Dog sudden hip pain

Question
My dog, a 6-yr old, 85 lb, Amer Pit Bull Terrier/Rhodesian mix was inside almost all day yesterday as we did yard work. Last night I was petting on him and he started to whine and wanted to get up. I called him over again and he yelped as he tried to lay down. He started favoring his right hip. Since last night he's gotten progressively worse. He yelps and whines when he tries to get up and since he's hurting he can't go outside to go potty. His leg/hip feels normal and he doesn't yelp to the touch, only movement. He has no sign of insect or any other bites and he wasn't outside to play or run yesterday. Can you give me some idea of what may be wrong with him? I have a call into my local emer vet and am waiting for the callback. I just can't figure out how something could come on so sudden. He wasn't even running and playing to pull a muscle.

Answer
Well that is unusual if the dog wasn't playing or running. Are you sure it's his hip and  not his knee? Knee problems (torn ACLs) are more common than hip problems but dog's can and do suffer from sudden attacks of arthritis.

Since you were outside and he was inside, could he have jumped off the bed or couch? That is a common way to tear a knee. Some dogs have hurt their sacrum's jumping off of couches, beds, stairs,etc.

These things are usually discovered pretty quickly by a vet by doing a hands on exam. We see quite a few dogs that rupture their ACLs or just tweak their backs out this way.

I don't think it's an emergency and you could wait until tomorrow as long as he is eating or drinking and his bowel movements and urination are normal, that is, no blood in his urine, etc.

You might want to try giving him a regular buffered aspirin if he has no other medical conditions to prevent that. You can ask the ER vet when he calls back if that would be okay.

I hope he recovers quickly and you find the problem. Please let me know what the vet finds.