funny walking / jumping

My puppy is 6 months old. Yesterday we noticed she's walking a bit oddly and not jumping up on furniture. She isn't favoring one leg or the other, but her whole back end just seems odd. All other behavior is normal (eating/playing/drinking/bathroom) and she doesn't appear to be in pain. She was playing *very* hard at the dog park on sunday so I guess i'm hoping she's just sore from all the running around and wrestling.

If it's still going on tomorrow I will take her to the vet, just stopping by here if anyone's seen something similar in a puppy.

so i took Nixie to the vet. She agreed the walking/gait is very peculiar. She doesn't jump up, in fact her legs don't seem to want to bend at all, involuntarily though. she CAN bend them, she just doesn't. The vet checked both rear legs and got a full range of motion with no reaction out of her. She did x-rays, nothing seems out of place. In other words, we came up with nothing. The puppy is still having issues and i'm beginning to think she pinched a nerve or something in her back.

So far the option seems to be: no exercise. A horrible option for any puppy who just wants to play. I'm going out now to get some sort of play pen so i can give her more space to play, without free range to roam/run, while not keeping her literally in a crate all the time.

I'm open to suggestions and opinions. I don't want Nixie to be in pain, and she's way too young to be disabled already!

Wait, what did the vet suggest other than no running around? How did you conclude pinched nerve or did the vet? Sorry, I'm a bit confused.

the vet concluded nothing, except "maybe" Panosteitis - (but i don't feed her puppy food, she's a medium sized dog, and that's common in large dogs).

Nothing at all conclusive. As in, the vet kind of shrugged and said "no running/exercise for 2 weeks, here's some Rimadyl, 1 every 12-24 hours. Pretty much watch, wait, and hope it just goes away" - whatever it is. I already did that for 3 days BEFORE going to the vet...but ok.

So that's what i do. I watch her. Constantly. I crate her, as much as it seems to pain her. When i go to let her out, she can't just get up like she used to. Her two back legs sort of stick out straight below her and she can't seem to just spring them under herself without a considerable amount of effort.

My husband and I went out tonight and got an octagonal playpen and put her bed in it, got a new bed for her crate for sleeping, and i'm going to keep her in the pen while i'm at home. This will keep her from running, and let her stretch out and play comfortably without being cramped up in that crate all the time. (to be clear, her crate is the right size for her, she CAN stand and turn around in it, it's just hard for her to do either one right now because of whatever is going on with her).

No one concluded it's a pinched nerve - i'm just guessing - which so far seems to be all anyone, even the doctor, can do. We're planning on going to another vet, as I'm not at all impressed with what I spent $200 for at my current vet. I can't think of a whole lot of reasons a 6 month old puppy, who was able to bound around and jump on furniture a week ago, to suddenly be so injured she cannot go up and down stairs comfortably.

If it was just something simple like a pulled muscle etc i would imagine that here a week later it would have cleared up. It's just very frustrating the vet simply took an x-ray and handed me Rimadyl, she may as well have shrugged and said "good luck, sayanara."

If it was my pup, I would get it to the closest Small Animal Clinic at a Vet University. I would also look at a Vet that is also a canine Chiropractor.
I don't take my dogs with injuries to my local vet, they cant see it and they don't treat them correctly. I cut to the chase and get the effected dog to a specialist and save myself tons in cash doing so.

Good luck
Lynn

I would actually be interested in a university clinic in my area, but google is turning up dead ends.

As far as canine chiropractic vet's, i'd probably run screaming in the other direction. Chiropractic is NOT medicine, and a chiropractor is NOT a back doctor. In fact they're not anything medical at all. It's considered "holistic" and I'd much rather find a great vet who perhaps can at least refer me to an orthopedic specialist.

I beg to differ, I have been doing dog sports with my dogs for many many years now, and before that high end TB race horses. Vets that are ALSO Chiropractors are used all the time and with great success.

my husband took Nixie to a different vet, recommended by a neighbor today. after three hours of testing they found a pretty serious bladder infection. hopefully this will be over in a few more days.