The struggle to find the cause of Spencer's lameness has finally ended, 

and to help others who may find themselves in a similar situation, 

this is his story.

In mid-May, 1999 Spencer was enjoying the daily frap with his 'sisters', all three were doing Indy 500 style laps around the loveseat in the family room. On one of the laps, a cry was heard, and Spencer was the source. Right then he was checked, and it appeared that he had probably pulled a muscle. He had a slight limp, but no other signs of injury. We watched over him, and restricted his activity, and he seemed to get better. In June all the kids went along to a grooming seminar, Spencer and Abby just for the fun of tagging along. Not much of a perceivable limp during this time. In July I discovered that he appeared to not be using his left rear leg, however, under his long coat it was really hard to tell! I clipped him down to his skivvies, and watched him. He was not running on that leg, he protected it when on tiled floors, and especially when turning. We brought him into the vet after an attempt to trim his nails on his left rear paw, he cried and we thought the mystery ailment had to be in that paw, or lower leg. Vet took x-rays of the paw, and hock, nothing! Gave him a shot of Cortisone, and sent us home with a weeks worth of cortisone tablets. He seemed a bit better, but then, the cortisone was masking any pain he had. He was walking on it a bit, vet extended the prescription, and said to keep him restricted. Two weeks of cortisone, no improvement. A week with no cortisone, and he was limping worse than ever!

Back to the vet, this time, insisting that while that paw was still suspect, please check his hip!!! Spencer was scheduled for exploratory surgery, on Tuesday, Sept 21, 1999. Talking to the vet tech when I dropped him off, they were assuming it was an ACL injury, but would x-ray once they had him out for surgery. The x-ray told the story, finally.  (This is not 'the' x-ray, but is pretty much what it looked like) The ball of the hip joint was totally sheared off from the femur, and was shattered into several pieces, floating around in the space. Because of this, some 'slop' was detected in his stifle joint, hence the thinking that it could be an ACL injury.

The vet was amazed he was walking at all, and was showing almost no discomfort, aside from the obvious lameness.

The surgery to repair this injury was to clean out the debris, and basically suture the joint, which will cause scar tissue to form, bonding the joint. The joint after surgery, and forever will now show no ball for this hip joint, however, there should be no detectable limp once he is completely recovered.

The moral of Spencer's story: push back if you don't feel you're getting the appropriate answers; if you have any doubts, express them! Our vet actually thanked us for finally pushing HARD for answers, as this type of injury is typically not seen outside of a major trauma, ie being struck by a vehicle!

Spencer came home Tuesday afternoon, and is safely tucked away in his x-pen, in the kitchen, so that he can be close to everyone, with his crate, his favorite blanket, a new Nylaring, and his food and water. Wednesday he slept the day away, we're carrying him outside, and he was quite happy to finally get to do his duty in his yard, then come back in and rest and recuperate.

These pictures I took Wednesday morning, and will be charting his progress as the days and weeks go by. Vet says he should be pretty much 100% in about a month!

Update, December 30, 2003: After much thought and consideration, I believe Spencer's hip problem was not caused by any particular activity. The most likely cause was Legges Parthe, a hereditary problem that causes the hip ball to become frail, and if x-rayed, the ball would appear to be laced with cracks.

After all this time has passed, he will walk on that leg, however he always three legs across slippery floors, or if he wants to run. He's now over 6 years old, and will always have a limp, only due to the length of time from initial injury to his surgery. He will stand on that leg, and lift the other, but he'll never run on all fours.