all of that depends on where and how bad the break is. letting a dog linger with a possibly broken leg is downright cruel. get the poor thing to the vet NOW!

It could grow back improperly causing him lifetime of trouble. Yes, to the vet!

"A huge vet bill is the last thing my sister wants to deal with at this moment and I'm afraid she's going to delay doing anything about this."

Strongly encourage her to change her mind about that. The dog need to be seen by a vet who can determine if it is indeed a fracture and provide the proper treatment. I have no idea how long the time frame is for recovery, but the sooner she takes that dog to the vet, the sooner she'll find out.

Nobody wants to deal with vet bills, but that's no excuse for ignoring an injured animal.

You may think he isn't in pain but a dog can hide pain until it's unbearable. Even then, most people miss it.
Take him to the vet and ask about a payment plan and whether there is a conservative treatment available.

Someone had to step pretty hard on the dog's leg to cause a right angle break but one can hope it's a dislocation. Cost will likely increase the longer she waits to have it treated so please take the dog in for an evaluation.

All of the above and hope she got him to a vet today so she could avoid the emergency vet at an even higher cost. A broken bone or other injury causes not only pain but shock and trauma when it occurs and stress on the entire body. There are really nasty complications from letting things go unchecked -- all of which are likely to be more expensive and possibly more dangerous for the dog (loss of leg, etc.)

Any good vet will work with someone on the bills. Don't neglect an animal for fear of the treatment.

I can't believe this would happen to a dog and the owner does nothing. So sad for the poor thing. How irresponsible.

That doesn't surprise me. My grand daughter came to visit for a month and she cried out in her sleep and said her arm hurt. I took her to the doctor and it was broken. We were told when she fell, the family friend an ems person checked and said it was fine. My doctor asked me for written permission to take care of it since she was a minor and I was smart enough to get a written paper giving me that permission before she came up.

What a sad state of affairs.

Realistically, there are 3 choices. 1) Get the leg completely fixed 2) If getting the leg completely fixed is truly not affordable, and the dog actually has a loving home, get the leg amputated. The dog will adapt to being on 3 legs as soon as he wakes from surgery, and will have no mobility problems. 3) If there are NO funds to pay for the dog's care - put it down and DO NOT get another dog that cannot be cared for. It's not fair to the animal. I can't see allowing the animal to "mend on its own", given how the leg was described, as being an option. If they don't intend to do anything for the dog, I hope SOMEONE has the fortitude to report it to the proper authority.

Al

Your sister is being irresponsible. A dog limping can mean a whole bunch of things and there's no way of knowing until you take them to the vet. Dogs are serial under-complainers, meaning that they often deal with their pain pretty well and don't complain, so if you can visibly observe a limp it means that something is really wrong.

I know you said the limp is with one of the front legs, but this article outlines lots of possibilities for the cause of a hindlimb limp: Ortocanis - Causes of limping in dogs, just so you can get an idea of how varied the diagnosis can be and why it's so important to get the dog to see a professional.

I can understand money being tight sometimes. A lot of shelters have low Cost clinics