I saw a pup we sold at ringcraft class last night and noticed that he was lame on near fore every couple of strides, my first time there so tactfully asked person in charge if she had noticed it, dog was run up and it was agreed that he was lame and one pastern is looser than other, I m better with horses so suggested the dog was taken to vet and maybe x-rayed, the professional advice at ringcraft was to give him arnica tablets and lots of road work, as this is common in dogs worked on grass, he is 6 1/2 months old, any ideas on this please as the pup is going to Blackpool and still registered to me, owners said they have noticed limp every now and then and he occasionally chews the joint - I am trying to be tactful as not an expert on dog legs if you get my drift

thanks Lorraine

What breed is it?

If it's a rapid growing breed it could well be Panosteitis, I'm thinking you are refering to a front leg, but this complaint can affect any leg and can move from one to another. To give a lame dog heavy road exercise would worry me, think you need a diagnoses before anything is done at all and keep to gentle exercise. JH

Sam he is an akita, loads of bone but not overweight.
Lorraine

he could of damaged something running around, playing etc-it might be muscle or something because of growth- but if its an injury then i think he'd be better rested up, not given extra excercise, have him popped to the vet, hed have a good idea if it was muscular or not, he may need a course of antinflammotorys, akitas are too big boned to take a chance on making anything worse, --as for his pasterns ,if the parents have good straight strong ones then hopefully theyll correct, he may be holding himself wrong because of the pain he might be in,--a lot of pups go down on pasterns when teething, could that be the reason?

Hi Linda, thanks, he willl still be teething - it,s no b***s bob ! am worried that they have done too much with him, have had him over agility course although no jumping down they say, will suggest they go to vet and get it checked.

cheers Lorraine

I asked, because I know from my own experience of giant breeds (& Akita could almost fall into same category) that they often go through patches of lameness as they grow up...I can't recall one of mine ever being continually sound 100% in its 1st couple of years. If it was mine, I would leave it another month, drastically reduce excercise and jumping about/stairs etc etc & if no improvement, get my vet (luckily an osteo specialist!) to start investigating.

Cheers Sam, will suggest vet to them again otherwise they will probably end missing show with him
Lorraine

when a giant breed goes down on the pasterns camphor tea helps . just replace the drinking water for a few days with the tea it works , . if it is Panostetitis then that does need vet care , anti inflamatories or the panostetitis injection. another name for it is growing pains , The only thing is when Ruby my bullmastiff puppy had it she was in awful pain and could not stand . The akita pup seems to be able to walk . nevertheless vet is best , I cant believe the advice re road work for a young dog . no way would I be giving a young heavy dog loads of road work even if it had no soreness. It is not on at all to over excercise a pup of any breed I always thought arnica was for bruising , maybe im wrong there . not sure Mari

Agree with you , Mari. I certainly wouldn't give any road walking at all, and in fact very minimal exercise for a while - it's only going to aggrevate the sore growth plates.

Arnica is for bruising and recent trauma - might help, and anyhow won't do any harm. I've used Vitamin C 1000mg in the past, and it appeared to help. People do give aspirin sometimes, but it may cause internal damage, as it does in humans.

If he's really uncomfortable, your vet can give him something to ease the discomfort, but chances are, unless there's an underlying prblem, he's just going to grow out of it.

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

Thanks folks, have used arnica for bruising in horsres but know alot more about them than dogs, found the whole advice strange to be honest but did not want to say too much as the owners are so much in love with him and I don,t want to appear to be interfering too much

Lorraine

Lorraine - can I tell you that as a first time show-dog owner (though not first time dog-owner) I truly rely on my breeders and others in the breed for their help, advice, assistance. I would totally prefer that my breeders be completely honest with me about Savannah (and I believe they will be when they see us at Blackpool) because if there is something wrong I want to be able to fix it if I can, and if it's something that will keep her out of the ring - or at least out of winning forever - then I don't want to be wasting my money on big shows where she really has no chance. I'd still take her to local Open shows and stuff, but I don't want to be walking into a ring and paying those kinds of fees when she's got no chance.

I don't know what your relationship is with these owners but just wanted to say if it were me I wouldn't be offended by your pointing out the flaw - I would be more hurt if you didn't.

Wendy