Suspected elbow/shoulder dyslplasia in our lab ...

[wishingchair]

... xrays on Friday to confirm and find out how bad (hopefully not bad). He's 18 months. I know it's hereditary but feeling like it's our fault ... he loves to chase a ball but maybe we shouldn't have thrown them? He's so placid indoors but loves to run around outside.

To be fair, he sometimes walks with us to school (on lead), and then has a 30-45 min run around so I don't think excessive exercise. We were pretty careful when he was a pup and did the 5 min per month build up thing.

Anyone else going through this? :(

Try really hard not to look for something you've done to cause this - it's very unlikely you did. I suggest you pop over to [http://www.labradorforums.co.uk/forum-14.html this forum]] and read around it. There is a massive amount of information on it about HD and ED which might help a little.

Link done better here. Sorry!

I'm so sorry that your lab may have ED Unfortunately no matter how careful you were when he was a pup and even the fact you followed the "5 min rule" it can still happen BUT you have done nothing wrong!

Even if his parents had 0 elbow scores it still doesn't guarantee a pup will be ED free.

But if it is confirmed.... it's not the end of the world. There is a brilliant UK based labrador forum which you should google and go into their health sections as you will get invaluable advice. If you do decide to join the forum, they are a very friendly bunch with a wealth of experience.

Good luck and hopefully the x-rays will not be too bad.

oops x post with Daisy

Thanks - just read a really inspiring thread on there for dogs with HD/ED. Seems it's not all bad... they're still them after all, you just don't want them to be in pain and they have such sad faces anyway :)

And thankfully we have good insurance which covers all sorts of complementary therapies and hydrotherapy so fingers crossed x