Prolonged Lameness

Hello vets I’m looking for a bit of advice if possible. My approx 4year old collie x (rescue) has had a subtle lameness in his front left shoulder for around a year now (I’ve had him 2years) I have had X-rays of both front shoulders and legs, neck and spine done and vet said they were unremarkable. He has had around 3 months of trialling different pain meds but nothing seems to be improving it. He has also had 3 periods of 6-8 weeks complete house rest of which the lameness improves but the head nod is always there. As soon as I let him start going for walks of coming back down the farm it gets much worse again. I won’t be in a position to afford a CT scan (as I’ve just paid £500 on X-rays) until the new year so vet has said we can keep him on pain management until then. Just trying to get an idea of any possible outcomes with this ? My current vet believes it could be torn soft tissue, I know this can take a long time to heal but my gut is telling me it’s something else. He’s such an active and happy dog and he’s going crazy stuck in the house and not on the farm and he’s looking a bit chunky due to no exercise which will obviously not help the strain😕 Many thanks

Hello - that sounds incredibly frustrating for everyone concerned. What I'd like to know in your shoes is - does your vet know the actual cause of the lameness and do they think that an MRI (basically cleverer, more expensive imaging) is going to help, or would they feel happier referring the whole case to a lameness specialist?   Because i don't know your vet, that's a question specifically for them.  How certain are they that an MRI will help, for example?  However, whatever is causing the lameness, lameness is essentially caused by pain (if you have a stone in your shoes for example, you limp because it hurts to put your foot down properly).  Finding the cause of the pain is sometimes necessary in ordwr to prevent it from getting worse.  However, just occasionally lameness os caused by a problem of the nerve as isnt painful at all.  It spunds as though further tests might be desirable here.