Hello all

[MattC]

Hi folks,
My name is Matt and last year for my wife's birthday I gave her a Cardigan Corgi Puppy. His name is Nick and he's a great little guy. We live in Brooklyn NY and he is a pretty popular guy in our neighborhood. With Nick being our first pet we our pretty nuerotic about every little thing that happens to him (well at least I am). He constantly does wierd things and sometimes they are concerning. For example a phantom limp that comes and goes, his strange eating habits (he circles the food bowl like it was prey), and last but not least the strange positions he puts his body in while he is sleeping. I am looking forward to sharing stories and episodes with you folks. Hopefully my dog isn't as wierd as I think he is.

Matt and Amy

[Jane Austen]

Welcome Matt and family! The limp is something I wouldn't know much about. It is certainly a problem that needs to be looked at. Have you asked a vet about it?

If you can post pictures of Nick in unusual sleeping positions, we can tell you if they are weird. Likely they are not that weird for corgis.

There is an abundance of information on this website.

[glencorgi]

Relax, sounds like a perfectly normal corgi (Cardigan) puppy to me nothing weird at all. Have you talked with his breeder about your "concerns"?

The wandering limping is probably panosteitis (similar to growing pains) and something that does happen in corgis, Cardigans being a little more prone to it than Pembrokes. Even if he checks out okay at the vet's after a limping incident, that isn't unusual with pano. Check the protein level on the food you are feeding him, if it is 28% or higher, you might want to consider switching foods to a lower protein level. "Hot" (high protein) foods can sometimes promote too much growth too fast and increase the risk for pano.

I've had a few that treat their food as if it were prey. As long as there is no aggression towards you around the food bowl, it is likely just a game he's playing with his food.

Contortionist sleep positions ... outside of our (we humans) wanting to run to the chiropractor or accupuncturist from watching them ... they seem to awake fully refreshed and relaxed.

Debbie

[Vannette]

Hi Matt and Nick!! This is fun place to be. Enjoy!! I'm Vannette with Katie and Cody, both are Pembrokes. We live in Washington State.
Vannette

[Clogs]

Hi Matt and welcome.
Those corgs have a lot of personality, don't they?

[Michael Romanos]

May Corgis forever continue to be funny and have fun. Laugh with them. My Pem loves hearing laughter.

[fogebotom]

Welcome Matt and family. Make sure that you talk with your vet and the pup's breeder about your concerns with his limping. Couple of suggestions are to make sure he isn't jumping on or off anything and carry him down the stairs if you have any. The jarring of the downward part of the jump can cause trouble in the joints later on. But going up stairs is really good for building muscle tone in the right places. I always tell my new puppy owners, no jumping until they are 18 mos to 2 yrs old. Knowing you can't stop all of it, but avoid jumping on and off the bed, sofa or in and out of the car. Normal running, playing and jumping is okay though.

Weird sleeping? Hello, it's a corgi! I haven't had one that sleeps normal yet. Fred sleeps in a "u" on his back in the lazy boy, feet sticking straight up in the air. Or Muddy Eddie who lays on his back and sticks a foot in to each corner of his crate to balance himself? Heck I have a 2 day old pup right now he prefers to lay on his back, all splayed out instead of in the puppy pile. Consider it normal.

Good luck with your puppy and glad to have you here!
Cindy, the Foggy Bottom Crew and the 6 pack

[MattC]

Thanks folks for all the good advice. We did take the little guy to the vet and they took a blood test. It turns out he has Lyme Disease. The Vet put him on antibiotics and she assured me that there should be no long term problems stemming from this. Since then his limp has gone away.

[colbycorgi]

we had something very similar happen with colby not too long after we got him...he started limping too and turned out he also had lyme...within a few days of antibiotics, limping was gone and hes all better now with no re-occurence....keeping our paws crossed...but know we know he susceptible, even in the winter....it was a scary time for us too...we also are nervous nellies(well i am at least) in any case, welcome to our forum, i have found this place so helpful as we have gotten to know our puppy over the last 6 months....

[Michael Romanos]

We don't have Lyme in New Zealand - but I've sure learnt one way of diagnosing the possibilities of a dog having Lyme Disease elsewhere. I hope the affected pup's complete recovery is swift and full.