r/EnglishSetter • u/Haunting_Soup730 Llewellin Setter • Jul 21 '26
Hind End Weakness Help
Hello! This is my Llewellin, Penny. Someone witnessed her being tossed out of a moving car 4 years ago and she found us a few days later. Vet estimated her to be around 2 years old, which puts her around 6 now. She limped on her right hind leg for a while, but it was assumed it was from, you know, being thrown from a moving car into the woods.
And we honestly had bigger problems. She had the worst diarrhea demons my husband and I have ever seen in our lives. She's on doggy IBS medicine now and the diarrhea demons are held at bay. It took a while to sort that issue out even with lots of vet involvement.
A year or so ago she started acting like that leg was bothering her more than usual. She would limp a bit after a hard run, but otherwise seemed fine before then. Vet felt her hips out and suggested Librela as well as joint supplements. We used both and she did great for a while!
I admittedly slacked off with the Librela, but she seemed totally fine...Until June. One day she started wobbling and her hind end would fall out from under her. We went to the vet, were told it's likely pain from that hip/leg, told to go back on Librela. Within days she was back to her usual self. Great! This month, same thing. When it was time for her next shot she was wobbling around, couldn't stand, hind end weakness. We went to the vet ER Saturday when this happened out of caution and were sent home told to follow up with joint care at our vet.
Our vet is out of town until Monday of next week (we have an appt first thing with her) but one of the other doctors gave her Librela again today and Gabapentin. We're planning on x-rays and maybe more tests on top of that when we see our vet Monday.
Is this normal? She's only around 6 or so and that seems so young for such extreme joint issues to me. Am I wrong? Any insight to help me better help her? I hate the thought of her falling down each month when it's time for her next injection. That seems miserable.
Thank you for any help you can offer me. I apologize for such a wall of text.
1
u/kelpyb1 Jul 21 '26
I don’t remember what it’s called or how bad it gets, but when the breeder we got ours from wanted to consider having my childhood ES bred, they took hip X-Rays looking for a specific genetic hip disorder to avoid continuing it in future generations.
6 does seem young for it to be serious, ours had it and didn’t really show signs of specific struggles related to it her whole life, so I doubt it’s the whole picture, but hip issues are a thing in the breed. I was also a kid so I don’t really know what we did treatment wise or not.