sudden severe lameness- UPDATE

[SadieA]

OK, so Sam went to the vet today, and is due to return on Friday, but I just wanted to put this out there for other thoughts or ideas as I'm really baffled... Saturday night, I put Sam in his crate to go to bed, and a few minutes later he yelped. I went to check on him, and he was holding up his right front paw, so I let him out, and sure enough, he started limping around. I gave him an aspirin and put him back to bed, and in the morning he seemed better, but he's definitely not- he's limping badly now, will not really bear any weight at all on the right front leg.

The vet today checked him out and really couldn't find anything: no thorns or cuts in his foot, no obvious broken bones, no swelling, even. She thinks the problem is in his shoulder, based on the way he is limping, and wants him in for xrays on Friday, he'll have to be put under to take them. She thinks it could be Osteochondriti s Dissecans, but really she's pretty baffled too. It is strange: one second he was fine, and then he's somehow injured himself while he was in  his crate??? I'm very worried about him, obviously! He's just seven months old! And I'm afraid whatever it is will be hard to fix, or worse, the start of something unfixable.

Yikes. Any ideas to bring up when I'm back at the vet Friday?

[maxsmom]

I am so sorry this is happening to your baby.  Did your vet try manipulating the shoulder to see what reaction if any there was.  I just did some research online reading a number of articles about osteochondriti s.  Supposedly, it is painful to manually move the shoulder, if this is the problem.  They did all agree that many cases can be controlled with medications and forced rest.  Severe cases require surgery, but results are apparently excellent.  It does affect mostly 4 - 8 month old puppies and is linked to genetics in certain breeds and lines.  I hope you find that this is only an injury and nothing more serious, but it does sound like there are excellent treatment options available.  I will keep my fingers crossed for a good report from the X-rays.  Good luck.
Kathy

[SadieA]

Thank you so much. The vet did move his leg all around, and he wasn't crazy about it, but it didn't seem to me like he was in severe pain. Just now I was poking at him some while he's lying on his bed, and he doesn't seem to mind being prodded at too much. I'll try moving his leg some more, but I'm not convinced it's OCD- I wouldn't have expected that to have such a sudden onset. I'm afraid it's actually a torn ACL, which my parents' Golden had a few years ago. I'm not sure whether that would even show on an Xray.

[lins_saving_grace]

so how do you treat that kind of injury?

[mynameislola]

Has an x-ray of the spine been taken?  My Stella had an injury to her spine while crated that left her paralyzed.  The only thing we could figure out was that maybe she fell off her pillow.

[patrick]

Actually OCD often has a very sudden onset and it is extremely painful  Other things to consider are elbow dysplasia (common in Berners) and panosteitis.  I've had a couple of pups with OCD and the shoulder is not painful to move- pain comes with weightbearing activities.  Xrays are needed to differentiate

[VdogLover]

 He may have injured the shoulder tendon or pulled one of the major muscles in that area. I would get x-rays done to rule out the other possibilities.

[SadieA]

so how do you treat that kind of injury?

Well, my parents' dog had surgery to reconstruct (I think) the ligament. I don't know if surgery is always required, or if she had a bad case. I do know that before they did the surgery, they did a full screening of her hips, to make sure that she wasn't on her way to developing dysplasia, in which case they wouldn't have done the surgery. But she was cleared for dysplasia, so they went ahead with the surgery. It worked really well. She's now almost ten, and she loves jumping around playing with Sammy, despite his being more than nine years younger! Right now, he's by far the  more hobbled of the two, and now I'm worried about her injuring HIM, rather than the other way around, as its always been!

[SadieA]

Has an x-ray of the spine been taken?  My Stella had an injury to her spine while crated that left her paralyzed.  The only thing we could figure out was that maybe she fell off her pillow.

Hmm, interesting. I'll have to ask about that. Would it be possible to have front limb paralysis from that kind of thing? In any case, I'm definitely going to ask to have xrays taken of more than just his shoulder- could be his elbow, foot, back, and I want the vet to consider them all.

[Pyr Heaven]

Ohhh poor guy.
I wouldn't worry too much yet. Maybe it is something easily fixable! I can only imagine how you're feeling right now. Probably very helpless and sad for your baby!!! But you did the right thing taking him to the vet right away! I'm sure whatever it is that is the cause of this, will be able to be fixed soon, so Sam can continue to live a happy, healthy life!

[lins_saving_grace]

I heard OCD today.  Grace clicks when she walks and the vet moved her ankles around a little too.  then she said OCD.  i told her "Someone of Big Paws mentioned OCD the other day".  she didn't know what big paws was.   

i know it's easy to worry more than you should.  but breath and relax a little.    it will be ok.

[SadieA]

So, good news from today's x-rays! The vet thinks that Sammy has pano. I'm thrilled! All of his  joints looked great on the films, and definitely no broken bones. The only thing there was evidence of was some ossification (I think I'm using the right term) in his right ulna- basically a spot on the bone in the xray. So that's pano, and he's got deramaxx (deracoxib) to take for five days, and we're hopeful that the limp will clear right up. Thank you all so much for you advice- just to be sure I did have him checked for Lyme, and it's good to know that's not the issue. Also looks like his shoulders and elbows are well-formed, with no evidence at all of OCD or dysplasia. Yay! The main tragedy to come out of all this is that he had not been allowed to eat all day, which is making him one UNHAPPY pup!

[maxsmom]

Yippee!  I am so glad it was nothing more serious than that.  Congratulation s and give Sammy a big wet kiss from me and the boys.  I am so happy for you both.
Kathy

[Pyr Heaven]

Yaaay! I'm soooooo glad we found the problem! And something that is somewhat common and easily treatable. Give Sammy kisses from Miles and I. Hope you feel better soon little (big) guy!