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Balance Issues After Trimming Long Nails

808 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  G8torGSD 
#1 ·
I have a male shepherd who is about to turn 6 years old. This past weekend he started to show a limp in his hind legs. He's seemed to favor his back left paw a bit but not all the time. As he'd trot it would be completely fine. He also still runs after squirrels. More importantly, he balance seemed a bit off. We took him to the vet yesterday and their initial testing is for DM. :( This absolutely crushed my wife and I. It's going to be a really long week for the results and he has an x-ray schedule for tomorrow as well.

He doesn't seem to show pain but he's always the life of the party. He's a bit nuts with his ball and has hurt himself before but we're not sure when he might have done it this time. One other thought I had was a recent change to his nails. We had new floors put in and was forced to trim his overgrown nails. I never hit a quick but I did cut them back aggressively. Has anyone trimmed long nails and had a dog who needed to rediscover their balance?

I know its a long shot but even the vet said it showed up rather quickly.
 
#2 ·
Never heard of that, but if his nails have been over grown for a long time I suppose it is possible. Overgrown nails change how a dog moves and do make their feet sore because there is constant contact and impact with the ground, it's like if you had to wear shoes that were too tight for your feet. I am a groomer and I don't think many people realize how uncomfortable if not downright painful overgrown nails can be for a dog and can also cause deformed feet and damage tendons.
 
#6 ·
UPDATE: X-Ray today showed mild hip dysphasia and arthritis in his right hip and mild bilateral cranial cruciate ligament damage. The vet said this could cause the muscle loss in hind legs and his cross walking but she's reserved till the DNA results come back. I never thought I would say this but I really hope it's the hip and knees causing the problem not DM. Especially since he's only 6 years old. Has anyone seen this in their own GSD?
 
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