Limping on back leg

Hi, has anyone experienced limping/lameness on the back leg?

My boy sometimes seems a little stiff when getting up or out of bed and he's only young, 3 in October. Recently I've noticed that after charging about when out walking/running he has limped a few hours later. Sometimes lifting the hind leg off the floor. But by the next day he is usually fine.

I have kept him calmer for a few weeks and made sure he hasn't charged about and he seemed a lot better.

Anyway, this weekend I took him out on Saturday and took his favorite football. He was loving every min of it and was running at top speed chasing it. But during the walk I noticed he started to limp quite badly on the same leg again, so we immediately headed back home.

Since then he has not been able to weight bear on it at all. I have checked his foot, toes and claws for any obvious injury or to see if anything is stuck in his foot, but nothing obvious can be seen. I have massaged and manipulated his leg very gently and he has not show and signs of obvious pain, just looks and sniffs my hand in the direction of his leg to see what I am doing, but I could of course be causing some discomfort I don't know.

I am seeing the vet tomorrow, as they are fully booked today, but am now really worried it could be a cruiate ligament injury/tear and the fact that he has showed symptoms of limping before, meaning that it could have already been damaged. I know it could be a number of other things also like muscle or tendon injury and as I am not an expert cannot say for sure. I have him on full rest at home at the mo and he is eating, drinking and doing his business as normal bless him.

Just wondered if this is a common injury amongst staffies and if this is the case, what the prognosis is and how long the recovery period is? Has anyone else had similar problems with their dogs?

I know this is not a cheap procedure either if this is the case, but thankfully I have insurance which I hope (and pray) covers this sort of injury and treatment.

I'm also looking for a good joint aid supplement as I am thinking that this could help him during his life if he is already experiencing some stiffness, so any tips on some good ones, i.e. glucosamine or similar would be greatly received.

Thanks all!!

could be a partial tear to the cruciate ..mine had a strained ligament , we stopped him going on the couch so he had as much support on his bed on the floor we started off with small walks and gradually increased them ...3 years down the line he is pretty much better but we still watch him especially full pelt running i discourage , he was on metacam for a while ...your insurance will cover the injury whatever it is

Max had a period of about 6mths or so where he would lift his r/h hind leg and I feared the same as you (and felt really guilty TBH like I'd over worked/excercised him from too young) but I monitered it really closely, stopped him from jumping, and stopped the weight pull training he was doing at the time, and it sorted itself out thank god

Now he has no problem, never limps, and is as strong as an ox ... though I always make sure if he does jump for a ball or something, he ALWAYS jumps forwards landing on 3 or 4 legs .. cus he had a habit of jumping straight up in the air and landing back down on just the hind legs which isnt good with a heavy muscular built dog

Good luck at the vets