radiographs by Newark Vet Hospital
When Viktor was 10 weeks old I noticed his front legs looked a little odd. His toes were rotated out and his wrists were almost touching. Our rehab vet recommended xrays and seeing an orthopedic surgeon. We had our regular vet take x-rays and then we did a consult the next week with the specialist. There have been challenges with finding professionals, implementing recommendations, and determining treatment.
We were told that while maybe this was a little abnormal but maybe within the realm of normal and could be fine. This matched what an experienced conformation (“show dog”) client told me – “rib spring” will even things out. We got a second opinion the next month. And in April we went 600 miles to see our favorite rehab vet. We went back in May. And in June. And we’ll be back in a few weeks.
What we know:
Some parts are getting better, some things may be getting worse. This isn’t any specific health problem, like ‘hip dysplasia’ – but just abnormal growth in some bones and abnormalities in some of his ligaments. We don’t know the end result until he’s older as this isn’t a common enough or well documented problem. There are concerns about how compensating for these challenges may impact the rest of his body – especially his elbows.
One piece of our current treatment plan is minimal activity to reduce inflammation in the joints (noted at early xrays) and to hopefully reduce pain. We’re now at four months since he was last allowed to run free to play and hike. He is allowed to swim but didn’t show much interest until recently. The lack of exercise wasn’t initially as bad as I expected – the little field dog was happy enough with low-activity training, hanging out in public, and going for car rides. Over the last 2.5 weeks things did dramatically get pretty bad in the house- a huge increase in barking and resource guarding (with other dogs). While we were doing training to address that – his exercise needs had to be met. I went in the water and gently encouraged him – and now he’s more confident and did his longest swim of about 50 feet out! The adorable splashes into the water show me that he’s still lacking some confidence – but I love his level of independence and that he always brings the toy right back to me.
Challenges
It’s been frustrating to get different advice ranging from no restriction to absolutely no walks/playing. We’ve been told he’s not in pain (“Now”) so don’t worry – and we’ve been told to worry about the impact later on. On one day a vet specialist said no pain was found and a few hours later another specialist identified several sore spots. Some xrays by a specialist were taken incorrectly (lying down/non weight bearing) making it inaccurate to compare to the normal amount of rotation listed in a textbook (weight bearing). The rehab vet was the first person to actually measure degrees of rotation/amount of laxity, etc. Those numbers were initially far outside of normal but have been getting closer to normal. Maybe because of time/natural progression or maybe because of the specific activities and treatments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sctaR_vZ4BE
Moving Forward
I’m not sure what we’re going to do long term. It seems like we’re most likely going to be needing monthly re-checks until about a year old (November). It is a bit of a problem when your vet is 600+ miles away. And depending on what we decide then. If he’s going to need ongoing care from her, I won’t be able to do that during the winter or even as often as needed due to the distance and time off of work. We’re really lucky and have pet insurance that covers most of the vet bills, but the time off of work and the time for driving adds up. I’ve considered finding him a home closer to his vet, and that’s something we will be looking into so that he can get the best care possible. I also don’t want to be giving someone else a dog that will be very expensive to take care of for the next 15 years. We do know of a closer rehab vet with similar qualifications which would be only a 12 hour round trip instead of 24+ hours of driving. That doesn’t really solve most of our problems.
At our last trip he had an injection in his wrist -and then I was told to not let him lick it for 24 hours. There was no way I could put him in the back of the car with a cone/elizabethan collar on and let him be comfortable – so he got to go in a seat belt and be a front seat dog. He did this on his very first ride home from Arkansas (on a pillow. on someone’s lap) -but hadn’t seen that view since January 1st! He would alternate between sleeping in various adorable positions and looking out the windows. Going through the tolls in Chicago he got lots of comments but rarely picked up his head!
For Now
Medications, adequan injections, exercises, and low impact training, and lots of swimming! He’s hilariously small at only 35 lbs at 8 months but now he is almost as tall as Griffin. I feel horrible that I can’t just run and play with him, I don’t think he’s too sad or knows what he’s missing out on – but I would like to make him really tired! As he has such restricted activities he does not need as many calories as puppies his age which means he can’t have as much food during training (and we can’t do much with toy rewards for obvious reasons). We’re looking forward to our next visit in a few weeks!
4 Comments
Laura, Lance and Vito · July 10, 2015 at 1:06 am
Thanks for the update. And sorry for what you’re going through and not finding any solid answers. So frustrating. So hard to plan and make decisions for the future.
afmd7525 · July 10, 2015 at 1:31 am
One of the weird parts to me is that I hadn’t really thought/heard much about this problem – other than what you experienced last year. It seemed odd that this would come up twice in such a short period of time!
Laura, Lance and Vito · July 10, 2015 at 3:49 am
Yes, very odd, especially in 2 different breeds! I didn’t push as much for Pyra answers beyond the one orthopedist and talking with Megan, as I desperately needed a normal dog to do sports with after Vito and I knew the breeder would be supportive.
But it sounds like Pyra and Viktor have related but different issues. Viktor seems to be growing height normally? Pyra was kinda stumpy and while it’s hard to tell in some of the pictures I’ve been sent of her with her new family due to the perspectives, it does look like she’s kinda chondroplastic. 10wks was when her leg issues became apparent to me.
afmd7525 · July 11, 2015 at 2:20 am
It seems like chrondroplasia shows up more in tollers than goldens (I’ve never heard of it in goldens)? Originally he had/thought it was the bowing similar to Pyra/ small dogs in breeds where this happens more… but things have changed as he’s grown. He is mostly normal proportioned now, even if very very small for the breed!
It’s hard to know what to do with him to be sure that he gets some care and at the very least, the pain management needed for his life. I feel awful about rehoming him when we don’t know how much medical care he will need in the upcoming months and years – I had prepared myself to rehome if we ended up with hip displaysia or something like that – but we would know more about what to expect in those conditions and the new family would know all of that ahead of time.
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