maybe if you write me in my on my
youtube videos and/or email me ask me
dr. brave I know it slippy what's wrong
with my dog I don't know I could guess
but and I'll go over common things that
cause dogs to limp but in order to
really see or figure out how wide dogs
something I have to see and feel the
areas and localize it so I'm going to
kind of give you some ideas on what you
can do
this is Stewie and Stewie is a little
toy breed as you know I'm a Chihuahua
cross let me start out by going to a
systematic thing you can look for if
your dog's limping you always want to
check out the nails what you do is you
pull on the nails and see if any nail is
broken you want to squeeze on the toes
and see if any toes swollen or causes a
lot of pain because the toes can be
sprained or broken you want to look
underneath in between the pads you can
feel first and look and you want to see
if there's a a rock or a sticker or a
rash maybe your dog's been running
outside in the gravel and it's rubbed
its feet raw so if you feel if you look
under there and you see a bunch of red
red raw skin you could put some
cortisone ointment on it you can put
some Neosporin on it and maybe give your
dog of an aspirin according to its way
in a baby afferent aspirin for small
dogs and you can give it a adult aspirin
for larger dogs and it will help
flipping so see see
the foot looks good to you do you see me
swellings of the way scenic cuts is this
one there and that wrist joint is it
swollen in the elbow joint is there
swelling there and in really severe pain
anywhere if there's a phizzer if there's
severe pain anywhere in the leg it could
be broken but remember if a dog's
walking on the way even putting a little
bit of weight on the leg it doesn't look
too painful it's not broken so many
people come into my clinic all the time
they say dr. Greg my dog is playing it
slipping is it broken
if it's broken you can look at one of my
other videos in fact I've labeled it how
to tell for your dog's legs broken that
dog has a broken leg and they won't put
any weight at all so what you do is you
systematically go up the leg you looking
for swings in the foot in the wrist the
elbow and up into the shoulder and look
for any rig swings or or pain now if you
want to see if this happens all the time
a dog can't walk and you bend its wrist
and it really pulls away it pulls away
like that oh and it looks at your wrist
like quit that so that means it might
have sprained it's restaurant has
arthritis in its rest if you bend the
elbow like that and if you put pressure
on it if you lock the elbow in it and
the dog pulls away or looks at it it
might have elbow arthritis just like it
might have sprained the wrist or at risk
arthritis may have sprained the elbow
elbow arthritis so that's what you do
remember you can't you can't do two
joints at once you have to you have to
bend the wrist alone or bend the elbow
alone to see if it has problems and then
you can also check the shoulder
and then you can fill all the muscles by
running your fingers all over the
muscles and see if there's any certain
knots in the muscle that's causing pain
again your dog will look at you and it
will try to pull away if there's a
problem and remember if your dogs in a
lot of pain and you touch something that
hurts it may bite so you may want to
have somebody hold your dog like this or
you may want to put a little muscle
around its mouth to make sure it doesn't
bite you so we've checked the foot I
give to recap the front leg we check for
nail problem you checked underneath for
pad problems or cuts or wounds we've
checked those toes for swelling or for
pain which could mean a sprain or a
break we just check the wrist this
evening sprained its wrist or has
arthritis the elbow see if it's sprained
elbow has arthritis and the shoulder and
then you check all the muscles around so
that's pretty much the front lady
another thing that can cause pain and a
lot of dogs especially beagles is their
neck dogs will vent out a horrendous
scream and hold their head down like
that and when they turn they they turn
to the side instead of turning their
head and that can be neck pain and now
you can tell that is if you press on the
neck area like that and if you go up and
down the neck and they they quiver like
this and then they look like ouch then
you know your dog has neck pain and what
you can do for that as an aspirin again
but you really need to if your dogs in
severe pain don't try to do this at home
just like they say on the reality shows
you want to get it
check it out there what I'm trying to do
for you is help you on a weekend or a
night so you don't have to rush your dog
to emergency or you can get an idea
whether it's something you can figure
out home and maybe help out but your
dog's a severe pain take them to an
emergency especially the neck problems
they can give them good drugs that will
really make them feel so much better and
not being a madman
so that's what the neck gets if a dog's
limping and it has neck pain it will
take very small steps in the front legs
like this boot to do for you isn't it
that's not small steps but it'll take
very small steps and it will hold its
neck out straight and not want to turn
and turn around so what else can can it
be common cause of dogs limping in the
honey quarters is a sore back and many
dogs have lower back pain just like we
do and how you can tell is it a dog if
you're lifting up your dog say you lift
up your dog and it goes home ow you're
putting you're putting pressure on its
stomach and you're putting pressure on
its back and it's causing the back pain
a lot of people when they come to the
clinic say dr. Greg bite when I lift up
my dog and Yelp it's got a stomach
problem but actually doesn't have a
stomach problem you've put pressure on
the spine and now it has a it has a
backbone exit and you can just put your
hands like you got on a small dog you
