Taking our ridgeback for x-rays soon as vet has diagnosed possible elbow dysplasia, he's only 4 1/2 months old. Anyone have any experiences with this condition? Surgery has been mentioned so we're worried!

I would want a specialists opinion, as a non specialist will sometimes misdiagnose Panosteitis ad elbow dysplasia. Pano though annoying and causing lameness in fast growing young dogs, is self limiting, and the dog grows out of it.

Someone new to our breed was told by their vet after x-raying that their Elkhound of that age had OCD (which isn't prevalent in our breed) and arthritis, and I advised a specialist opinion, as he was insured, turned out he had Pano (which hadn't been helped by rather too much of the wrong excersise.

It's a specialist we will be seeing and I hope that the vet has just got it wrong, fingers crossed.
Luckily we're insured! Pano what is it and what are the symptoms?
Cheers
Raisin

If you click on search and put Pano or panosteitis you should come up with some interesting links in a recent thread:D

Hi we have a 10month old GSD dog, who was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia 4mts ago, at the time we were so upset. He was x-rayed and it was confirmed. He was very bad, he would limp nearly all the time, and was just like an old man walking around. We thought it was something we had done, but the vet said that as he is going to be a large dog (he already weights over 40Kgs), and he has just grown too quickly. We had to keep him on limited exercise, only a five min walk a day and no off the lead running around. He wasn't allowed up stairs, to jump in and out of the car. He was put on a maintenance dose of anti inflammatory. The good news is that because we were able to diagnose the condition early he has been able to make a really good recovery. We are now just starting to increase the excerise, and he is allowed of the lead for a very short time to have a run. He is unfit now, as he hasn't had much exerise. The vet liken it to an athlete in training - we need to start slow and increase with time. The limp has almost gone completely, and he isn't going to need any surgery. It has been a very long and hard 4mts for us and him! (trying to keep him calm and entertained has been a really challenge!!!) but he is at last getting back to a good quality of life.
Sholmes

Hello
That must of seemed like a long 4 months. I mean how difficult is it to keep a puppy calm and not leaping around the place! That was the part I was dreading trying to keep him from doing all the things he should'nt. Not what you expect to happen with a nice new bouncing puppy either. As it turned out we visited the specialist (very nice man Willows in Solihull) full of dread, wondering was our dog going to be o.k. After 8 weeks of worry he did'nt even need a second lot of x-rays as he was fine no elbow dysplasia. Pleased obviously as he was more than o.k just abit annoyed as we need'nt of gone through it all in the first place. But very happy our boy's well.
Glad to hear that yours has a happy ending also and let us both enjoy our dogs to the full.

As a breeder I qam hearing all sorts of stories like this where a dreadful problem is found by the local Vet practitioner, buyt when refered to specialists it is found not to be so, or not nearly as gloomy as predicted by the local vet.

Sadly not only does it cause the owner heart ache and worry, but toatlly destroys, or at best undermines the relationshop between puppy owner and breeder.

There are breeders out there who breed without a care for the health of the pups they breed, but Vets often have a blame the breeder attitude, as if anyone would deliberately breed dogs with problems