I know there seem to be a lot of 'Lab' folk here with much needed experience, so I'm throwing this question at you all. My friend has a Lab, purchased from caring breeders, who work their stock and hip score and own now to 5th generation. The puppy has-acording to the vet-the elbow problem, the name of which escapes me, but it is 'scored for' and causes the same sort of probs as HD. This puppy is now 9 mths old. his symptoms are that, following sleep after exercise he is lame, stiff lame, which does ease somewhat after walking. He is on restricted exercise now, which is to potter round the garden, and go on short walks round the fields, where he sniffs out the hedges. At present, he is not lame. The vet has x-rayed him, said he cannot understand how he is not lame, as it is the worst case he's seen! X-rays have now been sent off for advice. The breeders, who my friend has known for years, are very worried, this has not happened to them before, and they are having the puppy they kept back tested. Now, what I would like to pass on to my very worried friend (who is dreading being told that the puppy will have to be PTS) is, how 'awful' is this, what are the long term hopes, what-if any-type of feeding would help, are there any natural medicines that can help-Glucosamine, magnets etc- and are there any questions she should be asking of her vet? Any and all help and advice will be gladly received.

the bernese mountain dog people are into the elbow scoring sheme ,so i'd imagine if you got intouch with the club secretary she could probably tell you where you'd get a lot of imformation about it, helen davenport who has bernese and gsd is married to malcom willis and he would know how to get you some advice im sure, helens affix is nellsbern, it might be on the site under the bernese,not sure if theyre now in the pastoral group or the working, good luck finding some sound advice

Our Bernese developed OCD in both her elbows at 6 months old. She is now 7 years and still charges about like a puppy most days. She has never got so bad that we have had to consider having surgery done on her. Unless their Lab gets really lame and in terrible pain, your friends shouldn't worry too much about having him PTS. We give Juno a Cod Liver Oil capsule and a Glucosomine tablet in her food once a day which seems to help but don't know how much it helps her until it gets stopped (which isn't going to happen) so like to think it does work.

TH had similar problems. She wasn't allowed to jump into cars, or go up stairs and one day she went as lame as you like. Vet diagnosed elbow trouble. She had a feed supplement (Caniviton 40 from memory), a supplement with lots of glucosamine and other stuff in it to build cartilege and lubricate joints. For months she was only allowed lead walks and a bit of running in the house and garden.

Good news is that 7 months later she was limp free and (touch wood) it has never returned.

Best thing your friend can do is to be careful about food and exercise and at £27 a tin the joint supplement wasn't cheap, but I certainly think it helped. And if the vet is recommending a specialist, then they should certainly go.

Hope your friend is insured. Our episode cost best part of £500, luckily Pet Plan paid up in full.

Good luck. You might want to search the archives and see if you can find Shirley's postings about Rhum her Viszla who had similar trouble.

9th & the Towel Hound

Thanks for your replies. My friend is insured with Pet Plan, she had the 6 weeks puppy cover, and continued from there. As she said-PHEWWW!! as it will possibly cost a lot to establish, but as her hubby said, we'd have got the money from somewhere! I'll pass all comments on, and will try and chase up the people mentioned.

I have a two and a half old chocolate labrador who has suffered from OCD from the age of 3 months. He has had two operations by a keyhole surgeon in Devizes, Wiltshire to clean out his elbow joints. The cost of these operations were approx £800 each but were worth every penny. Our dog Murphy has been through quite a lot in his young life but has always seemed happy and content. We now manage him by giving him a cod liver oil tablet with glucosamine each day, we have also bought him an extendable lead so that he can have the freedom of roaming around without running. Realistically he will never be able to run again as it is this that really affects his elbow joints. He goes at least once a week to a hydrotherapy pool for dogs and throughly enjoys himself, this also helps to keep his weight down and his fitness level up. He currently weighs approx 37 kilos he is a heavy set dog and very handsome with it.
The only advice I would give to new labrador owners especially chocolate labradors is to watch what they feed them. Even though there as far as I know are not any medical facts to support my theory even though I think there should be more research carried out to establish why OCD is now so very common. we fed our dog when he was a puppy on a very high protein food which was the same food he was being fed whilst still with the breeder and for continuity and in our innocence did not realise the implications. I now firmly believe due to being in contact with other dog owners who have experienced the same problem that these high protein foods are contributing to the over development of the dogs bodies and leaving tissues like cartlidge to catch up. We have learnt a very big lesson at our beautiful dogs expense. Having said all of the above, I wouldn't change him for the world, well maybe just a few things like eating my glasses so I couldn't see a thing!, my furniture, my oven glove on a daily basis, the list goes on!.

You could try hydrotherapy, one of my Labs has very severe problems with her hips, last October she could only get about by dragging her back legs. Our vet suggested hydrotherapy and she is a changed dog, she will always have her problems but with the swimming she has built up muscle which helps her get about, I wish we had started the swimming when she was first diagnosed at 12 weeks. Also she was given supplements by the vet which help. (At present she is not showing any signs of pain).