Elbow dysplasia/FCP

[Carina43]

My poor little Cooper has been tentatively diagnosed with FCP (fragmented medial coronoid process) which is a type of elbow dysplasia. He'll be two in January.
Here's a link for anyone interested:
http://www.vetmed.ufl.edu/sacs/Lewis...Elbows/fcp.htm

He's had some minor lameness for a few months - we suspected a muscle pull, and two weeks of crate rest seemed to cure it. Then it started creeping back - initial xrays showed nothing abnormal, so back on crate rest and Etogesic. No real improvement...another set of xrays showed what the vet is pretty sure is FCP. (It can apparently be tricky to pick up through xrays unless the vet is specifically looking for it, the angle has to be just right.)

The only fix for this is surgery...I am really upset by this! Cooper goes to an orthopedic specialist on Monday, who will no doubt take more images of both elbows - my vet only did the lame side, but this is usually bilateral - and we'll go from there.

I'm sure someone out there must have dealt with this! Please somebody give me some hope that he won't be lame for life...I am sick to think my poor guy will have a limited range of activities now. I was going to start obedience trials this fall with him towards his CD, (postponed it because of his limping) and hoped to start him in agility in the spring.

[Skip]

My boy Rocky had both elbows operated on early this year. He was about 2 years and 3 months at the time. He is doing fantastic. No limp, NONE. He gets extra vitamin c and K9- Liquid Health everyday. He is now up to running (I run SLOW) at least 2 miles 3 times a week with me. Even though he's doing great, I still watch his weight and execise him carefully. The vet did a GREAT job and said it was very mild. He's also doing great in schutzhund.

[Barb and Raven]

My Raven had this. She too had a minor limp off and on for about six months. My regular vet did not do xrays and I passed that off the first two times I took her in for the limp. Her limping would last for about 2-4 days and would appear about two or three months apart. The third time I took her to another vet I use when I get nowhere with the first one. She immediately without the xrays told me what she felt Raven had just by her symptoms. So she did the xray and confirmed it. It paid for me to get a second opinion here. :) Anyway, she sent me on a referral to the Auburn University Vet Clinic. They also xrayed and told me all about it and what could be done. So she had surgery in late March. The vet that did the surgery told me she had to remove a small spur on her elbow. She was at the clinic for about 4 or 5 days and when I picked her up I was amazed! Even after just recently having had surgery she had NO limp whatsover. I thought she would be limping from soreness but she wasn't. She has had NO limp whatsoever since then.:D By the way, she was 3 1/2 years old at the time. Also, she had surgery in just her right elbow. The other one was okay.
Good luck with you dog. Everything will go along just fine.

[Carina43]

Thanks you guys, it's reassuring to hear some success stories!

The ortho specialist could not come up with a definitive diagnosis from the xrays my vet took, and if surgery is warranted, we may wind up taking him either to MSU or someplace down in Ohio for arthroscopic surgery. But first we have to do a CT scan - rather than messing around with xrays and trying to guess.

My s/o is a radiologist, so he's hoping the docs at wherever we go next will let him be involved. He and the ortho doc we saw yesterday were able to talk shop, and it was nice having him along so I could get things explained to me twice. :)

I must say I cried when we left there...but I'm trying to feel good about this. Cooper on the other hand thoroughly enjoys vet visits, so he had a fun outing! :)

[Skip]

If you decide to go to 'somplace down in ohio', let me know. There are 2 surgeons I would greatly recommend in the akron area.