Hi I posted here last month about my beautiful healthy boy who suddenly went lame and then the first suspicions from the vet were a soft tissue injury or possible cruciate ligament issues. With no improvement with loxicom and rest, the orthopedic specialist at our vets suspected pano and took xrays - which seemed to reveal a bowed femur which might need surgery. Horror and guilt on my part. What could I have done to cause this? Had I not noticed an injury etc? She referred him to Frank Surgeons in Leeds. Vet was very thorough both on examination and talking us through the result of the CT scan he did. No bowed femur - the angle of the first xray had been wonky. No pano. But, he does have subtle changes in bones of all his legs which suggest the early staged of osteochondrosis. Our initial relief that he doesn't need surgery now is morphing into concern about the long term. It helped lessen my obsessive guilt about not raising my first dog right that the specialist felt this had nothing to do with the way I'd exercised him or us having a tiled kitchen floor etc. He also said it was highly unlikely that feeding him on a complete raw food mix - Nutriment - had anything to do with it. He did however suggest switching to a large breed puppy/ junior kibble just to be on the safe side about balanced nutrition - which I have. He was pretty sure, as he's always been slim, that there is a genetic cause. All the breeder's scores in the world can't rule out this kind of bad luck. The advice is to keep him as super slim as he is - at 7 months he weighs 21 kilos- and to gradually build up his exercise from the current ten minute lead walk once a day by five minutes a week. He's back on NSAIds. Specialist wants to see him again in six weeks but is pretty sure we can avoid surgery. He stresses there's no sign of cartilage damage yet - but that if that did happen there were several treatment options - none of them very satisfactory. This is a real worry - especially as all four legs are affected and with xrays, CTs and physio we are rapidly using up our basic insurance limit per condition. It's all a bit overwhelming. He's ringing me back for a chat today about some further questions I asked by email so I feel we're in very good hands. It would be a real help if anyone has experience of catching this early in a young pup and of how they managed and what quality of life their dog ended up with. Vet seems optimistic but will it, e.g. mean NSAIDs and restricted exercise for life? Any of your stories, positive or negative, would help!
Hi, sorry about Boris. I know how you feel. Keri is 8 months old this week and she’s going into her 10th week resting for ocd lesion (just another name for it) in her right shoulder. I don’t walk her at all. Xrays show she’s got an ultrafine line in her right shoulder. I was gutted and I’m still gutted. And I felt terribly guilty re the raw feeding but I’m pretty sure I did the right calculations as I’ve always fed raw going on 20 years now. I knew it wasn’t due to over exercise as I hadn’t deliberately walked her just minutes here and there for socialising. She’s a super confident and friendly puppy who never did the mouthing bit puppies do. The perfect puppy except for this issue. I was sent home with a large breed puppy kibble too but decided not to use it. She is only affected in her right shoulder TG. And I thought too that the damage is there already so why change her diet then? I posted a question in Raw Feeding section on the same day we got X-ray results, I was so bothered. She’s on Loxicom, Gabapentin (pain relief) 300mg twice daily and Dasuquin for dogs over 25kgs. Another week and if she is not completely better, she is going for a ct scan but the vet said the line on the X-ray was so very slight, the ct scan might just tell us “more of nothing” (his words) but I still want the scan done and he agrees. Now at this point and time, she has a very subtle limp at times, especially upon rising if she’s been lying for a while, other times she doesn’t have any limp but then I wonder what she would be like if she was off the Loxicom and Gabapentin. This I will try in a week before we are due back at the vets. Btw, I was super careful where I got her, he’s a great breeder and a KC a credited breeder who went above and beyond with testing Keri’s parents. Just a bit of bad luck. I think genetics has little to do with ocd lesions, just the luck of the draw. I’m hoping upon hope the ct scans will be good news for Keri. Wishing Boris the best of luck with his issues.
