Lame lab puppy, not good news

Clodagh

Clodagh

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We had x rays done on our lame 4 month old pup and her elbows are shot. She has fissures through her growth plates. Its only a question of time until it gets too painful or the joints shatter.
She is the most gorgeous puppy ever and we are heartbroken. At the moment she is only a smidge lame on anti inflammatories so fingers crossed we get some time with her yet.
Poor Brandy, and poor us and the kids.
Here she is as a smaller person
bRANDY260109008e.jpg
 
They can bolt her elbows, it has only 60% chance of success and would mean 6 weeks living in a crate afterwards. It also costs upwards of £3000. We are insured by they won't cover it.
If anyone has any joint supplement suggestions that might help we will try anything.
I haven't got the report from the referral practice yet, my vet read it out over the phone, and translated it. I should ge tthe actual report tomorrow and a copy is going to the breeders who want to show their vet, so we will have a second opinion. (Keep hoping someones going to say 'Oh thats nothing, look at my 15 year old dog, he had that and was fine'.
Unlikely I think, apparently its very rare.
frown.gif
 
Thank you, we have cried and cried for her. Obviously we haven't told the boys, they already know she can't go up and down the stairs or jump on and of the beds. (Spoilt? Only a little...)
The vet told me on my mobile as I was arriving at the church for my Grandpas funeral. It has been a shitty week. Grandpa wouldn't have minded the tears, he had lots of black labs and cried over them too.
 
Why won't the insurers cover it? As far as joint supplements all my lot are on Glycoflex which I get from the vet. Your vet should be able to recommend a good one.
 
I'm really sorry to hear your news. I have two labs, one with good allround joints (at the mo - fingers crossed!) and an oldie who has hip displasia.

Seraquin joint supplement is good, expensive though if you buy from vets, so take a look on the net before you buy as I'm sure you'r find it cheaper; or Newmarket Joint Supplement for dogs, is good too. This has glucosamine and nothing else in it, so it depends what you want.

Talk to your vet about giving your girl fish oil, as this good for the joints, but best check first as your pup is still a baby.

Also get a Forbes copper collar, my lab wears one of these. They say copper helps with arthritis and joint problems. Here is the link - you can pay by paypal, and they are really quick at posting their stuff too. They also do copper pastern straps for horses.

www.forbescopper.com/

Try to find somewhere that you can take your girl swimming. As the water takes the weight off their joints and it will help to build the muscle, and then the muscle will support the joints.

Good luck x
 
NAF does a couple of supps - one is for working dogs as a preventative, and the other is Relief. I use the relief on my older dog with good result.
 
So sorry. I don't want to give you false hope but my vet was telling me of a lab with elbow dysplasia which had shown great improvement after hydrotherapy. This is on a treadmill with water in it if that makes sense. Might be worth seeing if there is anything similar in your area.
 
I'm so sorry to read about your poor Brandy, I suppose the fact that she's still growing doesn't help anything.


I've had great results with acupuncture on three old dogs with three different causes that all made them stiff and have various degrees of difficulties, from problems but not big to only moving when it was absolutely necessary (with great result I mean that they walked so people, dog judges, new vets or nurses thought they were at least half their age and they themselves thought they were puppies). Also have one old cat with three vertebrates that has grown together, which made her stop jumping up in our beds and clawing her way up in their scratch posts/cat trees, she has also gotten acupuncture (though the veterinary physiotherapist was a little hesitant at first about treating a cat with needles, she had treated one or two cats that had needed swimming exercise but laying still with needles... But Selma is a star) and now she's is jumping and clawing like she did when she was young.

Sadly there's no guarantees in life even when you do take the precautions possible, if this had happened in Sweden it would also be a typical case which shows that it doesn't work to equal selling animals with selling TVs and dishwashers. Because over here, up until the dog is three years old, you would either get some of the money back that you paid for the puppy (which unless you bought a very expensive puppy wont help much with the vet fee) OR you would have to return the puppy to it's breeder and then you would either get most to all money back or a new puppy (if the breeder has a new litter within reasonable time), but not many want to return a beloved puppy or young dog, so the law...


Hope you find something that helps your Brandy, fingers crossed.
 
I am so sorry and having gone through the terrible stress of having a lab diagnosed with OCD in his elbows at a young age - my heart goes out to you.

I was offered keyhole surgery, but the success rate was low and of course it could occur in the other elbow too - which it did.

Toby is now five (vets didn't think he would have this long) and he has regular cartrophen injections. As long as I am careful with him, not too much road work when riding and choosing shoots that have good ground - he is still going strong and has completed another season of working.

I really hope your dog's problems can be managed like Toby, I definitely recommend cartrophen injections - if that is appropriate for your lab.

I would never ever buy another lab without both parents being elbow scored and just wish this was as prominent as hips and eye scores.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I am so sorry and having gone through the terrible stress of having a lab diagnosed with OCD in his elbows at a young age - my heart goes out to you.

I was offered keyhole surgery, but the success rate was low and of course it could occur in the other elbow too - which it did.

Toby is now five (vets didn't think he would have this long) and he has regular cartrophen injections. As long as I am careful with him, not too much road work when riding and choosing shoots that have good ground - he is still going strong and has completed another season of working.

I really hope your dog's problems can be managed like Toby, I definitely recommend cartrophen injections - if that is appropriate for your lab.

I would never ever buy another lab without both parents being elbow scored and just wish this was as prominent as hips and eye scores.

[/ QUOTE ]

That gives me a bit of hope. Brandy was supposed to be a worker as well as a pet but we had given up on that. What we will probably do is get another one next year to work, possibly an adult, and keep Brandemonium to be a house dog.
Vet said she can have those injections when shes a bit older.
 
The breeders are being very good, they have had a copy of the report and are seeing their vet on Thursday. I don't know if they will offer us another puppy and whether we would take it, they only have dogs now and we wanted a bitch and as they are full siblings they might have the same thing.
We shall see.
 
Really sorry to hear about your pup. My 2.5yr old lab bitch was lame in front from 3-9mths following extensive xrays which were clear, the vet prescribed senoquin which had absolutely no benefit at all. I followed his instructions religiously for 6 mths and then desperate requested to be referred to a specialist. As the specialist was about 100 miles away and my dog isnt a good traveller as a last resort I tried JOINT AID for dogs having previously used this on my older dog with great results. Amazingly within a week she was sound and hasn't been lame since! My farriers dog had surgery on both his elbows at about 12mths, his vets also said that the bones would shatter so it must have been bad, since his op he has never been lame, leads a very active life he is now 5yrs.
 
I got her some cortaflex yesterday, will try that first. I really rate with the horses. Joint aid is, I think, what we have our terrier on, its great.
Supplements supplements everywhere!
 
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