Limping / Lame Cavalier

My 5 year old cavalier is lame - its in his front leg (left) but not sure. The first time he started limping was about a year ago but the vet wasn’t sure what the problem was as they could not isolate the problem to a specific joint. They did a thorough examination – expecting him to react or yelp when the affected joint was manipulated but he didn’t, but it cleared up after a course of anti-inflammatories.

He’s gone a little lame a few time since – always following a walk were he runs manically! He loves cashing after rabbits/ squirrels etc – really runs so it could just be a sprain or something like that.

He’s gone lame again so I took him to the vet as I want to get to the bottom of it. The vet was lovely but again couldn’t isolate the problem, so last week I saw a specialist orthopaedic vet who isolated the cause to his left elbow and thought it could be elbow dysplasia. This vet seemed to think it was common in spaniels, but I’d not heard this before, and now looking online it doesn’t seem common in cavaliers. I’m having x-rays later this week – but does anyone else know of elbow problems in cavaliers – or other reasons why they could go lame. He has been limping now for over a week.

Well he had his x-rays this morning. His shoulder and elbow in his left leg are both normal - no sign of athritus or dysplasia. His right elbow showed some sign of wear/ damage - possibily a bit of athritus but its very slight - and his not lame on his right leg. So at least it looks like nothing too serious!

The specialist is going to check him again next week and see how things are going - hopefully he will be sound by then as after a week of rest he's limp is much less noticable - although still there.

Does this sound like a soft tissue injury - or is there something else common to caveliers that I should explore? The vet thought it could just be a tendon.