cavapoo leg problems

Hi everyone, I know its not a purebred but we have a Cavapoo, and she has just recently been having leg troubles. We have had her in to see the vet and we are booked in to get some tests at the university for her. Okay for whats wrong, first off she is 2 1/2 years old. about five days ago we were coming in from outside with her and she was running up the steps and her front leg just seemed to give out on her and it went ou sideways and she kinda fell to the floor with alittle wimper. She got up from that and we watched her and she seemed to get better. Now just here yesterday we couldn't find her so I went looking for her and found her at the bottom of the steps in our barn, the door must have blown shut and locked her in there, so I opened up the door and she was just lying there then she tried to get up and fell down as it seemed at least 3 of her legs gave out the 2 back ones for sure, she fell onto her side and her legs were pointed straight out. She would walk really funny after that for awhile like she couldn't bend her legs and they would seem to want to keep giving out. We took her into a local vet (we lve in a small town) and our vet couldn't find anything notciably wrong with her no sore spots on anything out of the ordinary. She didn't want to medicate or anything cause she didn't know which is good. The vet phoned and made us an appointment to go to the university to get tests done. So I am just wondering if anyone knows what could be wrong. She seems to be alittle stiff today but they haven't given out on her yet except when she tried going down a couple stairs. She is very energetic and hard to keep still. Please can anyone even just help us to kinda know whats going on. We will still be taking her to the univeristy either way. Thanks a milllion everyone. Take care

One leg issue that is common in Cavaliers is Luxating Patellas. That's one of the reasons it is so important to buy a Cavalier puppy from a reputable breeder that does a variety of tests for all the genetic health issues familiar to the breed.

Given your little girl is a mix, it is probably safe to say that her breeder didn't do this kind of testing. It is my understanding that it would be very unusual for a designer dog breeder if they did.

Any time I hear of a Cavalier with leg issues, I think patellas. That said, I don't know a lot about them, so I can't really comment about your situation. Hopefully it is not that, but the university tests, I am sure will be able to let you know. Good Luck. :xfngr:

Hopefully somoene will be able to give you a better idea of what to expecd from the tests and what could be wrong with your girl.

This doesn't sound like a patella problem to me. With multiple legs going out and her actually falling over sounds more like episodic falling.

http://cavalierhealth.org/episodic_falling.htm

Please let us know what you find out.

Maybe the barn door hit her when it closed??? no???

I'm not an expert by any means. I just blod along doing my best for ruby. I hope she is ok soon. I've never heard of a cavalierpoo? Would you post some pictures? I'm sure she is beautiful. I hope she will be ok poor little pet...

Patellas would possibly account for hind leg problems but not front legs and generally all wouldn;t give out like this and the problem would have been noticeable I think for many months -- limping etc -- so am guessing this isn't the issue. I would agree that this sounds fairly serious, possibly episodic falling, or possibly syringomyelia, or some other neurological condition that is affecting the hindbrain area that controls motor response.

Unfortunately mixes can inherit the health issues of either of the breeds in the mix and the above two issues are known problems in purebreds. Syringomyelia can cause limb weakness -- it has also been seen in most small breeds including poodles so your vet should be aware of it; but there's a very high incidence in cavaliers. More info here: www.smcavalier.com, my website, where you can download a number of documents to bring to your vet.

Also be sure to tell them about episodic falling syndrome, as to me at least, this would more immediately seem to be a possibility given what you have seen. Most vets and even some neurologists will not be very familiar with either of these conditions.

Most likely you will want to get a referral asap to a vet neurologist but the vet school will probably have one there. There are lists both at the SM website and at www.cavalierhealth.org; the latter has more up to date info that I do on US neuros.

Good luck and please stay with us and let us know what you find out as we will be thinking of you! I will be hoping you can get to the bottom of this and determine the problem, to have many more years with your dog. :flwr:

Thanks everyone well we are still monitoring her and she seems to be doing better right now. We had her out playing alittle nothing to demanding just alittle running around and seemed to do fine. She sure seems to be stretching alot more then she ever used to.

As for the barn door hitting her it is possible but it is only open alittle bit and then the wind usually blows it closed so there wouldn't be much force behind it, I thought maybe she fell down the stairs, but she has no sore spots that we or the vet could find.

We go on wednesday to the university we will hopefully find whats wrong then and I will sure let everyone know whats going on.

As for the cavapoo she is adorable alittle more poodle noticeable in her than cavalier, but still cute as a button.

Here are some pics of our little girl.
Hope they work

When she was little


When she was out playing in the snow

What she looks like now

Try these ones.

When she was little


When she was out playing in the snow


What she looks like now

What a beautiful dog. I want her.

she is absolutely beautiful.

She is such a cute dog.

What a fabulous mix.:lotsaluv::lotsaluv:

If it happens again and you have your cell phone or a video camera handy, if you can, get a video clip of the way she acts. It will help to diagnose the issue. Your dog is so cute.

Thanks everyone, ya when we first saw her as a puppy we couldn't resist had to have her would have taking the whole litter if we could have afforded it.

Thank you for all the nice comments we are very worried, she is still doing good this evening playing up a strom. I have my cell phone handy all the time now just in case it happens again. At least the vet was able to see exactly what was going on she did it when we took her in. Thanks again everyone