My Cockerspaniel leg problem

Is there such a thing as a Cocker Spaniel leg problem?

We're really worried about Casper the Cockerspaniel's limping. Well, it's not a limp. He does a kind of hopping, only after he has done some walking. The vet can't find anything obviously wrong.

Casper the Cocker Spaniel seems completely unbothered by the limping, but we are bothered about our poor little dog. What do you think?

There's something wrong with our dog



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Hello, welcome back to the channel. I'm Neil, and I've got a bit of a problem, uh, and I'm hoping that you might be able to help. If you know anything about dogs, this is our Cocker Spaniel dog, Casper. He is totally fine within himself. He's really happy, loves running around, and doesn't display this problem ever. It's just when we go out for walks. We never see it around the house, and it's not like it all the time, but I'm going to try and show you the problem as we're walking along. I try to say the word "along" and "around" at the same time. There, can you see how he kind of hops and skips on that rear leg just while he's running around? I'm going to try and show you as much of it as possible, but it's like he doesn't want his back legs to touch the ground, you know, like he's sort of walking on hot lava or something. I'll also show you this lovely field that's near us where we do a lot of walking, and this might be the last summer where it looks like this, so it's a chance to video it and look at it before it turns into some new Housing Development. Okay, it's gorgeous. So, we don't know where this problem came from. He walks normally around the house. This is only when we go out for walks with him. Hey, Casper! There might be some causes of it as well, so I'll go through the probable causes, and you can do your 9 pm drama detective work and say in the comments what you think it might be. Oh, there he goes. This is the Dad Delivers Vlog, where we try new things to help make your family happy, but we're not a happy family at the moment because of this. Should we try and walk? This, show them your back legs. Okay, here we go. All right, can you see that? Looks okay at the start of the walk. It's like this. It's generally okay, but then as the walk continues, his hopping, skippity-pop hop on the rear legs just gets more and more pronounced, more, more bigger. As you can see, he is totally happy with running, walking, jumping around. So, he doesn't actually seem bothered by it. So, we took him to the vet, and the vet checked him over, and it was a bit inconclusive, really. They didn't, well, they didn't know what it was. They couldn't see anything wrong. They felt his legs and paws. Everything seemed fine. So, nobody knows why he kind of hops and skips, and they said, "Well, if it continues, then they'd look into surgery." And we've got a problem with that because it would be good to know what the exact problem is before going into a surgery situation, surely. So, Casper seems totally happy. He doesn't, like, wince or bark or make any noises. He just gets on with it. It genuinely doesn't seem to be bothering him, but it's really bothering us. So, here's what we've checked. We've checked his pads, we've checked between the pads on his paws, we've checked his claws. The vet clips his claws, so everything's checked out there. They couldn't feel anything wrong or sticking out or untoward with his legs. But every time we come out for a walk, he just does this kind of hop, hoppity-skip-jump thing. We thought he just didn't like walking on wet ground at first. We didn't think it was a problem. So, here are some probable causes. Oh, and this is like stretching a bit. So, the first big one was when he was a puppy. Um, he got hit by a car, and it was a very low speed, but enough for him to lift off the ground. Our lead had sat, the clasp had snapped on his collar, and he just went into the road. And thankfully, the driver was driving really sensibly and managed to kind of break in time, but there was still an impact. What I'm not sure about with this theory is, I mean, the impact would have been on one side, and he showed literally no signs, physical or emotional, whatsoever, that anything bad had happened, even though it had. You know, you don't get hit by a car and, and the hopping, that didn't happen then as well. And so, we've only noticed this in the last year or so, and that accident happened, like, two years. So, there's a distance between the accident and the hopping and skipping. But anyway, that's Theory number one. Theory number two is we've just done some Google internet research, and there are a lot of articles describing this condition and saying that it's a genetic thing. But we know his litter, and they're really good breeders. They've not noticed it with any, you know, of Casper's parents. We know his lineage. It's all been checked out with the Kennel Club, and there's no sign that there is a genetic problem with legs and hopping and skipping. So, anyway, that's Theory number two. By the way, we've only been out for, like, five minutes, and already, I'm out of breath. He is showing no problem, no sign of stopping, and it really doesn't stop him walking or running. He doesn't, like, go back and lick his back paw or anything. He doesn't flinch. He just shows no reaction to it at all. It's just like he doesn't like his back legs touching the ground for some reason. Theory three is the one I feel saddest about because I feel somewhat responsible. But I don't know if you can see this beautiful long grass here that's about to be dug up and turned into Housing Development. Casper absolutely loves jumping around in the grass like a gazelle, and he shows absolutely no pain whatsoever, no difficulty with this kind of leaping. We're wondering if we have maybe damaged him or if he's become damaged from doing this. Look, I'm gonna do this once just to demonstrate, but we're trying not to do this anymore in case it aggravates his condition. Here we go. Watch this. Casper, come here. Ready, go get it. Ready, go get it.

So, what do you think? What would you do in our position? And do you think it's Theory one, two, or three, or maybe some other theory that we should be looking into? I am calling this a Dad Delivers failure. That is, it's not a success yet, but maybe you can help us make it a success. I'd love to hear your ill-informed opinion or gut instinct or expert advice. Feel free to say hi in the comments. Thank you for any thumbs up to help other people see this video, and thanks for hitting the Subscribe button if you want to know what happens to Casper next. And right here is what YouTube thinks you'd love to watch next.

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