Bowing Leg

So I've noticed the last few days that my new pup Stripes has a front leg that is bowing out at the join right above her foot. She walks and stands on it a little weird and if she puts too much weight on it it does the shakey thing like it can't support her. Here's the weird thing though, it gets worse as the day goes on. At night she is crated and when I let her out she seems to walk mostly fine, its still bows just a touch, but by the end of the day it looks like one leg was transplanted from a bully!

We are having it xrayed on Weds just to make sure nothing is broken, she doesn't act like it causes her and pain. Any thoughts? Maybe a calcium boost? I will try to get a pic of it tonight when I get home.

Its not quite THIS bad but this is sorta what it looks like

 

Whats the pedigree look like?

 

http://www.apbt.online-pedigrees.com/public/printPedigree.php?dog_id=315963

 

Heavy inbred dogs tend to be that way. I had a VERY tight gyp that had funky legs like that. She got along fine, but she was never a show dog.

 

I had this happen to a pup. It may or may not be the same but this is what we did.
the vet x-rayed the leg to make sure it was not the bone. It ended up being the ligament that grew too fast and didn't support the leg so it bowed over. It was in her pastern but made the leg look like the picture you posted. I wrapped it with an ace bandage and then made a splint (It held it straight) so it would not get worse. Then I took her off puppy food and put her on a low protein adult food.
After a few weeks the rest of her body grew and after 4 weeks you could not tell anything had happened. After she was better I put her back on puppy food. The food change was to try and slow her growth just a bit.
She also suffered no long term effects and is one of my working dogs and has not had an issue since.

Wait on the calcium till they take an x-ray. If it is not bone related then calcium will do nothing. My guess is the same thing that happened to my pup and you have a soft tissue issue .

If you do not go to the vet for a few days try supporting it with a wrap. Let us know what the vet says.

When this happened to my pup I talked to a few breeders and they had seen this from time to time when pups grow too fast.
The breeder of my pup had never seen it in his dogs i think it is growth related more than a genetic issue.

 

is that your pup in the picture?
Even if it's not look at the foot. See how it is bent at the pasterns and makes the foot splay out? That is what my pup looked like. I have seen "bowed legs" and when the bone is bowed the foot still lays almost normal, just the bone is bowing. That is why I think you have a ligament or tendon issue, do freak till the vet x-rays it

 

Yeah I considered this too. I have her uncle and he is straight brother/sister inbred and put together fantastic so is her father, his brother, BUT I know it happens once in a while.


Thanks for the advice Performance. I will hold off until the xray on doing anything and see what he says. I hope it can be fixed *fingers crossed*

 

My pup is in the pic of the pedigree I put up. The picture in my origional post is a pup a friend rescued NOT my pup

 

I agree with bobby, heavy inbreeding does that in our breed.

 

Your puppy is still really young so my bet it is a growing issue, good luck at the vet but I would taker her off puppy food for now, it will not hurt her but keep her from growing too fast if that is the issue.

 

Once again, it's what you inbreed ON, not inbreeding itself. I have seen many heavily inbred dogs who looked great & the best looking female on my yard is heavily inbred.

That being said I once had a pup who had a similar issue (& she was somewhat scatterbred - go figure!) & it turned out to be a nutrition issue. We had to take her off puppy food & put her on adult food & it thankfully within a few weeks it ended up resolving itself.

Good luck & let us know how things go!

 

Same thing happened to my female at about 8-10 wks old, she would stand their with her wrists bent inward wobbling usually in the evening and night not mornings. I taped both arms/wrists up with the Ace wrap just like Performanceknls did, i never left them wrapped over night or more than a day. This problem only lasted a week or two her feet/legs are both perfectly straight now so i came to think it had to do with growth not hereditary. She was the smallest pup last pick and full of worms so once she came home i had her growing fast.

This is the first a dog of mine had this problem, im glad i didnt waste any money at the Vet, like i said one week of her being wrapped up and she was back to normal.

 

Thanks everyone I will go ahead and put her on the adult food and try wrapping her for a week or so, then if the problem persists I will opt for a vet trip.

Thanks!

 

This is how you can tell if it is done or soft tissue.

Can you bend or push it back in place? Or is it stuck in position?

If you can put the leg straight by holding it in place then it is soft tissue. If it is "stuck" like that it is the bone and you may have like a growth plate problem or bone problem.

Sorry I didn't think of this before..... let us know how it goes.

 

yeah christy I think its a combo of bad breeding and nutrition with some sort of rapid bone growth stuff. Ive been swimming miss crazy leg for 2 weeks now and shes as strong as on ox. she seems to be growing into it a little but Ill update this post with new pics of her soon

 

her legwas actually 2 inches longer than the other one but its 3/8 inch closer to the other 1 in 2 weeks.

 

Its now bowed out all the time, like this morning she looked fine. Nice and straight legged, its only every once in a while which makes me think you guys are right that is just a growing issue. So we'll see how the wraping and feeding goes. fingers crossed.

Miss crazy leg thats funny lol, Is her leg getting any better?
I don't think Stripes is poorly bred she's just tightly bred. So hoepfully these solutions work

just want to add i didn't not breed this pup

 

and Ive watched the breeding program stripes came from for a long time. she's deffinately well done.

 

That proves it is not the bone. The reason it is fine at first then goes out is the ligament is tight at first then when she walks around it stretches out and the leg buckles over. This is normal, when you wake up, or stand after siting for a while everything is tight but as you move around things loosen up a bit. The problem here is her ligament grew faster than it should have. This is exactly what happened with my pup. I would not say it is hereditary just that the pup grew too quickly. I talked with my vet and other breeders and they too think it was not genetic just too much growth too quick. Again the people I talked too have seen with pups before but so rare and in different lines they too feel it's not genetic just something that happens. JMO
either way if you keep it supported in a few weeks she should be fine and you will never know this happened.