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Six year old black lab mix. This morning when I got up he was limping. He was fine last night, short walk around 8 and then a little game of tug around 10:30. He was on my bed when I got up this morning but when he got down he was favoring right front leg. He was able to get up and down stairs, and back up on bed. No whining.
Took him out to do his business and he wanted to stay out and I watched him from the window - he was walking fine. He was fine all day - went out back and played and was even on the scent of something and running around, digging, etc.
Tonight, he is limping again! It seems a little worse than this morning, but still no whining and he can get up on bed.
Anyone ever experienced something like this, or idea what would cause this intermittent limping?
Have you checked to see if there is something, even tiny, up between his toes? It could bother him certain times or perhaps carpet pushes it up further.
If something is injured, the jump down from bed or anyplace can exacerbate the issue.
Animals can be very brave and want to have fun even when hurting, as did one of ours with arthritis.
It's good to catch these things early. Go see your vet.
Check his nails and pad/between pads. If you don't find anything, take him to a vet. I hate to say this, but labs are prone to bone cancer. You may want to get an x ray. It can be treatable if caught early if that is what it is.
From your description kind of reminds me of some sort of soft tissue injury/tendonitis. While he's using it, the muscle/tendon/ligament is flexing, warmed up, and seems OK, then after spending some time inactive or sleeping, it stiffens up again. When he first starts again he's stiff and limping.
I agree about taking him to a vet (after checking for something obvious on his feet). For a front leg, it could be a luxating patella or - as our vet used to call it - a "joint mouse." One of our dogs had both, and the limping would come and go.
We did not do anything surgically about either condition, and most of the time she was absolutely fine. (I mean, really, really fine - going on long walks and loving it.) She did take Rimadyl for well over a decade for this and another arthritic condition (and her organs were fine on the long-term Rimadyl).
Here's some info about the joint mouse - I see that your dog is older than the usual onset, but I still think it sounds like a possibility.
Also, about now you could be easing how your dog gets down from your bed if you haven't already. So the joints don't get slammed together with the landing. Not so different than humans. A nice long easy ramp is reasonable if you have the space.
So he went to the vet today after not limping since Tuesday afternoon (of course). Vet couldn’t find anything wrong with him and said could have been a minor injury he recovered from it maybe he’s just getting old. At any rate he is perfectly fine now and I am wondering if he was missing his male humans who went away for the weekend and came back Tuesday！
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