Our 9 month pup started limping on his front leg about a week or so ago. We brought him into our regular vet who examined him and said it is panosteitis. The only other time he’s ever limped was at 6 months old. At that time, we brought him to the emergency vet where they took full Xrays and confirmed a hairline fracture in his front leg but said everything else looked great, no signs of displaysia and a radiologist did confirm by also looking at the x-Rays. We crate rested him for 2 weeks for the fracture while he healed and all was well. This time around, our vet said to skip the xrays since he had just had them done and was 90 percent sure it’s panosteitis. He is currently on anti inflammatories and doing better although did limp a bit this evening and was very stiff getting up. My question is should I take him to an ortho specialist and have him further examined and x-rayed? Or would this be too soon considering 2 different vets have now examined him and x-rays have been done and cleared? I would like to x ray him again at some point and eventually send to OFA but am wondering if it’s better to wait until he’s a bit older and his joints are better formed to get a more accurate representation.
I went thru the same thing. Mine was limping on front leg off and on around 5-6 months of age. Had x rays done, but they didn't really see anything. The vets mind set was maybe elbow displasia. I have been treating her with Tumeric chews and she seemed to be doing better, but still had moments when she would limp. When she was 8 months old(last month) she was limping again even more now so i took her to a orthopedic surgeon for a second opinion. They did X Rays, CT Scan, and Ultra Sound on front legs and shoulders. They said nothing really stood out that would cause her pain. I still give her the Tumeric chews on a regular basis and now she is 9 months of age i have notice the amount of times she limps has significantly decreased. Over the past month since the testing they also had instructed me to limit her walks and playtime which isn't easy since i also have a 6 year old Golden who wants to play. So, I am hopeful the combination of somewhat resting and the Tumeric are what is helping her cause i have no definitive cause of her pain, but long walks and rough play did aggravate it.
I would take your vet's advice and see how things go, but seek specialist help if it doesn't clear up.
Thanks all for your replies. I think we are going to wait a bit as he’s doing much better as of this weekend. If he does begin limping again in the next month or so I’ll set up an appt. with a specialist and go through additional measures.
My lab is 7mths old and had been limping for a while but without any pain when we felt around his front left leg. I took him to the vets because even with rest he still limped slightly. They did x-rays and said it could be elbow dysphasia or panosteitis but it wasn’t clear from the x-rays. We’ve rested him as much as we can and the vet said we could take him for walks now. He still didn’t complain when the vet re-examined him. No growling, wincing or pulling away. I don’t want him to get overweight and I am also worried that his muscle and bone development will be affected due to less activity. He really misses the long walks and so do we. Any comments appreciated.
Our maximum walk was 40 minutes with max 10 minutes off lead. The average was around 30 minutes with 5 mins off lead. We restricted walks to 5-10mins on lead after this which we have been doing for a month now. He has never pulled up short or lifted his paw and runs around like a mad thing if allowed.
