limping

Thistle started limping today, I am wondering if I over walk her. We don't have a regular routine, and I can't say that I particularly time our walks. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, and will still run and play about when she meets another dog she can play with, I have checked her pads and they are fine, should I just rest her? She's very lazy anyway, I have to drag her to get her to go out, she's fine when we get going, it's just the getting going  so I'm sure she wouldn't mind missing the odd walk, I'm just worried that maybe we have overdone the walking and she will have long term damage. Any advice appreciated.

My pup is 5 months and I walk for 25 minutes - however we may be out for an hour. I tend to either walk 10-15 minutes where we can then sit and watch the world, socialise and meet other dogs. So she isn't walking for the full hour. I also do clicker training when out to work on her commands with distractions.

The general rule is 5 mins per month.

When I let her off lead, I don't walk for as long as she doesn't know when to stop and would run the whole 20-25 minutes without stopping for a rest!

x

Dogs do sometimes strain their muscles when they're playing or running - especially high energy dogs like staffies. Chances are it's just a pulled or strained muscle/tendon. You can try taking it easy on the walks for a couple of days and seeing if it gets better.

5 mins per month is the recommended, if you are concerned a trip to the vets wont hurt

Hi Jay I hope you mean 5 minutes for every month of their life, making 20 minutes in Thistles case:)  5 minutes a month is a tad mean. A trip to the vets will hurt a lot, but obviously if there are no signs of improvement and she appears to be in pain then I will, I'm not a big fan of vets.

they can, and do, get small strains. just give a couple of days easy, light on lead walking, ad see how she goes. mine still does this every couple of months, and has a few days rest till she's right as rain again

5minutes per age of month is the recommended amount of time, 3 times a day Also when playing with other dogs, they really don't know when to stop and have a rest they just keep playing, so if you are out for a while, maybe give a little time out to rest up few a bit have some water and then back out

In the time I've had Zeus, this has happened a number of times and has turned out to be nothing. At the most, he's limped for a day or two then it goes away, I've always checked if he's in pain etc and checked if movement is OK, it normally turns out to be that he hit his leg off the ledge coming into the kitchen the back garden.

However, if it's persistent for a number of days, I'd go to the vets just to be safe.

Thanks for advice, but just out of interest what could the vet do anyway?

Vets can prescribe anti-inflammatories and/or pain killers if the area is swollen and/or painful.

ok Thanks Eleanor, well surely half and aspirin would do the trick, although it doesn't appear to be swollen, and she's not presenting with any pain.

you want to be really careful about giving your dog human drugs, bear in mind half a tablet of aspirin is fine for a child, but you have a puppy that's probably ten times smaller. a vet will prescribe the correct drug, and the correct doses, for your dog. hey, it's what they're paid to do.

just to let you know Thistle is on the mend, I've kept her on a long lead when in the park, even driving to the park, and tried to hold back on the play, I've also given her glucosomene and cod liver oil, so this all seems to have helped, no limping today but I shall try and keep her reigned in for a bit longer, although this has not helped with her biting me for attention, cause and effect. Never mind just have to start over, and get a new wardrobe, shame I'm not a punk.

theres plenty of kids will pay good money for "authentic" rips

look around the site, theres plenty of low impact indoor games you can play too keep her occupied, hide and seek, tug with rope toys, just things that avoid over exhertion on the legs

Glad she is better and no longer limping! Be careful not to over exercise as it can really damage their growing joints! I think we've all overdone it at least once so don't feel bad if you have, just try to time your walks! 20 minutes two or three times a day and an additional 30-45 minutes of off lead time where she can run around and stop to rest whenever she wants! Gwen randomly limps for a day sometimes but it is always gone the next day!

Thanks again for all the valuable advice, as far as playing tug with a ragger I try to discourage that as she tends to do it to my clothes, her favourite toy is a tea towel tied in a knot, surprisingly enough, which she tosses around and chews.

Try wetting the tea towel and freezing it darcy loved chewing them like that