2923. An active 1.5-year-old blue-merle Shetland limps on the left fore leg

Jan 19, 2016

The mum and her young adult daughter made an appointment to see me.
"His lameness was in the back last time," the daughter said. "Now, it is on the front leg. Limping around now and then for the past 2 weeks. My brother surfed the net and thinks the cause is a sprain or genetic."

As if to confirm the owner's complaint, the 1.5-year-old Sheltie would walk around my consultation room, stood at the corner near the door and lifted up his left fore limb. When he walked, this happened too.

The mum held the dog down by putting her hand on his shoulder area while the daughter held his backside down. Not without a struggle. I muzzled the gentle dog in case he bites anyone while I manipulated the left front limb from toe to shoulder. Safety of people is important.

The dog yelped in pain when I flexed and extend the left elbow and shoulder.
"This is acute pain," I said.
"Should we X-ray the joints?" the mum thinks this could be genetic in cause.
"This is a young dog. Did he jump up and down inside the apartment and run down the flight of stairs?" I noted the owner lived on the 22nd floor.

"No," the daughter said. "We take the lift. However he does jump from the car floor to the road, play roughly with other dogs downstairs and runs down the ramp."

"Young dogs, like young men and women think they are invincible and take risks to their lives," I said. "Some suffer injuries or deaths because of this type of life-style."

No x-rays for the time being. The dog was given painkillers and to avoid jumping on or off the car, run down and up the ramp and play rough with the other dogs for one month. If not, the joint pain will worsen.

This is the third of 3 recent cases where the mum and young daughter brings the pet to the vet. The other. The other case was the chronic coughing cat and the tattoeed hand girl with her mum bringing the Schnauzer with strangulated uterus.