Chandler rant...I need to vent worries.

This first showed up on the 14th, when a dog collided with him in the dog park, but he had been playing very roughly with another dog two days beforehand so I can't rule out anything. Anyway, he yelped at the collision, yipped once again when he flopped down on his side, and yelped coming up the riverbank during his last "you just yelped; we are going home" rinse. And complaned a bit while settling into the back seat. He seemed fine the next day, so on the day after that we went out on a play date with a friend's ES dogs. He then yelped a few times that day, but nobody could pin anything down by looking at him. (There was no obvious limp and there never has been)

Rested him for a week, he seemed ok, so we went to one of his Akita friend's birthday parties. He won best swimmer, and only yelped once while playing-but I thought his Akita friend stepped on him. So we went hiking with my friend and her ES the next day, whereupon he hurled himself over a fallen sapling-and yelped. This time my friend could definitely see his limp, so we went into the vet on Tuesday.

The vet felt his hind legs, and watched him walk. She declared he had a stiff right knee, and proclaimed it either a sprain, strain, or a stretched or partially torn ligament. She then gave us anti-inflammatories until Friday, and orders to rest in the apartment for a week. After that, we were supposed to "take it easy". I was and still am not pleased with the vagueness.

We've mostly rested for a week-keeping a 9-10 month old ES from galloping around the house is not easy. We went to his class last night and his trainer said his right heel was wobbling a bit, and it was messing up his gait. It also looks like he's not putting all his weight on the leg-it has a tendency to toe-out.

I took Chandler out for a swim today.He seemed rather quiet for his first time off leash.
On land, it looked like his right leg was moving out to the side a bit when he walked, or something.
The fact that it's not easy to see is driving me crazy.

So we're back to the vet on Friday, because he's not quite right. This time we're seeing the head vet of the practice, so its sort of like having a second opinion.

It's just frusterating because his limp is so subtle, and they're being very vague. Plus I have other opinions ranging from "did you check for lyme?" to "it could be growing pains"...none of which have been ruled out as far as I know.

*FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

Anyway, here's a view of Chandler's valiant defense of the mud puddle, before all this happened.
Yes, he soaked up most of it into his fur.