# How Long to Wait before Vet



## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

On Saturday, Oso had the time of his life chasing squirrels up the huge trees on our front lawn. He did a lot of jumping and climbing onto the trees and could have easily stepped the wrong way at any time. He didn't yelp at any time and didn't want to stop. After we came inside, we noticed he wasn't putting all his weight on his right hind leg and was walking a bit stiffly. 

We had visitors yesterday and Oso was his crazy self. We only took him on calm leashed walks, but he was humping his bed vigorously, walking normally and even swam a bit in the pool. Today, we are noticing him moving stiffly again, not stretching all the way, and choosing to lie down and rest more. 

My husband is very concerned and said he'd like to take him to the vet tomorrow if he isn't better. His leg isn't ginger to the touch and part of me feels unsure what the vet will be able to do. We are in a new area and will be seeing someone we don't know well or have a lot of trust in. I am concerned as well, however. 

How long do you typically wait before seeing the vet in cases like this? 

I wouldn't want oso to hurt himself more, but vet visits are never fun for oso and are usually expensive (even though we do have insurance for O).


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

If the dog is putting weight on the leg. No swelling, and doesn't act like he is feeling pain when you feel up and down his leg. I will put them on rest for a week to see if it improves. If I have improvement, its most likely something rest will fix. If no improvement or the dog is not weight bearing, we head to the vets.
I've have had both June and Cash at orthopedic vets in the past. The expensive lesson I learned was it can take up to 6- 8 weeks of rest of some strains.


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## flxstr (Nov 19, 2012)

We had exactly this five weeks ago. After three days took dog to vet. Vet said $100 and five days rest. Dog is all good now, and vet is enjoying her $100.

If there's no obvious pain, you can massage it all over without complaint, them give it a full week. 

Otherwise you can just get the peace of mind I did and pay the money ;-)


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