MAnthony,
Your symptoms are exactly like my recent pain. Hip shooting pains, in butt, through the front leg into the knee.
On Dec. 2010 I sprained my ankle in Thailand and that sprain pain lingered during holidays feeling more pain but different. I walked a lot during European golf tour events and the ankle got worse as well as the pain. I could barely walk. In May I could not take it anymore after a few doctors in UAE gave me some weak pain meds, so I went to my Thailand home and went to Bangkok Hospital.
I took a blood test to find that Uric Acid levels were high and it was confirmed GOUT. Got the Colchicine, steroids, Zyloric, etc... and it went away.
In December 2011, I walked Thai Country club to exercise and that caused joint pain in the hip, then it lingered and lingered, then it is now doing what I said in the first paragraph. A GOUT attack, I just needed to confirm it can be in the hip/leg/knee.
I am 43 and a bit out of shape. Athletic but at 6'1 and around 240, i am 30 pounds over my ideal athletic muscular tone. I eat the good stuff, a lot of stews with roux base as I am from Louisiana, and love to drink.
My doctor in Thailand said to lose weight which I need to do to fight this GOUT.