Poorly Puppy

[jacey]

Poorly puppy.

After nearly a year of trips to the vet, anti inflammatories and a regime of low exercise on vet's instructions it turns out that Diezel's occasional limp is not his leg and 'growing pains' as first diagnosed, but rather his shoulders. Bad shoulders. Bad tendons, unstable shoulder joints. Not good in a big, heavyweight, galumphing, energetic puppydog.

I've been a bit worried about his development for a while. He looks great from the side, but he's narrow across the chest and his front legs are quite close together at the top when you look directly from the front. We've kept saying 'He'll fill out yet,' but it may be the shoulder problem and just plain bad conformation. (Good breeder, good parents, just uinlucky I guess. He looked fine as a pup.) Once Arnie the vet had him knocked out for the X-ray today he was able to manipulate both shoulder joints. The left one is a bit clicky, but the right one's a LOT clicky.

Arnie has x-rayed the leg before, when Diezel was about 8 months old, but not the shoulders. He thought it was just the cartilege/bone fusing thing that dogs go through, particularly as he sometimes holds himself as if the trouble is in the knee/paw area. Diezel's so oversized that we all just thought he was outgrowing himself and he'd get over it. Can't really blame Arnie. Diezel's getting much better with accepting new people politely, but he's a monster at the vet's. Doesn't have any truck with the man who sticks needles in him and shows his displeasure mightily. For everyone's peace of mind he has a muzzle for vet visits.

Next step. Referral to a specialist, but it may be a condition that can only be managed not cured. He's feeling sorry for himself this evening, wobbly from the x-ray and has shaved patches on his front legs. Good job we got the full deal on the pet insurance. This could cost thousands. £4k if surgery is needed. But it could lead to an early onset of arthritis as he gets older. He's only 18 months and it doesn't seem to seriously inconvenience him at the moment, though he does limp from time to time. Anti-inflammatories help. More reason to be thankful for pet insurance. That stuff's £35 a bottle and might be a permanent feature.

You can see how narrow he is across the chest (the dog not the man!) in this pic taken last autumn with our friend Thandanani (one of the Zulu dancers). Diezel was about a year old then. He's a pretty boy (again the dog, not Thanda) and he's doing really well with his training classes, though while he's been on light work BB's been doing a lot of down and stay type training and scent work and keeping his brain active by expanding his vocabulary. No he doesn't talk, but he knows the difference between 'red ball' and 'rubber ring' and he's just grasped, 'Speak,' as well as all the usual sit, stay, down, come, leave, yours, away, wait etc. And he can even do sit, down comeand stay in Zulu, thanks to Thanda,

 

Comments

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

Wow, that IS a narrow chest. But if he knows the difference between "red ball" and "rubber ring" his intellect is quite broad. (Reminds me of a friend's Lab who knew the difference between "You can come with us" and "You can't come with us" no matter what tone of voice you said either phrase in.) I wish you all the best with this health problem, and the best possible outcome.

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[ferlonda.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jacey, I'm so sorry to read this! I was wondering about him just the other day and wondering why you hadn't posted anything about him. :( SUCH a drag. You have all my sympathies.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

The only reason I haven't posted anything about him recently is lack of time, not really anything to do with his condition. He's on a low exercise regime, but that doesn't stop him bounding round like a loony whenever he gets the chance, it just means play is restricted to less energetic ball-throwing and angled towards brainwork rather than brawnwork.

Probably I don't post as much because he's just an accepted part of the household now and I forget to post about him. It was weird yesterday when he was away at the vet's for a day.

[stephanieburgis.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful dog. I'm so sorry he's having to go through this. Sending him and you hugs.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Oh, Jacey, what bad luck. He's such a lovely dog - but that chest really is narrow. I should have a word with his breeder, though, just to tell him/her that this has happened. It may be congenital, but this may be one of these things that is recessive and has only shown up in this particular mating. I know that if the cats I'd bred started to show physical deformities I'd want to know.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was thinking about that. Probably when we have a report from the specialist, since we only had the bnad news yesterday and are stillo digesting it. Both dogs are hers, but I think this was their first litter together. It is bad luck, but he's still a lovely member of the household. We never intended to show him or breed from him, so the basic problem with this is that we have to be careful not to over-exercise him. We'll know more when he's seen the specialist. He's not in pain on a regular basis, though sometimes he's a bit stiff if he's been lying down for a while. The anti-inflammatories seem to work well and in all other respects he's healthy and happy - which is what counts.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Best wishes to him.

How much does he weigh these days

[wswears.livejournal.com]

Our girl dog has arthritis, and apparently slipped a disk last month. We treated her with anti-inflammatory, and they've told us to give her a supplement forever. The brand we're using is Dasuquin, but the suppplement is mostly glucosamine hydrochloride and chondroitin sulphate. Danika doesn't really like the chewables, and will only take them as reward for tricks done (she likes doing tricks, so she'll take almost anything as a reward).

Re: How much does he weigh these days

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Diezel's anti-inflammatory is liquid, served up with food. He doesn't particularly notice it, but he's sometimes a faddy feeder and goes off his food for a day or two, so we have to make sure he eats the morning meal with the medicine. It's amazing how minute pieces of chicken mixed in will do the trick.
:-)
Who'd have thought it, eh?

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Poor puppy. Not so little, though :-)

I hope that you can manage him but it sounds as if you got onto it early enough.;

This is not a great week; my neighbour's dog had to have a tumour removed, and we won't know for a while whether they got all of it. He's only nine, and a Good Dog, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for both of them.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, good luck to your neighbour's dog. GSD's don't tend to be very long-lived. they're generally pretty old at nine. We've never managed to get one past ten. Unlike labs which seem to go on until they're ancient and white-whiskered. My grandma's was 16 an survived a gallstones op at 14.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Having only had cats and horses, I tend to forget that dogs are not so long-lived, especially the bigger breeds. :(

Poor Diezel. I hope that the treatment will keep him comfortable. Our daughter's Rottweiler also had joint problems, though with him it was hips. He was always a big dog, big for his age as a puppy and a big adult.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Diezel's skipping round today, having recovered from the anaesthetic and with a dose of anti-inflammatories inside him. And now we know it's not a cartilege problem which might be deteriorating with walking, BB's had him out for a clouple of short walks today to start to build up more muscle. Pity they don't do pilates for dogs.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Poor lad. It just shows what a lottery animal ownership is, even when you take every precaution.

I've come across so many folks whose horses have had weird back/leg problems through the years, and again it often seems to be a case of bad luck. Though with my poor horse it was definitely a case of 'it's not the years, honey, it's the mileage.'

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

With a horse, unless you breed them yourself, you tend to buy them broken or at least backed and 4 years old or more, so you can check conformation. The ones I've ridden have been a pretty sound lot, by and large, though not always pretty.

When you buy a puppy at 8 weeks, you're pretty much getting a ball of fluff. Diezel looked fine. The narrow chest didn't really become obvious until he was six or eight months and even then it just looked like something he'd grow out of as he put on muscle. Even now I'm not sure that it's connected to the shoulder problems.

Anyhow, he's got an appointment with the specialist next Thursday, so we'll see. They'll probably want to do an arthroscopy, so we'll have to leave him with them overnight. He's never been away from home before, and he hates the vet's, so I hope they can cope.

Yes, I know, they do it all the time and I'm nattering for nothing.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

It doesn't make it any easier when it happens to be your puppy who's going through the trauma...