fragmented coronoid process in GSD....whats the prognosis?

[ThatVikRinA22]

my pride and joy has been diagnosed with this condition. i believe its a form of elbow dysplasia ? (sp)??

i researched so diligently and travelled for 4 hours to go get my boy. He is the love our lives.
He is 8 months old and been lame for about 3 months.
He was referred by my vet to an otho surgeon who operated today. But he already has signs of arthritis in the joint and will require medically managing.

This has cost us dear - over £2500 so far.
The breeder is gutted and its really upset her - she is lovely and has offered to cover the shortfall in our insurance costs (we are not fully covered for all this treatement - a shortfall of around £500)

She has also offered to come to an arrangement should he require ongoing treatment.
she has been breeding since the 70's and never before has been told of a elbow problem but she used a sire she had never before used although his hip and elbow scores were very good. (both my boys parents had 0 elbow scores so this is just unfortunate) I have emailed the owner of his sire to inform them so both owners of his sire and dam are now aware of his elbow problem.

im not blaming the breeder in any way - our boy is lovely, perfect temperament, and a joy to us. I know this is just one of those things and the risk you take when getting any pedigree dog.
i would not swap him for the world. (breeder says she would normally offer another puppy but we dont want that and our boy was from her final litter as she is getting too old to continue breeding - she is so upset, i feel for her. She is a responsible breeder and this has really shook her)

Does anyone know anything about this condition? prognosis? His elbow joint is not quite right - so the underlying cause of his lameness cant be fixed but hopefully the surgery will help.

thanks in advance.

My rottie had arthroscopy for it when he was about 6 months old (he'll be 2 in July).

They didn't find much arthritic damage and he actually walked out less lame than he'd gone in, so he was a good candidate for full recovery.

But, after the crate rest and the short lead rests, when it came to trying it out with slightly longer walks and off lead time he kept going lame again. Gradually he was sound for longer and longer, but he couldn't really do longer walks or offlead for a good 5 months after the surgery.

After that, his elbow is slightly stiffer than it should be, he's on permanent Metacam and tramadol if he goes lame again, which thankfully is rarer now.

He can walk about 2 and a half miles on lead comfortably (he does that once a day with another shorter walk) but I find I really have to limit his time off lead and I had to really carefully build it up.

thanks - i feel for him because he is so young and so full of energy so limiting off lead time is going to be a shame. We are also taking him on holiday in July and we were looking forward to some lovely walks in the lake district.
i think he will be on permanent medication too.

im picking him up today.

I am so sorry to hear that.

It sounds like you are in good hands with the ortho vet, my first advice is always to go to a specialist cetnre as they have more knowledge and can offer more help.

I appreciate you feel really down about this but it sounds like he is getting good treatment and don't underestimate the effects of Metacam which can be really useful. I had a German Spitz with elbow dysplasia and he actually got better with time. We gave him Metacam as and when he needed it and also did some therapeutic swimming with him when he was younger - maybe something you can look into for your boy if your vet OKs it.

Sadly I think it's a risk you take with any animal. I always get dogs from well researched, reputable breeders but you can't avoid all the problems all the time. The saddest I have had was a GSD with DM who had to be PTS at 10yo, but all the others have been managed, e.g. the GS above was PTS with dementia at 15yo after a full and active life and I've had another GS with what appeared to be catastrophic heart problems survive to 16yo with medication.

It is a bit of a shame, but he does ok...most of the reason off lead time has to be limited is because he bounces about like a deranged tigger, lol, he just has no idea of pacing himself.

So we play find it instead of fetch and he sniffs things on lead instead of off...he doesn't know any differently, so he's happy enough with that.

Swimming's good exercise, sadly mine hates water, but if you can do that it'd be beneficial.

I spend a lot of time doing training as well, so he's tired mentally anyway...especially when he was on crate rest, he pretty much spent all of that learning things like playing dead and to identify toys by name, when he wasn't chewing on something.

thanks - we will carry on his training and ill ask at our vets about swimming. The ortho vet suggested swimming too. its heartening to hear your stories.

My springer had surgery for this at the end of January. He was nine months old at the time.

We followed the vet's instructions about crate rest and restricting exercise rigidly. It was tough, but he hasn't limped since the surgery.

We limit his exercise to about an hour and a half per day. The first walk of the day is his fun walk. He spends an hour off lead playing with other dogs at the local dog walking spot or bouncing around in the long grass. The second walk is mostly road walking with a brief opportunity to run free on a nearby field. He spends time on obedience training daily. The mental stimulation keeps him calm and tires him.

