Chester's Elbow Dysplasia

[Lollipup]

Chester was diagnosed with elbow dysplasia in the left elbow when he was 6 months old. It was so mild that the specialist decided not to do the arthroscopy but to manage conservatively until he is 12-18 months old. Some dogs heal themselves in that time. He is 12 months now and last week he got out of his pen and ran around with the other dog all day which set him back and gave him an obvious limp. The specialist said give him until after the weekend and if he isn't back to how he was before he got out, we will consider the surgery. Chester did improve but not quite all the way. He had a set back again today and the limp is worse than ever. I called the specialist and he is now recommending the surgery.

I don't know what to do. If we do it, he has an 80% chance of improvement, 20% no change. But I don't know how good it can get. If we wait until he is 18 months, he could improve or he could go backwards as soon as he has a big run around again. And in that case, the longer we wait for surgery the worse it could get.

Should I just go for it? I trust the specialist and I want to do whatever will have the best outcome for Chester. But I so wanted to avoid surgery. I am so disappointed, things were looking positive for a while. :p

[Staranais]

What type of elbow dysplasia is it, and what's the surgery you're being recommended?

In general I'd recommend taking the advice of the specialist - they're generally pretty good at what they do, that's why they can charge you so much! But I understand it's a hard decision to make, and disappointing that you need to make it.

[Lollipup]

What type of elbow dysplasia is it, and what's the surgery you're being recommended?

In general I'd recommend taking the advice of the specialist - they're generally pretty good at what they do, that's why they can charge you so much! But I understand it's a hard decision to make, and disappointing that you need to make it.

He is just referring to it as medial coronoid disease and be won't know specifics until he does the arthroscopy (whether there is FCP or other type of problem) and then depending what it is, he thinks he will need to do a subtotal coronoidectomy (bit hazy on thy wording). Hope this makes sense. He also refers to it as scoping the joint.

His limp is the worst it's ever been now

Thanks for your support

[Lollipup]

Chester had hu surgery yesterday and we are now waiting for the call to pick him up. Hoping we made the right decision for him, poor boy

[mackiemad]

i'm sure chester is doing well and that the vet and nurses are taking good care of him - it s hard not to worry when they're at the vets away from you though.

good luck, our fingers are crossed for you and chester

[Lollipup]

We finally have him home after a long 6 hour drive. He's sleeping in his crate now bit he's been uncomfortable with the bandage being so stiff, makes it hard for him to lay down. It's the start of a long 12 weeks. I feel so bad for him already. Oh and they shaved so much hair off! My poor boy. I really hope it helps him after all this.

[mokhahouse]

Wishing Chester a speedy and full recovery. Did the specialist tell you what sort of ED he had.

[Lollipup]

Hi

This is what the report says:

The xrays showed mild subchondral sclerosis of the left coronoid and mild osteophytosis evident on the dorsum of the anconeal process.

Arthroscopic assessment confirmed a loss of articular cartilage of the coronoid region with moderate synovitis.

A subtotal coronoidectomy was performed to remove the abnormal joint surface and decompress the medial compartment of the elbow.

Is that anything like what mokha had? How did he go after surgery? They were worried Chester was getting it in the right elbow as well as he shifts weight between the two although only limps on the left. The xrays showed the right clear though so really hoping it stays good.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Lollipup

[dancinbcs]

Wishing Chester a full, if slow recovery from his surgery. The toughest part is the essential rest so it can heal properly but the few dogs I know of that have had elbow or shoulder surgery have made a full recovery.

[Champs Dad]

I'm a big fan of glucosamin and chondroitin powder, you can get it from the chemist. My dog has had major improvements since starting on it about 6 months ago.

Make sure your dog has lots of rest post surgery. Hope all goes well for him

[mokhahouse]

Hi :D

This is what the report says:

The xrays showed mild subchondral sclerosis of the left coronoid and mild osteophytosis evident on the dorsum of the anconeal process.

Arthroscopic assessment confirmed a loss of articular cartilage of the coronoid region with moderate synovitis.

A subtotal coronoidectomy was performed to remove the abnormal joint surface and decompress the medial compartment of the elbow.

Is that anything like what mokha had? How did he go after surgery? They were worried Chester was getting it in the right elbow as well as he shifts weight between the two although only limps on the left. The xrays showed the right clear though so really hoping it stays good.

I tried to find the report from Mokhas surgery but all I could find were the very large bills. I am not sure of the technical terms for what Mokha had but he had 3 larges pieces of cartilidge that had broken off floating in the joint so they were removed and the surface was scraped or smoothed I think. His surgery was nearly 1 1/2 years ago and he is doing so well. He runs and plays, has cartrophen injections monthly and is on Joint guard and fish oil. I am so pleased we went ahead with the surgery as he would have been completely lame by now if we had not. I hope you have as positive an outcome as we did. We were extremely careful with him, enforcing the rest and took a long time to increase his exercise. It was hard with another young lab in the house who was and is an extremely active girl.

[Lollipup]

Hi

This is what the report says:

The xrays showed mild subchondral sclerosis of the left coronoid and mild osteophytosis evident on the dorsum of the anconeal process.

Arthroscopic assessment confirmed a loss of articular cartilage of the coronoid region with moderate synovitis.

A subtotal coronoidectomy was performed to remove the abnormal joint surface and decompress the medial compartment of the elbow.

Is that anything like what mokha had? How did he go after surgery? They were worried Chester was getting it in the right elbow as well as he shifts weight between the two although only limps on the left. The xrays showed the right clear though so really hoping it stays good.

I tried to find the report from Mokhas surgery but all I could find were the very large bills. I am not sure of the technical terms for what Mokha had but he had 3 larges pieces of cartilidge that had broken off floating in the joint so they were removed and the surface was scraped or smoothed I think. His surgery was nearly 1 1/2 years ago and he is doing so well. He runs and plays, has cartrophen injections monthly and is on Joint guard and fish oil. I am so pleased we went ahead with the surgery as he would have been completely lame by now if we had not. I hope you have as positive an outcome as we did. We were extremely careful with him, enforcing the rest and took a long time to increase his exercise. It was hard with another young lab in the house who was and is an extremely active girl.

Thanks for looking. The scraping and smoothing of the joint sounds similar but I don't think Chester had any major fragments. We are being very strict with him on rest. He's in the crate except to be taken out on lead for toilet breaks. He hated having a bandage on and it had to be changed several times and then we gave up but the vet has checked it yesterday and it's looking ok. Was a little red so they gave him some antibiotics in case. It looks good now though. We have another dog in the house too and she is hyper and they love to play so it does make it hard. At least Chester likes his crate and is used to it since he had to have 4 weeks of rest originally to see if that helped without surgery.