can just use thumb and forefinger and go
down the spine and feel and again if if
the dog really looks back or Quivers a
whole bunch then you know you've hit a
sore spot bigger dogs like laps you can
go down the sides like this and you
might hit a spot where it goes out and
or dogs would want to sit down
this little guy lets me do anything so
you can go down his back like that and
if they sit down or look back no still
now sit down oh you know okay that's
okay so let's see if we can make kind of
no dinosaur back at all so that's that
would be a spinal problem and again you
can always try an aspirin for a couple
days if it's mild pain but if it's
severe pain or your dog's paralyzed you
need to get into cff grain because the
sooner they could give medication or
treated the better the outcome will be
so what let's look at a rare leg
fortunately on the rear leg it's the
same as the front leg its efforts on the
rear for the foot so whether the from
here down it's exactly the same right so
you check the pads and between the pads
for any kind of sticker or rock or rash
if you check the toenails for any kind
of break or I didn't mention the front
foot but there's a toenail can you have
an infection right at the base near the
skin and that can cause big swellings
right around the toenail and that's
called a paronychia and that needs to be
treated with antibiotics and we use
sometimes even have to remove the
toenail so you can check the toenails
for any cracks infections where they're
joined up you can check the the pads
again for any cuts or wounds or
punctures or rashes or stickers and then
go up the leg for any swelling or pain
and in the back leg the the hawk is kind
of like the elbow if you lock it like
that and it's painful your dog will pull
away so you want to move that hot joint
if it's painful here the dog will pull
away on the stifle this is a whole other
thing in big dogs they tear their
cruciate ligaments there so how we test
that is we actually try to
put grab the leg like that and we go
back and forth and we see if there's
movement and that's how we diagnose the
cruciate but if there's pain in the in
the stifle from a sprain or tearing
their cruciate if you if you actually
extend that stifle like that there's
there's pain and your dog will really
pull away and limp when you're stopping
so that's how you diagnose if there's
problems there'll be swelling here in
the joint and if you put pressure lock
it like that it will cause a lot of pain
so that's that joint and that joint and
the hip joints really hard for people to
test because everybody's always saying
doctor Greg I think my dog dislocated
his hip when sleeping on they don't
usually dislocate there yeah it's
usually either hip dysplasia hip
arthritis or lower back problems that
cause dogs to live in the hind legs but
you can just go up and down the muscles
if they got really sore muscles up here
or here it could be in the hip area
that's the problem so you can check the
back leg like the front leg down here
you can check the hock joint and extend
the stifle joint to see if there's any
sprains or strains you can look at the
the whole leg for swelling and pain if
there's a cut or a bruise or if there's
a fracture they won't put weight on it
and you'll see big swelling somewhere in
the leg of this this one area the stifle
in this little guy he had he has a scar
there because his kneecap went in and
out of place and your dog's he'll have
kneecaps just like we do and when that
kneecap goes all the way to the side it
it changes the whole way the leg works
and then they'll still they'll kind of
skip so what happens is you'll be
walking along like that and then you
hold the leg up is the
he pops out of place and then as he puts
it down it'll pop into place again and
it really doesn't cause pain it's more
of a mechanical problem so that's a
luxating patella how you know it's that
other than the other things I talked
about is looks any patellas hurts
usually in small dogs and you can feel a
pop if you flex extend the leg you'll
feel something go pop pop as it goes in
and out and that's how you figure out
that might be what it is and also you
can fill the pop and there's really no
pain it's just an encounter so in young
dogs like say what if you have a German
Shepherd and it's limping and it's a
puppy it's not limping very much but say
it's seven months old dogs can also have
growing things and Shepherds will often
have since they're growing so fast the
bones get inflamed and that will cause
them to they're also dogs that play
rough with each other in Aitkin they can
strain a muscle in their back and limp
for a few days so a few days of aspirin
as long as you don't overdo it and get
the right dosage and you don't do it for
a long time that may help if your dog is
limping remember if it's really limping
and really in a lot of pain take it to
the emergency but if you just try to
want to try to figure out for yourself
if there's anything obvious and it can
wait and maybe you can use a little bit
about aspirin and wait a day then do
that you can go to my website at dog
destroy calm and there's a free download
called dr. Gregg's 11 practical home
remedies and it has dosages of aspirin
for limping and also any histamine for
itchy dogs and ways to treat itchy ears
and stuff like that and then there's
also two books their doctors diets an
educational book if you read the
testimonies you can tell that it treats
many things like its years at your skin
seizures bladder problems and there's a
book called the feed your pet to
the vet is an e-book and then and I go
through so cooking slow cooking for dog
and cat for those of you that want to
avoid commercial foods and chemicals and
want to concentrate more on whole greedy
n't soar maybe your dog or cat just is a
very allergic and you want to figure out
what ingredients it does best on I go
through that in the feed your pet to
avoid the vet so