me for comfort. It is horrible for both of us but the weird thing is, ten or fifteen minutes afterwards she is raring to go and not favouring the leg at all. She is sometimes a little stiff on it in the morning (she's only 4 so this can't be normal?)

I can only think of one occasion when she could have hurt the leg but that was over eight months ago; she fell over whilst chasing a squirrel through the woods. She was running flat out and caught her foot in some brambles. She hopped back to me, holding her leg up and yelping at first and I cuddled her and sat with her for about half an hour before heading back to the car. By the time we were half-way there she was sound again. Do you think this old injury could be worse than I thought?

I don't know what happened to her in her early years, I got her 18 months ago from a rescue. She may have been mistreated or been in an accident as she has a few bumpy ribs and is extremely eager to please. The vet said she is in perfect condition and she's eating, drinking and going to the toilet as normal. We have two good walks each day and I haven't made any changes to her diet or routine for over a year.

Sorry for the long, long post but I just wondered if anyone has any ideas about what could be causing this sudden, intense pain when she is perfectly sound 99% of the time? Thanks for reading...

Did the vet do X-rays? Perhaps he is waiting to see how the medicine works. sometimes things have to get worse before they canbe identified. Keep working with the vet. also,there are times to try a second one.

Hi Kate , welcome to Dogsey.
The problem you describe may occur because when your dog jumps extra strain is put on the joints as they take her weight..
The trembling you describe could an indication of pain/shock.

If this were my dog I would prevent it from jumping in and out of the car if this action leads to the instances of pain.
If she is to heavy to lift it is possible to buy folding dog steps.

Thank you very much for the replies. So far (touch wood) she has been fine so the anti-inflammatories seem to have done the trick. I have been using a box to shorten the jump into and out of the boot. The vet has said he'll do some X-rays and possibly a CAT scan if the problem resurfaces but hopefully she will be fine

Sounds to me like cruciate ligament damage, if the ligament is stretched it can cause symptoms like you discribe then it 'pings' back in its normal place untill the next time it happens. It can rupture and then will need surgery to repair. Hope this helps..