My question is whether my situation is normal for a large dog, or should I be concerned... I know this topic has probably come up a million times, but I am new to this list and this is my first bernese. So please bear with me!
I have a 20 month old male/neutered berner that has been plagued with on and off lameness for over a year now... He is large for the breed (120lbs, 281/2 inches) and came from large parents (100 and 140lbs). He is in VERY good condition and if anything a bit thin. I have him on large breed food (Eukanuba) and has been on Cortaflex (msm,glucosamine and chondroitin) since last october. We restrict him from unnecessary stairs in the house (to our bedroom!) and also trim the hair around his pads so he doesn't slip as much on the hardwood floors. And I have been told by "conformation" experts that his shoulder angulation is poor (too straight). Here is a background: Lameness (always front end) began last may and appeared worse after any exercise over a normal walk. We tried our best to keep him under control, but we live in the country, so once in a while he would go for a romp and run a bit faster than I would have liked to see. It would come and go (growing pains?) to the point where I would second-guess myself, because I was looking for a limp! Come september he was bad again and we had him xrayed and neutered in october (hips/shoulders/elbows) and showed nothing wrong... we kept him on restricted exercise for over 2 months (quite difficult, but possible!) and by december he was fine (because of cortaflex or just time??) In March he injured himself in the deep snow (leg stopped, body kept going!) and injured the muscle, which got better after about 6 weeks. During this time I had also taken him to a chiropractor once in awhile. Now this weekend, he started limping again (not the leg he injured in march)! So now I am back to trying to restrict his exercise... he didn't do anything out of the ordinary and I'm assuming it would not be panosteitis (growing pains) at this age...? Or maybe it's just another minor muscle injury that has not fully healed...? Is this normal for a large breed?? Or have I got a problem dog? I plan to have full x-rays done again, but figured I might as well wait until he was 2 years old. I find it is a fine line between proper exercise to condition the right muscles, but overdoing it and having a sore dog. I have him involved in as much as he can handle physically (freestyle, rally-O, straight recalls over 2 flyball jumps to work on striding, started carting, some low impact agility (no A-frames or excessive jumping yet!). He is as smart as can be, but I have been very cautious to wait until he has fully matured physically (not yet!) I just wondered if this is a typical life of a large berner pup (not anymore!) or should I be preparing myself (& my bank account) for some possible surgery...? I have periodically taken him to the breeder, so she is aware of what we have gone through (and appears that she will live up to her guarantees...) If it is just poor conformation that causes the soreness, what could the outcome be? I feel that I have taken all the possible precautions, but he still has to be able to play like a young dog once in awhile... Is there anymore I can do? I am anticipating the worst, but if anyone has gone through any similar situations, I would like to hear what happened... Or is there any berner-L archives that I should read? Thanks in advance, Angela & Briar
