My second question of the night! I have a 5month old Bullmastiff who seems to be intermittantly lame on his left foreleg.  My 2yr old bitch also had this when she was young but seems ok now. Is it quite common for them to have growing pains? He has seen a vet who prescribed rest and pain relief.  But very hard to rest a pup! Just wondereing if anyone else has experienced this with a large breed pup. By the way this is "dudley" pup I asked about the colour of couple of months ago. He still has pale green eyes and a chocolate mask! So definately a Dudley!

It is common in large dogs called panosteitis. It sometimes needs pain killers but the dog will eventually grow out of it.

Yes as Nova says it apparantly is quite common in some large breeds although in the 30 years I
have owned Bullmastiffs I have never had one thats had it...

> Is it quite common for them to have growing pains? He has seen a vet who prescribed rest and pain relief.

That was exactly what my English Mastiff pup was prescibed when I took him to the vet for intermitant front leg lameness, however - i was not happy not knowing the cause so I took him back to the vet. He was xrayed and that is when we found out the cause - UAP (elbow displasia).

Panosteitis ('growing pains') is more common in male, large-breed dogs, but there are several elbow/shoulder/bone problems that can cause limps.

Best of luck with your pup, it may well be something simple but I would be going back to the vet to get a definate diganosis so the correct treatment can be applied.

Is he on adult food yet?

Now that is interesting, could you let us know what feeding/rearing regime you use?

Thanks,

Jeff.

Had assumed that the vet had x rayed before the diagnosis, if not I would request it as it is the only way to be sure that it is indeed Pano. 5 months is a bit on the young side and you do need to know what you are dealing with.

Hi, also had the same issue with my 5 mths old lab who was diagnosed with ED. Was operated on at the vet school hospital and sees to be sounds now, one and a half yrs later. Good luck.

Hi thank you for all your replys.  He is being raised on The Natural Dog food company puppy food. Protein 25% do you think he would be better on their adult one now? Protein 20%. Otherwise a good food very high meat content. He also has a little raw minced tripe mixed in. He does play very rough sometimes with my bullmastiff bitch and my springer cross! I try and rest him then notice the three are missing and there they are down the garden throwing each other around like wrestlers. It's so hard to keep a close eye on them all the while. My two greyhounds just lay on the sofas and watch probably thinking 'idiots'! 

Hi,

Should have followed my own advice, I actually meant to ask what feeding regime you use with your Bullmastiffs?

Jeff.

Hi Jeff,
I'm confused what you mean? His feeding regime is the food I said previously The Natural Dog Food Company "All in One" chicken and rice puppy with a little tripe or sometimes tuna/pilchards for variety :)

Hi,

I meant what feeding regime does Paxo use. :-)

Jeff.

My Vizsla also had this intermittent lameness when she was about 1 year old. After some scare mongering by the vet she was cured by some rest ('gentle' walking on lead and not going up the stairs) along with being fed on Hills J/D food (v expensive) for a while. I also gave her foods / supplements / treats containing additional glucosamine.
I'm no expert but a few people said to me that it could be just growing pains - she has been fine ever since.

> I'm no expert but a few people said to me that it could be just growing pains - she has been fine ever since.

Without xrays one never knows the true cause.
My pups limp went after a few months of weight control, excersise, suppliments, not allowing him to be silly (jumping around too much), diet change &  a short course of Metacam. If we hadn't had the xrays, his ED may have been brushed of as growing pains (especially as it appeared to shift to different legs, to the extent ewe even had his hips xrayed).
As a pup matures, so does it's musculoskeletal system, also with gradually increased exercise (as one does with a pup anyway) the muscles around joints strenghten, thus supporting any poor joint. This is how we have avoided the need for an opperation on Busters elbow displasia - regular exercise to aid mobility of joints & to strenghten muscle, which supports the bad elbow, effectively takinn the strain off the joint (& subsequent related pain) by supporting it.

In short elbow displasia can be overlooked as growing pains if not detected (via xray). For dogs that can manage without an opperation (like Buster) this isn't too much of a problem, but depending on the type of displasia (eg. FCP), not having an opperation can result in degeneration of the elbow joint and return as a major problem later in life.

It's always best to find out why a puppy is limping.

I agree with everyone that if it continues the only way to determine the cause is by x raying. But whenever any of the mastiff puppies have had episodes of lameness the first course of action has always been rest and metacam for a little while with us. If it continued of course we have them x rayed but I always try to avoid a general anaesthetic if I can just due to the size of them there is always that risk, of course I wouldn't put them at risk so that I could avoid putting them under but a few weeks is often enough to set them right and if they are not right after that you know that there is something more sinister going on.

Mastifflover you mentioned diet change, what was he on initially and what did you change to? Also did you find Metacam good? Mine is on Previcox at the moment but having to add in additional Tramadol to help with discomfort. 

> you mentioned diet change, what was he on initially and what did you change to?

He was on Beta large breed puppy, & was changed to Beta adult (with tripe & 50:50). He was about 5&half months old at the time of diet change.

> Also did you find Metacam good?

It was OK, it really helped the swelling (there was visible swelling around his elbow joint once you knew it was there). I put him on glucosamine HCL liquid suppliment and really started to see an improvement, so much so I took him off Metacam & found he no-longer needed it (apart from 2 seperate times he was on it for a few days after over-doing it) :-)

ETA, I said Metacam was 'OK' -Buster never needed any other pain relief other than the Metacam, it took a few days to notice it helping him, but once it had it was really good :)

So perhaps I should change Dexter to adult food now? He is just over 5 months.  The food I have been feeding I found out the calcium levels today as not stated on the bag they are 1.82% which seems higher than others I have looked at, does anyone know if this is significant? Sorry for all the questions but just trying like all of us to do the best for him.  Also is tripe ok to add to their food doesn't have any effect on joints/growing etc., I know Mastifflover you say you add tripe to Busters food.

All of my mastiffs still do and have always had tripe added to their food, they also get RMB and sometimes chicken wings. The most important thing though is to find out what suits your dog. I always find the lower protein the better and you will find the adult foods have less protein than the large breed puppy foods.

Just another thing that seems so obvious but is very important, find yourself a vet who you trust totally if you haven't already!! I have had bad dealings with vets but the vet I have now is fantastic and will discuss everything with me. I have had some say, 'well they are a bg dog lameness comes with it', and another wanted to operate on one of my boys eyes because they were too loose, without realising that as his head broke his eyes would tighten up and they now look perfect!!