my dog somtimes cant put pressure on his paw. nothing is in it. what is wrong?

Question

sometimes if he runs outside with me, when he gets back inside, his paw is up and he wont put pressure on it. he lets me look at it. and i poke around. looking. and i rub it thinking that its the muscles. but i dont know what is wrong.

Answer 1

Holding a paw is not always indicative of a paw-site injury. If it is a front paw, there could be a strain to the shoulder, & the hind paw could be a knee/hip injury.

You indicate that your dog holds its paw after running, so it is possible there is a mild injury that is being restressed after play-time. One of my puppies had a mild shoulder strain that didnt heal right away, we ended up putting her on bed rest because she would run through the pain & then limp around the house later.

A check with your vet should be able to determine if there is a soft-tissue injury. My vet did a palpitation of the shoulder & found a tender spot, so we initially treated with a dog-brand antiinflammatory for a week.

The meds did not appear to break through the pain, so we switched to a different medication, which helped & then put her on bed rest for 2 weeks, which did the trick. (we continued the meds for a full 30 days)

Had that not worked, an Xray would have been ordered & further workup to determine if there was more than just a sprain.

Good luck, & until you can see your vet, keep him calm & avoid running.

Answer 2

Of course you don't know what's wrong, you're not a vet.

It's not impossible that there's something stuck in the paw. Things like grass seeds work in so deep that you have to anaesthetise the animal and cut in with a scalpel blade before you find anything.

It could be muscle problems, joint problems or tendon/ligament problems. If you want to know (and I hope so because the dog needs to be made better) then take the animal to someone who can tell you. A vet that is, not Yahoo Answers.

Chalice

Answer 3

DO NOT freak out, but it's possible that he might be about to get a tumor on it. our shih tzu stopped being able to put pressure on his paw and over time the pad became red then it started getting this weird growth coming out of it. it was a tumor and had to removed. after the surgery, it took a couple weeks for him to heal and nearly three years later, it's like he never had it.

get the paw looked at asap though because our doctor said if we had bought him in right away it wouldn't have been as serious.

Answer 4

Back paw?? Might be the cruciate ligament.. You should get the vet to check .. Might be best to do it as soon as possible.. Sometimes if things aren't taken care of when they happen, the dog can limp for life..

Answer 5

You can have all kinds of people telling you it could be this or it could be that and it still wouldn't do any good...in the mean time here your dog sits with a problem be it simple or the start to something more serious...but you won't know unless you take him to the vet, or at least call, they will tell you if you should bring him in.

Answer 6

That's what vets are for. A vet will be able to find out what's wrong with it. If this is a problem that keeps happening, obviously ypur dog's in pain and needs to see the vet.

Answer 7

Take him to the vet. My dog had that problem, better safe than sorry. Xrays can tell you more, could be something mild like a muscle sprain, sore limb or something serious like bone cancer.

Answer 8

You don't say if it is always the same paw. If it is, I agree that you definately should ask the vet. Otherwise, maybe he sometimes steps on something sharp. I noticed that one trail (that had small pebbles scattered on it) seemed to bother my puppies feet occasionally

Answer 9

Might not be his paw at all. It can be anything or anywhere in his leg. See the vet.

Answer 10

My moms dog was doing this, is he running on pavement???? Turned out he was wearing his nails down to the quik and they were very sore....