Angela,
I'm sorry you're having such a time with unsoundness in your young Berner.
I've responded to your questions within the text of your message below:
- Original Message -
From: Angela Ewtushik [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: lameness
My question is whether my situation is normal for a large dog, or should I
be concerned...
***Limping is not normal. Period. There's something wrong when a dog
limps. What's wrong might not need attention to resolve itself. Or it may.
What has your dog's breeder recommended as far as diagnostics and treatment?
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).
***In my observation rarely will an overly tall Berner have a well laid back
shoulder. Often part of a super-tall dog's height is attained by
straightening/opening the shoulder angle. Some dogs with too-straight
shoulders are sound. However poor conformation may well contribute to
untimely wear and tear, especially in the active dog.
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.
***Your dog would have been approximately 7-8 months old then. That's a
prime age to see panosteitis and/or the beginnings of OCD in the shoulder OR
one or more of the three malformations which are labeled Elbow Dysplasia.
It's also a time when puppies, in their exhuberance for life, WAY over-exert
themselves in play and sometimes suffer soft tissue injuries. It's a VERY
vulnerable time in a Berner puppy's development, especially in a jumbo size
Berner puppy.
It would come and go (growing pains?) to the point where I would
second-guess myself, because I was looking for a limp!
***Been there. I've even been challenged to identify WHICH limb is unsound
at times in a pup going through irregular/uneven growth stages. Don't feel
alone!
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...?
***Are you feeding this dog ANYTHING besides the Eukanuba large breed food?
Had you resumed training with liver treats or some other kind of food that
does not jive with a low protein diet? When I suspect pano in a Berner, I
lower protein intake or protein quality and find it resolves. In my
experience, other lameness problems don't resolve with diet change.
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.
***The problem with diagnosing some ED at a young age is with conventional
radiographs we must typically wait for degenerative changes to have occured
to see them. They typcially have not advanced enough in the very young dog.
A CT scan (expensive) can detect more at a young age. It's not something I
do with my dogs but it is an option for earlier diagnosis.
***I had a dog with ED once. We could see degenerative changes on the rads
we took in my vet's office. But a definitive dx for which elbow problem he
had, we could not make. So I took him to a teaching hospital to get a
definitive diagnosis for his breeder. The radiologist recommended a CT scan
for $700 in order to diagnose the dog's specific ED problem. I declined and
was ready to head home. He then suggested that instead of the CT scan I put
the $700 toward an exploratory surgery where, if there was a correction that
could be made, they'd go ahead and complete the elbow surgery while the dog
was under anesthesia. I declined that too since my general
