My 8 month old female Akita is having trouble walking. It started four weeks ago when she jerked her back leg after an xray and some painkillers this seemed to have healed. Yesterday she started limping with her front legs and since then she has been sedated and xrayed. The vet cannot find any muscle damage and has sent the xrays to a specialist. If anyone has had this problem I would be grateful if they could let me know the outcome as I am very worried.

Could she have knocked something out of alignement in her spine or neck ? Puppies can do this so easily. I might be worth a visit to an animal chiropracter.

Margaret

Thanks for the reply Margaret. The Vet called today and thinks it is a condition called OCD we will find out for sure on Tuesday. This will involve an operation on both of her front legs. I have been looking into it tonight and it seems to be quite common however as it involves two operations I am very concerned. I would be grateful if anyone has heard of this or a dog that has went through a similar operation.

Thanks
J Taylor

How was she before she jerked herself ? If she was OK before hand is that not telling us something ?

Margaret

Friends of mine had a young puppy that the vet school said had OCD and it needed imediate operations to both shoulders, they didn't fall for it and went to an animal chiroprator instead and the dog was cured. It didn't have and never did have OCD and that was supposed to be the "experts". Lesson to be learned here . I do hope your puppy does not have OCD and need surgery. Anybody else out there with an opinion ?

Margaret

Hi again Margaret

Thanks for your help I am relieved to tell you that the vet called and the specialist cant see any sign of OCD on her xrays. We have to keep her on tablets with limited exercise for the next few weeks and the problem should go away.We have had a week of worry but the main thing is she is okay, thanks again.

J Taylor

Would strongly suspect this dog is suffering from Panosteitis.

Yup. Sounds like panosteitis. Some of the GSD lines are very prone to it, perhaps Akita's are too.

Stacey

Think any dog who's bone struture grows quickly can suffer from the problem. My breed is of a medum size but I have had 2 dogs suffer from it, from different lines. Both the dogs involved had reached their full hight by 10 month, those who had taken longer to reach their finnished hight did not. This is just a personal observation and as I only own a handful of dogs may well be a false one, and I could be talking total nonsense, not unusual either. ;)