702 – Diagnosing the Limping Puppy: Pano, HOD, OCD and more…
Diagnosing the Limping Puppy: Pano, HOD, OCD and more…
Host Laura Reeves is joined by Dr. Marty Greer for a deep dive on all the causes of a limping puppy. They cover when to have the puppy seen by a vet and what differentials are in play for the diagnosis.
Panosteitis. Hypertrophic osteodystrophy. Osteochondritis Dissecans. These are long, scary names of disorders that can adversely impact our puppies while they are growing. From the relatively benign Pano to the frequently surgical solution for OCD, every time we see a limping puppy, our stomachs clench.
Greer walks listeners through all of the various options and discusses the heritability of these disorders.
“Make sure that you stay in good communication with both your veterinarian and the breeder,” Greer said, “because as an alliance, we can really make a big difference in how these puppies are diagnosed and treated.
“Pano, I think growing pains is a pretty accurate description, and it’s typically a young puppy usually at their most rapid growth phase, somewhere between 5 and 8 or 9 months of age. And they’re usually but not always males. I know I’ve had it in females. The very worst case I. First Soft Piano was a female and it was not a heavily boned dog, but typically we think of them as heavy boned, like large bone dogs that have a lot of structure and typically boys because they typically have those thicker bones and more rapid growth than the things that boys do that girls don’t.
“HOD typically strikes when the puppy is younger. It’s going to show at the growth plates on an x -ray, they’re going to show up as this widening, this weird kind of fuzzy look there. It is very painful, dogs have a fever and it’s often associated with a vaccination.
“OCD is generally noticed at 6-15 months. Cartilage in the joints peels off and difficult to diagnose in xray. Usually the shoulder, but not necessarily.
“Fragmented Coronoid Process (FCP) and Ununited anconeal process (UAP) and Premature ulnar closure are growth disorders in the elbow related to elbow dysplasia.
“Anytime you can say it’s more common in this breed than another breed that means it’s genetic.”
204 — Vet Voice: Identifying, Treating Orthopedic Disorders
Identifying and Treating Orthopedic Disorders
Dr. Marty Greer, DVM walked us through the bewildering world of 10 syllable words and scary prognostics when it comes to the various orthopedic disorders than can affect our puppies.
OCD, HOD, pano, Legg-Perthes, premature ulnar growth plate closure, HD, patellar luxation, and more are all covered, along with potential infectious diseases that can cause lameness in young dogs. Greer goes through the differences in the diseases, symptoms and treatments for all of them. Primarily disorders of large, fast growing male dogs, a few affect small breed and achondroplastic dogs.
Pano
Panosteitis or Pano is a disorder in which pain is exhibited in shifting limbs.
“You’ll feel the legs and dogs exhibit pain where leg bones join,” Greer said. Pano won’t always show up on xray and it can be difficult to localize the pain. Cause – rapid growing puppy Treatment — non steroidal anti-inflamatory such as Meloxicam.
https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_multi_panosteitis
OCD
Osteochondritis Dissecans or OCD is cartilage that peels off, generally in the shoulder. It frequently occurs in both joints. It’s difficult to find on xray. This is a genetic disease with a database at OFA. If the cartilage doesn’t heal with crate rest, it can be treated with arthroscopic surgery.
“Most of these orthopedic problems, don’t let the puppies get too heavy or get too much nutrition,” Greer said. “Stick to the large breed puppy diets that are commercially available. Please don’t start feeding raw meat diets and unbalanced diets to these puppies because there are a huge number of nutritional problems we see with that.”
https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_dg_osteochondrosis
HOD
Hypertrophic osteodystrophy or HOD is an acute, sudden onset disorder that is extremely painful.
“They can be perfectly fine one night,” Greer said “and wake up with the ends of the bones above wrist/hock swollen, very painful, running a fever. It can be associated with recent vaccines.”
https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_dg_osteodystrophy
LCP
In Legg-Calve-Perthes small breed dogs are affected. The disease causes a loss of blood flow to the neck of the femur in the hip joint. Surgery is the treatment.
https://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_dg_legg_calve_perthes_disease
As in all instances, be sure to consult your veterinarian for specific recommendations.