Hi, We have a Lab' bitch called Amber. She is a live wire to say the least. She is small and comes from working dog (gun dog) background. Then Hip Score of her parents is 3 and 5. A couple of weeks ago whilst playing she suddenly lifted her front right leg and wouldn't immediately place it back to the ground. When she did, she limped for about 2 minutes and then went off to play again without a problem. Later the same day there was a re-occurrence when exactly the same thing happened. Since then she has been walking on the lead with no running or hard play. Yesterday she walked in to the garage to meet my wife and the same thing occurred as she turned. Again after about 2 minutes she was back to normal with no obvious signs of a limp or discomfort. I've had the vet examine her and she has full movement of the joints and showed no sign of discomfort whilst being examined. The vets response was keep an eye on it, it doesn't seem too much to worry about but if it continues then we'll need to Xray to see if Elbow Dysplasia is the problem. I wonder if anyone else has had this problem with their Labs, showing pain and discomfort for such a short period of time. I thought that with Elbow Dysplasia the limp/discomfort would be more constant and not one that seems to disappear as quick as it arrived. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Keith.
Hi Keith, I really feel for you. We have a 6 month old black lab Harvey. He began limping at 16 weeks and was put on metacam. The lameness disappeared and then reappeared x10 days later (once we stopped giving the metacam daily). Took him back to the vet and he was then given a metacam injection. The vet examined him and confirmed he was very stiff and did not like his elbows being examined. He was referred for a CT scan which revealed he had detached cartilage on both elbows and they confirmed OCD. Osteochondritis is a painful type of osteochondrosis where the cartilage or bone in a joint is inflamed. It often refers to osteochondritis dissecans (OCD). The term dissecans refers to the "creation of a flap of cartilage that further dissects away from its underlying subchondral attachments (dissecans)". He went in for surgery but when they went into his first elbow they found the cartilage was still attached so decided to give him a cartilage injection on each elbow giving him a cushion of cartilage. He has now had these on each elbow with the hope that he could then have injections annually. It has worked on one elbow but not on the other (he had the first injection in Feb and the 2nd in March). The stiffness has reappeared on the right elbow and only goes away when I give him metacam in his food once a day. We are starting on a x4 week course of cartrophen on Monday so we'll see what happens. He is not lame but very stiff and has only been allowed off the lead twice since Feb it's all very depressing. Having said all this Harvey is always happy with a wagging tail it's the nature of the breed even if in pain they don't tell you. Just want the best for my boy. My boy was one of a litter of 11 and is the only one with issues I am in touch with the breeder. Hip and Elbow scores were perfect, vet said it could be that he has a gene unique to him. Not sure where you are but we are in London. I did post back in Feb but nobody replied to me!!!
Are you only noticing the limp when on a slow walk? My girl is just shy of 6 months and the last few weeks she has had a limp. Only noticing it when she walks slow. She still does her puppy stuff like running, jumping, and attacking my 6 year old Golden. I took her to the vet who checked her limbs and range of motion with no reaction from the puppy. The vet did put her on a week of anti inflammatory meds. Unfortunately the pup still has the issue. I plan to take her back to the vet Monday.
So, my girl had xrays done today on both front legs and shoulders. The radiologist said it was normal, but was told OCD can be hard to detect on xray. The vet thinks it's a soft tissue injury that she isn't letting heal cause she wants to run, jump, and play rough with my Golden. He wants me to limit all those and no walks for 2-3 weeks. To help calm her down he said to give her 2 Benadryl every morning. If that doesn't work they will go with a prescription med.
Hi Anne I saw your message as I was searching for Elbow Dysplasia on the forum. I have a 7.5 month old labradoodle who has recently been diagnosed with osteochondritis in both elbows. At the moment she is taking paracetamol and gapapentin (she didn't tolerate metacam) and we are seeing how she improves as to whether they do an orthroscopy to remove detached cartilage. I was wondering how Harvey is doing and is you've had to have any surgery? Lola is a very sweet natured little puppy (she's tiny which the vet says is probably due to her bone anbormality) but she only walks for about 5-10 minutes when we're out before she cries and wants to be carried. She's playful in the house but sleeps a lot too. I'm just keen to hear from anyone whose dogs have Elbow Dysplasia and what treatment has worked for them or not. We're really worried about her as you can imagine.
