Mystery lameness

Hi everyone
This is my first post, so hello
My dog who is 5 years old (labrador/springer spaniel) has been lame to various degrees since last May when she fell off a step onto her face. It's front leg lameness.
The vets did a whole x ray workup (including both legs and spine) which cost a fortune and revealed nothing. They suggested rest and anti-inflamatories, which actually made it worse. The more she was rested the lamer she was.
She's not severely lame -still runs and jumps like a maniac at every opportunity, but it makes me feel so sad to see her limping.
Recently I decided that it could be her chest muscles (and under her armpit) and when I massage there, it seems to help a bit.
Has anyone else had a similar problem? Any help would be very much appreciated!

Hi there.

I can't help with what the lameness is, but I was going to suggest that a good hydrotherapist may be able to help. If you find one that actually does therapy (manipulation of joints/muscles etc) rather than just letting the dogs swim, they may be able to pin down the problem area better than the vet can. The hydrotherapist we use has been really good for this..he has explained that when the dogs are floating in the warm water, it is much easier to feel what is going in with muscles/joints etc. than when the dog is standing stiff legged in the vet's consulting room.

That sounds like a great idea. I don't know if we have one near here (Somerset), but I'll have a look.

I don't know how close you are to Bath, but have just found this one....

http://www.canine-hydrotherapy.org/m...rotherapy.html.

I liked the look of that one because the hydrotherapist is a qualified animal physiotherapist. As I said before, many of the hydro pools just basically let the dogs swim, which is fine for some things, but not others.

You may find that they will require something from your vet to say they are happy that your dog has the treatment.

That's really kind, but we are the other end of Somerset. I've found one in Beaminster though

http://www.honeysucklehydrotherapy.co.uk/index.htm What do you think?

As with anything, it'll be down to the individuals, but I certainly would try them based on their website

Please let me know how you get on - they may not be able to narrow down what is wrong either, but it is certainly worth a shot (and if nothing else, a bit of professional massage and some swimming may do it good anyway).

I used to go to Magics Pool Near to cannington

I will do, thanks. I am also going to try homeopathic (Rhus tox) and some stuff called ligazyme, (Biocare) which is supposed to be very good.

Thanks, yes I saw that one. It looked good. Again a bit too far though.

Just one other thought - my dogs aren't insured, but if your girl is, you might be able to claim for the treatment (depending of course on the wording of the policy). Probably only worth it though if she has more than one session.