Vet Visits for the Limp

Rio's limp has gotten worse this past week. By Monday he was lifting his front left paw quite a bit. His energy is down and our walks are getting shorter and shorter. He's also not been eating very well. He's only eating in the evenings now. He can stand to loose some weight, so this is not too bad.

Here's a video of him limping at the dog park on Monday.






We went to see his vet from when he was with the adoption group, Dr. Carol Butler of Tender Touch. She was the vet who got him off the Prednizone and into see a specialist who diagnosed the lumbar sacral disease. She suggested we do a thyroid test as well as a metabolic panel. The thyroid test was sent to Michigan State University as it is very thorough. Greyhounds have unique thyroid ranges and are often mis-diagnosed with thyroid problems. The Michigan State test looks at a variety of indicators for a more accurate diagnosis. I spoke with Dr. Butler and his platelet and metabolic results look within normal range.

Rio's back right leg has swollen up from the veinipuncture. The vet thinks it is because she had him walking right after drawing blood. We're to keep an eye on it to make sure his leg doesn't look more swollen.

We see Dr. Doug today for a scheduled acupuncture and chiropractic treatment. We are going to have him re-x-ray the right shoulder to see if we can see anything new. We decided to have him do it because his first x-ray was done there.

It's pretty frustrating to see Rio in pain and not know what to do about it. The Previcox and the homeopathic remedy don't seem to be helping. Hopefully we can get a better picture after today's visit.

In the mean time Rio has been pretty quiet. He still loves going for walks even those are quite painful for him. He gets distracted from the pain by all of the smells he finds.