Hi everyone,

A brief summary of our puppy's issue:

Jasper's a 4-month old, male husky who, for almost a month now, has been falling over his front paws - we're not particularly sure if it's both paws or just one. His interest in food, ever since the injury, has also subsided quite a bit. An elaborate history/observations below in case anyone's wondering or is interested in helping:




My wife and I are new to the forums and unfortunately, under adverse circumstances. We're absolutely stumped as to what our puppy's issue is. A little bit about Jasper, he was born on the 27th of October, 2016 in Islamabad, Pakistan and is a tiny little furball, or well, was. We got him 10 days before our wedding on the 25th of December, 2016 and brought him to Lahore, which was by far the best decision of our lives! Jasper's been the nucleus and naturally the centre of attention ever since we tied the knot. He has (or had) a monster of an appetite, copious amounts of energy, and generally a very friendly, energetic and loving puppy. He'd wake us up in the morning, be incredibly excited about his first meal (as well as subsequent ones throughout the day), and just be overflowing with energy. Even though the weather, when we initially brought Jasper over, was pretty cold and still is pretty chilly, Jasper was succumbed to our terrace and had access to our bedroom/lounge (laminate, slippery floors). In case you're wondering why he wasn't allowed out in the lawn (at least until all his vaccinations were done), was solely because my younger brother's puppy contracted parvo last year. We waited it out and it was well worth the wait.

As soon as we finally started taking him out, Jasper spent a considerable amount of time outside, playing with another puppy (pitbull) - roughly about 6-7 hours everyday while my wife and I were at work. We'd come back to him totally depleted and exhausted - which was great, given that he was out playing all day.

A month ago, however, we came across him stumbling and tripping over his own feet. Took him to the vet and they diagnosed him with a muscle sprain in his rear legs. Jasper rested for a few days with painkillers and calcium tablets as per the vet's prescription, only for it to get worse and the issue apparently stemmed from his spine. We had x-rays done on his hip and they were all clear. We got a second opinion a couple of days ago - the other vet said it could potentially be a neurological issue.

To narrow it down, Jasper trips mostly over his front left paw - we have a few videos of him that, even though are agonising to watch, are quite informative.

We're completely stumped as to what it could possibly be that's not only contributed to Jasper losing his grasp on his motor functions, but also a general disinterest in his dog food - he does eat beef and chicken otherwise, but his excitement levels have subsided considerably. We have lots of videos from the past couple of months that we would be happy to share.

Any help/feedback would be appreciated.

Welcome to the forum! If it is his front paws it could be pano here is some info on that http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_multi_panosteitis That may be the reason for slowing down and lack of a good appetite. It could also be neuro issue, however a specialist would need to be seen for any of these issues, could also be a spine issue. Pano being the least worry, they tend to grow out of it. I would seek out a more skilled vet or a specialist. If it isn't those issues, it could be a bug, but since you are not in the US I would not have any real good ideas on what type of infections, or parasites y'all have there, so again a more skilled vet would be in order. Good luck and please feel free to post pics and videos, perhaps another member may have experienced this before with their pups.

First let me welcome you to the forum even if it's under a less than great situation.

Secondly, you've hit us (most of us are in the US) on a Friday afternoon and the forums are typically *very* quiet over the weekend.

Just from general history, I imagine you're going to be asked:
Is he from a registered breeder or a back yard breeder?  That helps us since 'good' breeder have tended to narrow down the genetic issues that you might encounter with a less than great breeder. There is no judgement call there, just a request for information.
What are you feeding him?  Food can go a long way in helping a puppy develop well or not so well.
While a terrace might be at ground level, for some reason I suspect that Jasper is living in an apartment building ... do you carry him up and down stairs or has he had free run (with you) to run up and down.  Stairs are rough on puppies developing bone structure. You said that you had x-rays taken of the shoulders, how about the "elbow" and "wrist" to see if he's injured anything there.

I'm completely done and way out of my league ... let's see what others bring up between now and Monday.

my boy was diagnosed with pano at almost 2 years old. he was never a very energetic guy, never liked to walk for very long ether i always though it was do to the warm weather at time it was summer. he some times looked like he would slip or trip but i though it was the tile. at almost 2 years old he started to limp and it would change legs sometimes it was more noticeable then others.
they gave us pain killer to manage it, and give them to him as needed and that it would resolve on its own. i wanted to give him something other then pain killer that would help him, so i found Holistic Blend Glucosamine HCL Complex for Dogs & Cats. he was ont that for 2 months with in a few days there was a very noticeable difference. now he just gets msm powder as needed. i also do hind leg awareness exercises with him 3 times a week and some FitPAWS® Conditioning Challenge exercises.

Rats... accidentally gave Ronin bad advice thing... can someone fix?

Thank you guys for the prompt replies. Turns out that Jasper's doing a lot better as long as he's in the other pups' company. The issue still remains though.

Got a second opinion over the weekend and it turns out that there's nothing wrong with any of his limbs. It's definitely a neurological issue... We're getting an x-ray of his spine tonight just to see if everything's in order. Unfortunately, as pathetic as it sounds, there's no way to get his MRI done here.

Finger's crossed... let's hope we can get to the bottom of the issue.

MiyasMomma: honestly, if it's something he can grow out of, we couldn't ask for more - so long as it's something temporary.

Aljones: thank you for the embrace - glad that we're in the midst of husky lovers! So, turns out that the guy we got Jasper from isn't exactly a 'breeder', he just happens to be huge on dogs. As far as Jasper's parents are concerned, they are in no way related - mother's from Thailand and the father happens to be from our hometown - Lahore. They've had two litters with healthy puppies - all of them. We started off with Farmina's N & D dog food and gradually introduced Pedigree (beef & lamb), and since he has a sensitive tummy, we'd feed him chicken and rice, usually in the form of a smoothie - we've been giving him minced meat, bread, roti (traditional bread), even gave him an egg yesterday just to change things around a bit given that his appetite's been off... We live in a house and we usually carried him up and down the stairs when he was much smaller...

RedFlashFire05: think we need to do some front leg exercises for the little guy, thank you for the feedback.

Will try and upload videos shortly. Thank you guys, again, for all your help.

Hmirza..............if you can find a flavor the pup does well on, I would go back to the Farmina, it is a superior food even compared to most foods here in the US, and definitely far better than the pedigree. The main reason I am mentioning the food aspect of this, he is a puppy and needs certain ratios of meat and calcium, giving the home made food is fine here and there, like when belly is upset, but the home made does not give enough calcium, unless you are willing to give raw bone that the pup can chew and consume, and with improper calcium intake can upset his growing limbs, it is something you definitely want to discuss with your vet. Too little calcium makes it hard on his young bones to properly develop, too much makes bones grow too quickly, so you need a good balance. If at all possible he needs to be fed the majority of his daily food intake needs to be dog food and not home made, unless properly balanced by a nutritionist. So you can give homemade in the form of training treats and toppers, but overall the majority of the food needs to be dog food, and preferably the Farmina. I hope that helps you out more.