He no longer plays fetch because the sudden stopping and spinning to retrieve a ball stresses his elbows.

The fragment of bone in his elbow had only caused minimal damage, but the vet stressed the dog has arthritis and we should adjust his exercise regime to prevent further damage. The very best thing we could do, is to keep his weight under control.

He no longer takes any medication for pain. He has a maintenance dose of Synoquin EFA every day.

thank you - im finding it very very hard to keep him calm and stop him bouncing about.

my dh will have crated him tonight at about 7pm, i got in from work at about midnight to find he had ripped his bedding to pieces.
when i let him out of the crate he was absolutely full of beans and hyper, its hard to stop him, he weighs 40kg. he is a big dog and very strong. He is very obedient but also still a pup and excitable.
i took him out for his 5 min walk, and he cooled and calmed down.
our living room is very warm - im wondering if it might be easier and kinder for him when on crate rest to put the crate outside in the garden,
he is clearly getting distressed in the crate as he has never before chewed anything.
he does usually sleep in his crate and we use it if we are not in. Nothing different tonight but the lack of exercise is leaving him a bit hyper and bored.

lord knows how im going to keep him calm for the next 6 weeks.

Talk to the vet about sedation. Having had to box rest horses I really think it is better to sedate them and allow them to have a quieter experience than to let them get more and more wound up. Aside from the risk of physical injury, their mental welbeing can be affected by it all. There are various different drugs the vet can suggest that will take the edge off.

I asked about sedation - I was told no...

I cut his food drastically and gave him 3 frozen kongs a day and bones and chews and he spent most of his time penned next to me rather than crated so that I could do things with him and the actual crate time stayed similar to normal.

I worked on dead, touch, take it, watch me...things like down with his head also flat on the floor and taking toys by name, because every time he learned one I could just add in another. I bought new chew toys as well and rotated them daily so that he always had a different one.

Sorry posted too soon.

Basically I made sure he never got the chance to get bored and it definitely helped.

He will probably adjust to it a bit ,my mums JRT was on crate rest last summer and ended up being quite chilled . I would say that unless you don't have neighbours I'd leave the crate indoors just incase he starts barking ,also there is more in the garden to disturb him .If it's too warm indoors leave a fan on for him .

In my experience the animals that are going to adjust to restricted exercise do so very quickly, the ones that fight it tend to fight it all the way and some are affected long term by the experience. No harm in a long term, mild sedative, that's what they are for.

"No harm in a long term, mild sedative, that's what they are for." I agree with you, sadly, my vet didn't - so I spent 3 weeks entertaining the puppy.

will ask then....he is clearly distressed at the lack of exercise.

thank you.

my vet wouldnt give me a sedative.

ive gone to P@H today and bought a kong, the squirty stuff you put in them and the biscuits.....

i rang the ortho vet and they said to increase his exercise to 15 mins twice daily.
he is bouncing off the walls - he has destroyed 2 beds and is driving me crackers - up till now ive never known i had him.

we are going to try the kong (fresh from the freezer) and the increased walks - plus stretching his mind a bit with tricks and obedience training - after that it will be herbal stuff to try and calm him down a bit.

ive stopped putting him on the lead to go into the garden as he thinks its walkies time....and goes all tigger.

Did the vet give any reason for refusing? Unless there is a good medical reason I'd just try another vet.

Of the natural options I have heard good things about Valerian, but run it past your vet just in case it interacts with the dog's medication.

Training could help a lot, there are a lot of non-active things you could train just to keep him interested.

I was just reading on a different thread that dogs can have piriton and that can have a sedative effect so perhaps you could try that if it is ok with any other medication he is on.

dh made me laugh today.....he took our boy out for his 15 min walk earlier.
he passed a group of teenage girls who were disgusted that he could take the dog out with his hairless leg....lots of muttering and bitching as he passed them.

then he passed a little girl with her mum who shouted "mummy - look at that beautiful wolf dog"

he is beautiful - even with a gammy leg!

the increased walk time is helping with his energy levels and ive leaving him with a stuffed kong when not around.
so far so good.

the vet said it wouldnt be good to sedate him daily. the increase in allowed gentle walking has helped hugely.

the breeder has emailed me as well and is refunding his purchase price which is a lovely gesture from her.

though i have to say i could have bought 4 of him with what this operation has cost me.....
still.
i wouldnt swap him. he is part of the family now and we are very much attached.