We have a 16 month old Male Lab called Max he has limped on and off for about a year now he has had four lots of x-rays over that time and each have shown no reason for the lameness.  Finally we have a diagnosis - yesterday I took him to a specialist that we had been refereed to by our vet and he confirmed that Max has FCP - Fragmented Coronoid Process and he operated straight away on both front elbows to remove the damaged area.  Basically FCP is a failure to convert baby cartilage into adult bone which results in all the weight of the dog onto a small area of bone which eventually cracks and crumbles away causing the dog to limp.  We had tried everything and had even tried swimming to try and improve his walk apparently however in FCP swimming makes it worse as it opens up the cracks in the bone which was why he got worse after swimming.

We picked him up from the vets last night and of course he can't walk at the moment and he looks soooo sorry for himself, I feel terrible as I can't make him feel better.  The operation cost £2,150!  Which was a bit of a shock - mind you the vet showed us a video of the op and what was inside each of the joints and what they removed.

Anyway thought I would post for everyone's info as most of the advice that we had at the beginning pointed to OCD which is a similar complaint and common in Labradors

Kate

OCD and what your boy has are all conditions that are grouped together as Elbow Dysplasia.

You may find the information that describes the BVA?KC Elbow dysplasia scheme of interest.

If you go on the BVA site then click Canine Health Schemes, then Elbow Dysplasia and yu can read it there.

My pup was treated for this about 9 weeks ago now, when we collected him he couldn't put any weight at all on his front legs, and it has been a hard process but he has really improved this last couple of weeks, unfortunately he already has osteoarthritis in both elbows so is stiff after resting, but he is hardly lame at all the rest of the time, in three weeks we can let him off the lead so that will be the test.  Who did your dogs op?  Feel free to PM/Email me if you want to compare notes!!!

Hayley

The Vet was Fitzpatric Referrals in Guildford - which was lucky as it is only 20 mins away the other spec was in Sussex which would have been more of a journey. 

When we collected Max on Monday he wouldn't walk at all but yesterday he managed to get him self out into the garden for a wee - which was a relief because there is no way I can carry him and my husband was not due home for another hour!  Anyway he is improving all the time the vet said that he should be up to 20 min walks on the lead after 6 weeks is that what you found? We have to build it up slowly for obvious reasons, at the moment he walks with both front legs stuck out straight as if he is walking with splints.   

How old is your pup, What breed is he, and when did he first have problems?  We have been told that Max already has osteosrthritis as well so we will have the same problems as you, it will be nice however that hopefully sometimes he will not limp as he has limped for months.

Kate

We also saw Noel Fitzpatrick, and have found him brilliant.  Obi was doing well up to about 4 weeks post op then he had a mad (illegal!) dash around the garden and set himself back about 3 weeks, a real pain!  That is the hardest bit, keeping them quiet, we have got through a lot of filled bones, bones and chews, and as soon as we could lots of 5 min walks up the road, Obi was only 6 months when he was operated on, so it was important to keep on with the socialisation, luckily we live near a school so the kids were a great help.  We are now about 9 weeks post op and he is having 45 min walks on leads and is swimming twice a week at Greyfriars, and hardly a limp now, except after rising.

Obi is an Australian Cattle Dog and I first noticed lameness at around 3 months old, he wasn't over exercised, and the owners of his sire and dam have since had them tested and it looks like his dad is the carrier, the breeder has said he will not be used at stud again.  Have you told yoour breeder, and more importantly were you insured?  We were fortunately, this is the second dog I have had with leg problems costing this sort of money!

Whereabouts are you, we are also 20 mins from the surgery, in Lightwater....

Take care, won't be long before Max is trying to run about and you'll be pulling your hair out! :)

Hayley

We found Noel brilliant as well he spent 45 mins discussing all the details with me before taking Max away for the op.  When we went to pick him up we saw a video of the operation and exactly what the problem was which was facinating!

We live in Farnham and have also been taking Max to Greyfriars for swimming before we new exactly what it was, this was on the advice from Cathcart & Winn who are are normal Vets.  Unfortunetly Noel said that the swimming may have made it worse as it can open up the cracks in the bone but as we had tried everything else we had to give it a try.

Max is a lot older than your boy as he is 16months and hopefully calmed down a bit he too has had mad spurts round the garden so we will have to watch out for that! Saying that my husband found him on the sofa this morning when he left the room for 5mins!  Noel had said definatly no sofa!  Most of the time we have been putting him in his cage so that his movements are restricted and he cannot get on the sofa!

