Labrador Retriever: Leg Injury

A few weeks ago, our almost-two-year-old chocolate lab fell or tripped while running through the woods and messed up one of his front legs. We took him to the vet that day, and she said it looked like a soft tissue injury (you can't confirm without an MRI or something, which evidently isn't a normal thing to do on a dog). She said he'd likely be OK with a week of "bed rest".

At first I was worried that we wouldn't be able to keep him down, but he really couldn't do much and it was all we could do to get him outside and back for a potty break. It was like 10 degrees out, so that was a lot of fun for all of us.

After a week, he was still hopping on three legs and not wanting to get out of bed. We returned to the vet and got x-rays to rule out a fracture. The second vet also thought it looked like a soft tissue injury so we got some new pain pills and went home for another week of laying low.

A full two weeks after the injury, he was walking pretty much normally - occasionally hobbling just a bit. By three weeks, he seemed to be 100%.

For posterity's sake, here's a video of how pitiful the little guy was. There's a treat on the floor a few feet away -- which he normally will do anything for -- and he couldn't/wouldn't go get it: