Dutch Shepherd Forum

There was mention in another thread about a dog who let her legs flop to the floor when getting off of the bed.

Stephanie -
You replied with this: "As for the bed thing, if I'm understanding what you're describing correctly, I would look to any other signs of abnormal hip movements. It could be an early sign of arthritis or weakness of the rear end."

Tyson doesn't do this, (when he is exceptionally tired and irritated that he can't have the couch to himself, he will "oooozze" off the couch like boneless goo head first, which is hysterical) but he does lay with his back legs out - superman style - a lot. Anyway, should I be concerned? Was the concern in the reply more about the flopping or the back legs stretching out? He has his yearly coming up and I was wondering if I should schedule a hip x-ray. Both of my GSD's had hip dysplasia, but really showed no signs until it was so bad that they started limping.

Thanks.

Sadie has double HD (sometimes i think it spread to her brain LOL) She showed signs early, she would cry when she would get up, mostley in the truck on the leather seats if her back legs slipped. Stairs were very hard. If she played hard with Thalie she would limp on her right side and look sad and go lay down. Anything odd I would have checked out, It could be a quirky dog ( after growing up with Basset Hounds who are very silly) or it could be he is doing something to ease any discomfort. It cant hurt to see if its something or nothing.

He doesn't seem to have any trouble jumping into or out of the truck (F250 superduty), going up or down the stairs, hopping on his 2 back legs when he gets excited for breakfast/dinner, or running after tennis balls... It was mainly the legs stretched out thing that grabbed my attention. I just hate to have him sedated, but then again...better to know now then later, I guess.

if you have any feeling of a problem get it checked out.

Stacy,

I can't remember how old your guy is????

By all means get it checked, but the younger dogs can still have that "frog leg" thing going on.

Just another data point on the frog legs... Hilde did that a lot when we first got her (7 months old). I rarely see it now (year and a half), except for after a prolonged run/play session when she's obviously getting winded. She'll sprawl out in the grass for a minute with the frog legs. I've wondered if it's something that helps breathing or cooling off.

He is 14 months. I think I will bite the bullet and ask for hip xrays. Thanks guys.

My main concern was that the OP in that thread said it was a common thing for Ginger and that might suggest she had discomfort when jumping off or landing. Usually the back legs out is no big deal, it can even mean he's super flexible, but are there any other signs?

Originally, I thought Odin had HD. He had the every sign of it. He had trouble climbing stairs, hesitated sometimes getting in the car or bed, stood with his back legs together sometimes, was sore and whimpered after playing, right before his diagnosis he was blewing me off after a few agility obstacles. Everything was progressive with him, but looking back now when we first got him his initial signs would be that he was sore after a few hours of hiking or play and that he didn't like strangers, especially fast moving ones, petting his rear.

I took him in for hip x-rays and that's when we found the spine problems. Even though it wasn't HD, I'm really glad we took him in. You don't need to have full sedation to get a diagnostic x-ray. We went with the pre-meds only he was reversed almost immediately after. I was a nervous wreck waiting for him at home, but he showed no signs of needing to recover when I picked him up.

Honestly, he shows no signs of back end discomfort...none.
No trouble going up or down stairs...in fact, it's quite the opposite. The stairs are a game for him. No issues in/out of the truck, after play, jumps fine, hops on his back legs, etc. I never really thought anything about the legs spread out until that other thread.
Thanks for the feedback. I am truly less concerned now, but will probably do x-rays anyway and will ask about doing pre-meds only.



Thank you again!!

This got me thinkin about my boxer. Phoebe never does anything like this from the bed, mainly cause it's too tall I think, but when getting off the couch she loves to stretch the hind legs with her front two on the floor and then hope off. This moves into a front leg stretch and then, as if this is like her saying, "Okay I'm awake and you better be ready to play with me!" the mischief begins.

That's kinda what I pictured when gingerman said this about his dog. Maybe I misunderstood it.

very sweet Xander [ now 10 momths old ] growls often when another dog touches his lower back while he is resting, whereas normally he seems to know no boundaries between himself and the other two. for this [ which i had already worried about ]and for other more subtle and inconclusive reasons bandied about in various threads since Stephanie brought Odin's condition to our attention, Xander's hips were x-rayed 2 weeks ago. the 2 hips were clearly quite different from each other, one the doctor said fit more ''snug'' and the other not as well structured. but she said neither should be a worry. she saw no spinal problems. [ only yet another be-be pellet in addition to the ones that came from TX embedded in his skin.] i love my new vet, but i have been uncomfortable just taking her nonchalant perusal of his xrays as the final word on this.

i'm back to edit this: i guess i am concerned that maybe the bad hip would be ok on a normal dog. but we all know what these dogs do to themselves and to each other. [ i will post my daredevil photo[s] soon.]
whereas, when i first went to this vet in may, she thought it was a funny coincidence that 2 brindled dogs looked so much alike and made a joke. she had never even heard of a DS. most people, vets included, have a tough time imagining the constant severe strain put on these dogs' bodies [ and i'm not even talking sport or work environments! ].

You'll feel better if you take him in. It's probably nothing.

With my last one (adopted, as well), she'd occasionally stop when putting her front legs up on something like the fence, but other than that, she ran like lightning, had no trouble getting in/out of the trucks, etc. Then she came over to me one day and sat down with a look in her eye that scared me. That look....it made me take her to the vet.

Vet said probably just a sprained tail. They were going to have to spread-eagle her back legs for the xrays, so between the discomfort of the x-rays and her not liking to get touched by anyone but the husband and me, she was put under. (Pre-sedated with Valium...two of them...but even when the dissociated behaviors kicked in over an hour later and finally sprawled out on the exam room floor, she still lifted her head and bore teeth when the vet walked in. Vet threw me a muzzle.)

In this instance, it was far worse than imagined. Very advanced. The cancer had chewed her up, including her pelvis. Yet she hadn't exhibited any of the behaviors you'd think she would have given the stage she was in. Enough on that.

Bringing her home from the x-rays at 9:00 a.m., she had relaxed in the vehicle, so much so that I didn't want to disturb her. Told a neighbor if he saw her up, give me a shout. I kept checking on her, but man, was she out of it. At 3 p.m., I finally got her inside, barely, but she collapsed in the threshold and slept there until around 10:00 p.m. that night. Then was up and about like the start of a new day and nothing had happened and nothing was wrong and was ready to rumble.

John, Post your x-rays on here. I can't promise I can read them perfectly, but getting 2nd and third opinions might help. My first vet, who has treated my family's dogs for at least 12 years now, completely missed the spine and did a bad reading of the hips. I posted them on here, Christie gave her opinion, told me to forward them to Asheley, and I also posted them on a dog health group I'm and and sent the to the clinic that Elli's foster mom works at for her team to read. Everyone but my main vet saw the spinal problems. Positioning can also affect the hips and if your vet wasn't familiar with the breed, they also might not be completely familiar with how to position.

My vet told me it looks borderline in one hip, but since I wasn't going to breed him, everything looked fine and we could still do agility and other sports full time. He didn't even address the spinal x-ray that he insisted on getting in the first place in case it wasn't the hips.

oh, thank you, Stephanie. i would feel much better if other eyes looked at them in the right context. this dog has completely stolen my heart; it bothers me that i might miss something that would cause him to suffer silently as they are so prone to do.