Hi Dan, sorry your dog is having such trouble. Knee injuries don’t happen during sleep but SOMETIMES an injury doesn’t show up until some period of rest. While sometimes an acute injury shows right away with vocalization and lameness, sometimes you don’t know until after rest or sleep. I’ve seen that happen as well as I had that happen myself.
HOWEVER, no having improved much after being on meds AND having problems with the other leg now too is definitely a reason to go back.
Hip dysplasia is a common issue in large breeds; did your dog have x-rays done at any point? That said, hip dysplasia is a chronic issue. To me, chronic problem = progressive symptoms. Acute onset to me spells an acute cause. You don’t wake up one morning and have hip dysplasia you didn’t have the night before. We had this discussing about JD when he did something to himself running and his hips showed up looking badly. Everybody was convinced it was the hips but I felt that the hips were the same two days prior when he wasn’t having any visible problem. Surely enough, with some care and meds, couple months later his hips are still the same (or arguably worse) and he’s doing fine. It WAS some kind of acute injury on top of whatever the state of the hips was.
However, your dog is now having two bad legs. Yes, it could be bad knee ligaments. They couldn’t have been partially damaged and the left leg, having to bear the extra weight compensating for the right one, could have sustained further tearing to the ligament. Way too many dogs end up with bilateral problem where both knees go at about the same time and both need to be fixed.
Bad knee ligaments are serious, about as serious as hip dysplasia. The ligament, once damaged or torn does not heal itself to the previous state. The knees can heal in other ways through conservative management but with both legs affected that is not really an option. Regenerative medicine can do a lot of good but again, with both knees being a problem that’s probably not going to happen. Most common fix for both bad knees is a surgery on both knees to stabilize them
First things first, though. Go back to the vet. And I would go further with the diagnostics and include x-rays. I would do full evaluation, including neurological, just in case the problem isn’t with the legs but with the back. Some serious diagnosing needs to happen to determine what exactly is going on before you can talk about ways of dealing with it.
I think, while at it, I’d test for tick-borne diseases as well to be on the safe side.
Hello,
I’m sorry to hear about all of the troubles with both your dog and the vets run around that has left you lacking a direction and a helpful immediate and long term treatment plan. The best advice I can give is to call the vet you trusted the most and felt the most confident with and ask them to help you navigate your way through this. You need to get a firm diagnosis and start with that treatment plan. And then see how your dog does. Yay would be my advice. To get better direction from the vet you think can help you best. Very best wishes. And please let us know what happens.