Thank god for insurance!!!  This problem has cost nearly £3000 so far and most of that we have been able to claim back otherwise I am not sure what we would have done.  We have not told the breeder yet (and we are not breeding from Max) we have been waiting for a resolution.

When did you start taking him out for 5 mins walks on the lead?  Noel had said in week one and two we could do 4 small 5min walks but I am not sure that Max would get to the front gate at the moment!

Kate

We have a 6yr old lab who had this op on one elbow at about 7 months. She has had restricted walks since then and was very rarely let off the lead as she would run around like a madman, as she has got older and quieter she is now let off lead occasionally. Most of her injuries are caused whilst in the garden as she does much tighter turns than when in an open field. We also give cod liver oil and have used Glucosamine once when recovering from lameness.

Thank goodness we had insurance at the time but boy are we paying for it now in fact that leg is not insured at all.

That's sounds terrible - Noel said to us that in 94% of cases dogs are sound within 6 months although as the arthritus is already there they will suffer later on when they are older - which we have accepted.  I hope we don't have to restrict Max's exersise once he has recovered from the operation and is fit again it would be terrible if he was not allowed off the lead.  Max has always been fairley calm off the lead anyway he has the ocasional mad 5 mins when he runs round and round in circles!  and of course if he meets another lab they just have to play!

Why is she no longer insured on that leg?  Did you insurance only cover for 1 year?

Kate

We have been told that Obi can come off the lead in another few weeks providing he doesn't have any more setbacks, he isn't too mad, but he is extremely fast will have to be careful for a while.  Noel seemed to think that he will be able to have normal exercise after 6 months also, and I can finally see that it may happen.  The operation that Noel is now doing is very advanced, that can only be good.  His previous results with it have been very good.

Obi started having 5 min walks after about a week, wearing his custom altered Thunderbirds T-Shirt that my son kindly donated, it was a perfect fit, but we did get a few comments, and cars slowing down!!! :)

Oh well, off to take Obi for another swim in a while!

Hayley

The Thunderbird T-shirt is great really made me giggle - everyone thinks it is hysterical that Max has to wear a t-shirt.  He is currently wearing a very fetching Grey T-shirt with white sleeves but I think it may be too big for him, he keeps getting caught up in it. I am going to have another look around at home and find a top that fits better - how did you customize obi's t-shirt?  I must admit before we had seen Noel I thought we would be stuck with one of those huge dog collers which max hated!  How long did he wear the shirt? 

On our form that Noel filled out he has stated that swimming will not be nessesary which is a shame because Max really enjoyed it!

Kate

Obi wore his t-shirt for approx 4 weeks as he would nibble the stitches/scars if it wasn't on.  It was a short sleeved t-shirt that we slit up the back up to the neck and then I just cut off any bits that hung too low, we did try a long sleeved t-shirt when the thunderbirds one fell apart, but had to cut the arms a bit shorter so they didn't get wet!  I Have a very fetching pic of Obi in his TB t-shirt that everybody has a good laugh at, but I rather think it suits him!  May even get it framed!
Noel said swimming would not hurt providing we waited until he had completed his recovery period, original 6 weeks, but then added another 2 after his mad moment!!!
How is Max today?  And what colour is he so I can visualise him?

Hayley

Max is feeling a lot happy today however this means that he has decided that he does not want to wear his t-shirt anymore and keeps trying to bite it off!  Not sure at the moment how to stop him a part from distraction techniques that inevitably (because he is a lab) involve food!  We are trying not to overfeed him at the moment as he is not having any exercise and he will gain weight quickly being a Lab.

Max is a yellow lab with lighter stripes on his shoulders and a darker yellow back; he has a largish head and is very handsome (although I would say that!) However we have had nice comments from people in the past as to how handsome he is!  What does Obi look like? and how he is at the moment does he still limp at all?

Kate

Obi is a blue ACD, with black eye patches, very handsome, and an excellent example of his breed, well except for the ED!!  He very rarely limps now, normally only when he has been laying on his worst leg for a long time, we are slowly letting him have a little more freedom, eg, he is now allowed to run into the garden and herd the cat, whereas before we were having to keep a long lead on him so we could stop him doing things like that.

Brainless, great idea about the polo shirt, I should have asked 10 weeks ago, soemone should design something for Vets to give out, maybe with strong velcro, how difficult could it be?!

Hayley

(Oh, and Kate, we put alot of Obi's normal food into a Kong to keep him amused, and just cut it out of his dinner time rations)

I found the best is a polo shirt put on back to front so that the head and neck are confrotable in the unbuttoned part, in otherwords the unbuttoned part i on the dogs back.  any slack can be pinned up on top with a nappy pin, the kind that closes to stop accidental opening.