Beagle with hip pain

[robin s]

I have a 5-6 year old female beagle. not sure of her exact age as she was a rescue dog. Lately she's been experiencing pain in her right hip. She's always been a "touchy" dog, but this evening she yelped in pain when I lifted her two front legs. I touched her hips looking for where the trouble could be and she yelped at having her right hip touched. I just barely brushed up against it. Last week she escaped for an undetermined amount of time and both she and her mother were limping when picked her up from a neighbor a few blocks over. help! are beagles prone to joint problems or hip injuries? she seemed fine when we bathed her after returning home last week. we checked her for injuries then. any suggestion other than a vet visit for xrays on Thursday?