We have seen a specialist orthopaedic vet this morning with Jess (now 8 months old) about a problem with her back leg which he has diagnosed as a sprain or strain of soft tissue around a toe joint. However when he watched her walk he noticed that she splayed her front legs a bit and also when he manipulated her elbow joints she squeaked a bit! Previous x rays have shown no sign of dysplasia in her hips but her forelimbs have not yet been x rayed. She is an active and healthy puppy and shows no sign of any discomfort during normal activity. Does anyone have any advice about elbow dysplasia? Is it potentially as serious as hip dysplasia? Should we restrict exercise? Are the any supplements we can give her which will help? We have to decide whether to have further investigations but are thinking that we will probably not go down this route at present as she is not having any problems. We don't want to neglect to do something that might benefit her long term though. Jess will be spayed after her first season so there is no breeding issue involved. Thanks for any advice.
Re: Elbow dysplasia Hi Linda, member David has recently had his dog Lady operated on for a similar thing , I`m sure he will be able to advise you when he pops onto the forum , so sorry that you have this problem with your little one x
Re: Elbow dysplasia I'm certainly no experton this but I can report what went on with Lady who does have (had?) elbow dysplasia. It showed up when she was just coming up to 3 as an unexplained intermittent limp. It was treated as a strain by the vet to start with but when the limpkept coming back every few weeks he ran x-rays that showed up what looked like dysplasia in both elbows. We ended up having it all confirmed by a specialist and she's had the elbows operated on and the outlook is good. All very expensive so it needs insurance cover unless you are loaded. The bottom line is that if it is dysplasia, the earlier it's diagnosed and treated somuch the better, because recovery/operability depends on there not being too much cartlidge damage caused by the dysplasia. The dysplasia is a weakness in the coronoid process (part of the elbow joint) that leads to micro-fractures (limp) that repeatedly open up and heal (limp then no limp for a bit) leading to early arthritis if not treated. I would suggest if she shows a repeatedly recurring limp over the next few months getting her checked out. We give Lady green lipped mussel as a supplement for her joints by-the-way. Vet recommended it and it's not too expensive from Simply Supplements. We all take it now.
Re: Elbow dysplasia Thank you for this helpful advice David. As Jess has no signs of limping at the moment, I think we will probably start her on the green lipped mussel supplement and see how things go. Having read your previous posts about Lady, it is encouraging to see that such a good outcome is possible even if surgery is required in the longer term. Jess has lifetime insurance thank goodness otherwise it would be very expensive to insure her again after a diagnosis of elbow dysplasia at 8 months old. By the way, is the mussel supplement for humans and dogs or is your family all on a dog supplement??
