Well we just came from meeting with the orthopedic surgeon and they took several xrays and two vets examined him and determined that he does have elbow dysplasia, specifically FCP, and needs bilateral arhtroscopic surgery to remove the fragmented bone and "clean up" the joints. So they had availability tomorrow morning and we scheduled him. They said the sooner the better, as to prevent further secondary damage and in hopes of the best possible prognosis. I guess he'll always have some arthritis in his elbows and we'll need to manage that throughout his life, make sure he stays on the thin side, and give him join supplements, etc, and make sure he gets plenty of controlled exercise and no "high impact" exercise. I'm sure it could be much worse, but I'm still feeling a bit down about it right now. Not to mention about the roughly $3000 that the surgery will cost tomorrow, in addition to the $400 I just spent on the visit and xrays today. Well at least we know what it is now and hopefully he'll feel at least somewhat improved after the surgery. The problem is that even a "successful" surgery for this condition doesn't gurantee that all the symptoms will go away 100%. The vet (and sites I've read since getting home) say that there may still be stiffness, etc, but that the pain should be much improved and mobility should be improved as well in about 75% of cases where surgery is performed around this age (he's 8 months).
So I guess that's all I know for now... he'll be staying overnight at the vet tomorrow and we can pick him up on Friday. Then it's limited, controlled exercise for a couple of weeks while he's healing.
