Puppy Fell

Question
Hi...my 9 week old american eskimo puppy fell on my hardwood floor from my sister's arms (she is 5'8", but sitting on a bend when this happened). His front paw looked bench (not stretched like his other paw) and when walking, he limped a bit. Although its not a pronounced limping, he does not put weight on it. After being in his crate for about an hour, he seems to be ok. But after playing for a short while, he seems to be semi-waddling as he does not put weight on his hurt limb and use his other three paws; instead of running, he sort-of does a hoppity hop toward his toys. He does not whine when we checked his paw but he does lick my hand when I do a quick run-through (checking for broken bones)down his hurt limb. He doesn't seem to have a broken bone; however, being as how I'm a new owner, I don't know what the general rule for dogs/puppies when they get hurt or how quickly they heal. Should I bring Eskie to the vet or just let his paw heal for a bit first? If I should let him try to heal first (which is what I'm leaning on since I'm trying to cut unnecessary expenditures, especially since we just saw a vet 3 days ago for his shots and will be seeing the vet again 3 weeks later), what is a good timeline ofr his limp to heal (or not heal, therefore, bringing him to the vet)? Thanks for all your help!

Answer
I would recommend a trip to the vet for an x-ray as soon as possible to make sure he doesn't have a stress fracture.  Puppies have soft spots in their bones called growth plates and they are very suspectible to injury.  It would be better to have a splint put on it if need be and it heal properly now versus trying to correct something that didn't heal right later.