Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello! I'm sorry to hear that Bear's limping; it may sound obvious, but limping is a dogs' manifestation of pain because it hurts to put their foot down normally. Unfortunately, there are many, many things that can cause a dog to limp and without knowing which one, it is difficult to advise how best to help. Hopefully, your vet will have given you some idea - perhaps they think it is a muscle injury, or arthritis, or a cruciate tear, or a fracture. Perhaps it will get better over time on its own with rest; perhaps waiting is the worst thing you can do and it actually needs a surgical repair; perhaps the pain may be cancer which can only be picked up by an x-ray; perhaps this is arthritis and will be chronic (ongoing) and need to be managed here-forward. They also might have given instructions as to what to do about exercise; for example, when we stop something hurting, we sometimes want the patient to exercise much less (the function of pain is to remind them not to overuse a painful body part!) All of these are specific to your dog, and are best clarified by the vet who has examined them. Sometimes, they may need further tests in order to be sure of a diagnosis. Very often, when we put a patient on NSAIDs, we will arrange a follow-up appointment to see how they are getting on.
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