Angels Limp

[SRipplinger]

Hi everyone - I know there is a similar post to this already on here. Angel will be one year next Sunday. Back around age 6 months or so, after very intense ball playing, etc - Angel started to limp on her right front. I thought she hurt herself playing because she is so extremely intense with everything she does. It lasted for about a week and went away. A month or so later, after playing again she did the same thing. I think it may have happened one more time after that. But then she has been fine.

However, she started her herding lessons two weeks ago - at the first lession, there were no problems. We went back for her second lession Saturday and after not even 5 min in with the sheep, the limp on the right front started...so we had to discontinue.

My plans are to take her to an Orthopedic Specialist we have about 45 min from us, but I wanted to see if anyone had any additional thoughts also. Angel is a conformation bitch also...so I definitely want to get to the bottom of this before wasting my time in that area if this is some type of heretidary issue:( which is going to absolutely break my heart because she is so awesome, conformation-wise and working!!!

Does this sound like Pano or something more serious?

Thanks in advance for any opinions, etc.

[SRipplinger]

Additional Info- By Sunday, Angel was not limping at all?

[Rottlva]

Sounds like pano. Usually the long bones of the front legs are affected...sometimes a fever will accompany it. But to play it safe I would go to the orthropedist....

Also, it could be a soft tissue injury. Soft tissue injuries can take a while to heal... One of my dogs would stop limping and I'd just let him fetch a few... and then we'd be back at square one. I had to give him crate rest for quite awhile before it finally disappeared.

The vet will be able to tell if it is pano by doing an x-ray as the bone will appear thicker.

I read a post awhile ago on Osteochondrosis disseacans... which begins appearing around 6-10months I believe...do a search on that.

Good luck and let us know how little Angel is doing :)

[Judi W]

I would suggest that you have the elbows xrayed. Do both while you are at it as if there is joint disease in one it could very well be in the other but not manifesting itself at this time. It is a very complex joint with several things that can go wrong. Not only OCD. Pano, when it goes away usually stays away and is also characterized by moving from one leg to another.

Knowing will tell you how to treat it. Yes, correct, soft tissue damage does take much longer to heal than most people realize and they too often let the dog go back to unrestricted activity before something is completely healed although symptoms appear to be gone.

Good luck and let us know what you find out.

[moretzj]

Hello,

As the owner of other limping Rottie puppy post... I will say it was a great relief to finally get our boy x-rayed.

Our trouble according to the ortho specialist in not PANO or any of the other joint bone dieases. Suspects a soft tissue injury that he keeps agravating as the bone stuff has been ruled out for now. He's at that age where he wants to move and play. Very difficult to quarrentine him but we are!

There is a considerable amout of information on web about PANO. If you haven't seen this article already it really did help me understand PANO better if that's what your up against?

http://www.gsdhelpline.com/pano.htm

Good luck, I really understand what your going through. I also know how scary this internet anlaysis can be but much of it can help!

Hang in there,

John