Puppy pneumonia & growth plate injury

Question
I have an 12 week old mix lab breed puppy (weight 6.5lbs) that is currently being treated for pneumonia. He's been out of the hospital for 2 weeks for & the x-rays are showing less fluid. He's still on antibiotics & still has a bad cough.

I have noticed a problem in his left front leg. The paw is angled inward. I think he has a growth plate injury as he took a fall about 3 weeks ago. He seemed ok after the fall but recently his leg is not right. He walks ok but does limp at times.

The vet stated he needs to be put under to take xrays but doesn't want to do this now since he's still recovering from pneumonia. Does he really need to be put under & is waiting longer doing more damage?

If it is a growth plate injury what is the treatment? Recovery time? Prognosis? Costs?

Answer
No 6.5 lb puppy needs to be put under for an xray. That is ridiculous. We never would put a puppy out for an xray of that nature. It's a paw not a brain scan.

You should ask your vet again to take a picture of his leg. If he has a growth plate injury and it's left untreated it will not heal correctly and he will be lame for life.

The whole point of the growth plate is to feed the bones as they grow. Why couldn't he take a shot of his leg while he was getting his lungs xrayed? Did they knock him out for that?

He needs his leg splinted if nothing else. I cannot give you any estimates on prognosis or cost since A. I am not a vet and B. costs vary from doctor to doctor and clinic to clinic. You need to get those from him. Recovery time if his leg is splinted now and starts to straighten would be around 6 weeks. That is just a estimate based on what I have seen here.

Call your vet and ask them to get this leg xrayed and into a splint. I wouldn't let the weekend go by without getting it done.

I hope you can get somewhere with this soon Brent.
Let me know how he does.