Does anyone here have experience of OCD in a dog, particularly in the shoulder/s? I'd be very interested in hearing experiences of diagnosis, treatment and how the dog recovered or not. (There's plenty of websites but nothing beats personal experience.) Also has anyone ever heard of BOTH OCD and Panosteitis being seen in the same dog together?

Hi, my Irish Wolfhound had both shoulders operated on for OCD. His breeders kept him on as a show prospect together with a male sibling. He began to have pain in his shoulders, especially when they were extended, at 6 months and shortly afterwards began to move with a very odd gait in front. The breeders' vet thought it was Pano - and put him on calcium supplements (!). Not surprisingly he got worse on this. At 7 months I met him and fell in love with his personality. The breeders let me have him at no cost, partly because they had lost faith in their vet (they live in an area of Wales without much choice.) and because the senior partner in my practice has a particular interest in orthopaedics. It may be relevant that he was (and is) a particularly large IW and was kept at his breeders' with the smaller and then more athletic sibling who was running rings around him.

I took him to my vet the day after he arrived here. Because of the strange gait he suspected Wobblers and got us an appointment the next day with John Ferguson who runs a specialist orthopaedic clinic in Fife. John Ferguson was sure it was bilateral OCD shoulder straight off, but anaesthetised the wolfhound and did contrast X-rays and arthroscopy that afternoon. When I got back John showed me the contrast X-rays which showed big flaps on both shoulders. His recommendation was to go directly to surgery on the right and worst affected shoulder. He explained that with the worse shoulder operated on, the less affected one might not need surgery. He also warned me that in the long term it was probable that the dog would have arthritis in his shoulders.

So I left the dog at the clinic, he had his surgery the next day, and I picked him up the day after that. He was in very good spirits and apparently in no pain (though he was prescribed Metacam). He had to be cage rested for a month, with visits outside for toilet only. Then we went back to have the second shoulder re-assessed. Unfortunately, although the very odd gait had gone, and he was sound on the operated shoulder, he was now obviously lame on the left, and the left leg was still painful in extension. There was also now some muscle wasting on the left shoulder when compared to the right. So John recommended surgery on the left shoulder also. This was done the next day, and again the IW came through it easily. He had to have another month of cage rest and then restricted exercise for a further 6 weeks. At the end of this he was seen for a last time and discharged, sound as a bell and pain free.

He is now 5, and never has had one iota of trouble with his shoulders since surgery. In fact (fingers crossed) he hasn't been back to the vet for anything but boosters since. He is on no treatment and I don't give him any supplements. He gallops with the best of them and gets a lot of hard exercise. I accept that he may have a problem with arthritis when he is older, but up to the present his treatment has been a complete success. I worried that the extended cage rest and then restricted exercise might have an effect on his personality and socialization, but he is still the sweet friendly fellow with both humans and dogs that he always was, and it does not seem to have affected him in the slightest.

HTH - please PM me if I can give you any further info.

Thank you SO much -have PM'd you!