
History: Jack is about 15 months old and we’ve had him for 5 of those months. When we got him we knew he was bow legged but the shelter folks said that was just a cosmetic thing and I didn’t really care because he was such a good dog and if it wasn’t going to effect him it didn’t effect us. Our initial trip to the vet for all his "stuff" we asked about it and the vet did some flexibility tests and she said he didn’t show any signs of dysplasia(sp?) so he was just fine. I came to my own conclusion after some time with him that he just lacked exercise and room to stretch out and he would be ok since after putting on weight the bow leggedness seemed to correct itself over time and although still not “normal” he looks much better.

Well over the last week or so we have noticed that whenever he takes long naps or after a night of sleeping he wakes up and doesn’t put any pressure on his left rear leg AT ALL

This problem seems to worsen when it rains or high humidity. He doesn’t appear to be in any pain other than not placing any pressure on the leg until he stretches it out. The only other change in behavior is that when we play fetch he loses interest a little quicker than in the past. He hasn’t hurt himself to cause this problem and it really looks like a joint problem. Could it be arthritis? He is basically just a puppy at 15 months old isn’t that early for something like that? Believe me we have been watching him extremely close and if I thought this was an emergency situation we would have had him at the vet already. I just can’t wait for Wednesday to get here so I can have some peace of mind.
Any ideas which will not scare the crap out of us?

Thanks!

Brad
edit:should anyone require more info about him or the situation please ask...thanks again