Inflamed legs due to fast growth?
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| How old is your puppy and what does she weigh? |
| Max is just about 4 months old. His weight last week was 22 pounds. After doing some reseach on the web, it may be what they call Hypertrophic Osteodystrophy (HOD). It can be caused by a vacinne reaction. Which he did have some shots last week. And it caused painful swelling in the joints on the legs. Some of the studies make it sound bad, I hope my vet is correct and that it will go away in few days. If not I will take him back and get a pain medication for him to help. If any one else has any other info, it would be appreciated. |
| Dunno if this will help or not...my breeder recommended putting my new puppy on Glucosamine (hope I spelt it right) starting at 3 months due to fast growth. I'm suprised actually as I do have my two older dogs on this for arthritis, it's the first I heard it suggested for puppies.
Anyone else have this recommendation before? I wouldn't want to suggest something if they have heard otherwise. |
| I actually went to the vet yesterday again to pick up a pain killer for him, cant remember name right now though (something like rimadyl). The vet says he has Eosinophillic Panosteitis. I will research today on the web to find more info. he is in just so much pain. He cant walk, so we have to carry him outside and feed him by hand basically. I hate to leave him at home, but at least I can ck on him on my lunch break. Thanks for your advice too! |
| They put too much calcium in most of the puppy food. This causes lameness in large dogs.
Abbi couldn't walk by the time she was 6 months. I did not know whether it was all the vaccinations or her food. So I switched her to a well balanced adult food and did not go back for anothre vaccination until she was a year old. Within a week she was walking again. I wish I had my old computer with the bookmarks for the studies I found on the effects of too much calcium on large dogs, but I cannot find it right now. She was never in much pain that I knew of though? She just would look at me sadly and licked her paws a lot. Like she's doing right now ... If you dog gets worse, let us know. My Abbi is a bit under the weather also. One vet thinks autoimmune, the othe allergies. I think it was a comination of the vaccinations and that Revolution I tried out. |
| Well, my Max is still laid up. It moved from his front leg to his back. We event took him to the emergency vet to get some stronger pain killers last weekend. We have brought him home but he still cant walk with out pain. I feel so helpless because there is nothing I can do for him. They say he will grow out of it, but no idea when. Has any one else ever heard of this affecting sheepdogs? My breeder says he has never heard of it. Thanks Shelly |
| Here is the latest on Max, he is till laid up and cant walk and now is not eating. He is drinking plenty but has not had any food for 4 days. He sleeps or lays around all day and night. We go back to the vet today to have him looked at. We were scheduled to have his 3rd set of shots again, but cant because he is still sick. I feel so bad for him and am not sure what more I can do except wait the disease out. I have been in touch with the Breeder and he has never heard of the disease. He has offered to give us a new puppy (we had a health guarantee from the breeder), but we are attached to max. Does anyone have any advise? |
| Panosteitis is a self-limiting (will take care of itself)painful condition affecting one or more long bones in medium to large breed puppies. It is usually characterized clinically by lameness and by x-ray by high density of the bone marrow cavity. German shepherds predominantly aquire this disease. Theories on causes: allergies, metabolic problems, or endocrine aberations. No proof of any of these, but they have never isolated either a microbe or gene to explain the cause either. It may affect a single limb, shift limbs, or invovle all limbs. One of the reasons metabolic or allergeries are suspected is because it does get progressively worse without dietary changes.
A dog quits eating when it is painful to move. This could be due to the pain itself, the fact they cannot exercise, the fact if they do eat they then need to use the bathroom and that hurts when your legs hurt. Cook some beef or chicken liver (boiling it is prefered). Mash it up in blender if possible and add it to some adult kibble. The liver is to stimulate appetite mostly. Get away from using egg or milk protein for a while, as this can cause stomach upsets you do not need to worry about at this time. You may even cook up a rice broth with liver to get the pup eating again. Make sure there's plenty of fiber, because lack of movement can cause impacted bowels. It is quite common for the dog to lose its appetite with this disease. Pain killers can be muscle relaxants and will make symptoms worse in some cases. Usually vets treat with an aspirin type pain killer and prednisone or another cortisoid for inflamation. Prolong use of pain killers or cortisones can and will injure the pups intestines and lower its immune system, so alternative pain management is the prefered way to go, including massage and accupunture therapy, distraction therapy--such as taking the dog for walks in the wagon, alternating its toys, playing roll the ball, or trying to train it to do passive type tricks like to SPEAK, Shake, roll-over, ... And it is an absolute must to move all affect limbs as often as possible to avoid muscle atrophy. The vet should gladly show you how this is done with a bit of massage therapy thrown in--like T touching. At least turn the pup every 4-6 hours to avoid bed sores too. If you go through the maitenance require, the pup should recover by the time it is 10-12 months or sooner. As with any long term disease try to find some support--a relative who will watch the dog every once in a while. Find something good about the condition, such as having the dogs total attention. Put the pup on a piece of smooth cardboard or mat so that you can pull him around to be with you at all times. Any movement will be good for him. If you are leaving it at the vet's, pick it up on Friday and lug the pup around with you to socialize it over the weekend. Don't let it sleep with you and never place it where you have to step over him. Try to act like he's a s normal as possible. Groom him at least twice a week and give him rewards for doing it. Fool with his gums. Give him and you something to look forward to, some well-mannered companionship. If you get the pup to eat, try to help it eliminate. Ask vet for pointers, as there is no way I am going to be able to explain all that may be entailed. There's many reasons for lameness. In my vet diagnosis book it says: Lameness: Causes: (Growing dogs, 12 mos.)= 1. Osteochondrosis of the shoulder(s). Can move to hips. 2. Shoulder luxation. 3. Osteochrondosis of the elbows 4. Un-united aconeal process 5. Fragmented medial coronoid process. 6. Elbow incongruity. 7. Calcification of flexor or elbow muscle. 8. Asymetric growth. 9. Panosteitis 10. Hypertrophic osteodystrophy 11. Trauma to soft tissue, joint muscle, or bone. 12. Infection either ocal or systemic. 13. Nutitritional anamolies (too much protien, imbalance of ionic compounds <calcium, potasium, iron, ....). Testing for the above is usually done by ruling things out. No fever, no infection. Normal blood work up, including blood types and size and shape= not an infection, not imbalance in chemicals. Thorough once over + not a trauma (which it doesn't sound like anyways), no spine or head damage = not neurologic, and so on. For all of the bone a joint diagnosis x-rays and imaging can eliminate. Then the last ditch diagnosis is cell fluid observation from joint fluids and biopsys of tissue affected. A biopsy of tissue next to the bones can also rule out fungal, bacterial, or neoplasia infections. Biopsies are rarely performed due to the self-healing nature of the disease and the excellent prognosis over time. I hope things turn around with time, Time did wonders for Abbi. She went through a real traumatic vaccine/chemical reaction this last month or two. She is just now returning to her normal Abbi-ness. Time does heal quite a bit. Hang in there! You in the midst one of Life's EXPERIENCEs. Persistence will always win out. |
| It sounds as if he has H.O.D. You need to stop listening to everyone else who thinks they know what to do and go to this web site. She knows her stuff and saved my dogs life. If it is HOD, the infectin can be sevior enough to be leathel in the end. Get the antibiodics she sudjests. Good luck to you, I know what you are going through. |
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www.doglogic.com/hod.htm writen by Hazel Gregory |
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