Growing Pains

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Take a teething puppy, keep his activity minimal [meaning no playing with friends in the puppy park] and reduce his daily ration of food and I can guarantee that even the most angelic puppy will turn into a petulant monster. We tried to take Otava to a nearby island on Sunday, where most of the area is a dog park, but not long after we got off the bus he started limping again, only on the other front leg. His limp became rather severe and once we got home I gave him some aspirin to help ease the discomfort a bit while I started hunting around the net for some information on what might be the problem.

I am unwilling to believe that it could be a joint abnormality and he has had no trauma or undue stress to his legs. I found something known as "panosteitis". I've known and had my own giant breed puppies for two decades and have never heard about this affliction. But, essentially, it's a result of him growing too fast. Large breed dog owners don't feed vitamin supplements and switch to adult food around four months of age to avoid the dangers of this happening. Somehow, in spite of doing everything right, he is still growing like a weed.

Panosteitis (commonly called "growing pains," "wandering lameness," or simply "pano") is associated with large breed dogs and usually occurs in dogs 5 to 12 months of age, although it has been found in dogs as old as 5 years. It most commonly affects males by a ratio of 4:1. Females are most often affected around their first heat. It is possible that the condition is partially genetic since so many German Shepherd Dogs are prone to it. However, many other factors have been associated with pano: diet, viral diseases, autoimmune problems, hyperestrogen, and vascular problems. In other words, no one knows what causes the disease. It is characterised by excessive bone production on the long bones and is an inflammation of the membrane covering the bone. Dogs will generally grow out of the problem, but it is a painful condition.

Symptoms: Favoring of legs, limping, being subdued. Pano is also called "shifting leg lameness" as it can show up in any leg and may come and go without warning. If the limping goes from leg to leg (for example, one day the dog limps on the right rear leg, and the next day, it limps on the left front), it is very likely the dog has pano.

Diagnosis: If the dog is x-rayed during a bout of pano, lesions on the area above the growth plates will be visible.

Treatment: Enforced rest is usually prescribed. Painkillers are controversial since the pup will play more without pain, and may exacerbate the condition. Some vets recommend a reduced-protein (usually an adult formula) diet.

The pathology of the disease matches the description of his symptoms almost perfectly. I've changed his food to a Nutro's low protein adult formula and started giving him 500mg of vitamin C. There's a lot of conflicting advice on the net, but the food, limited use of aspirin for the pain and reduced exercise make a lot of sense. The vitamin C hasn't been confirmed as helping, but the vitamin has a lot to do with calcium metabolism in the body so it won't do any harm at least. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it is just growing pains and that he'll grow out of it soon so we can enjoy the summertime.

On the lighter side, our new offices are very nice and my southern exposure window is terribly luxurious after years of dark cubes, although the drawback is that it is rather soporific in the late afternoon. For some reason there aren't any rubbish bins to be found anywhere in the building which is both mysterious and inconvenient.

It's Dr. Fun's Peeps Week again. I miss marshmallow peeps. :)

The photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand's Earth From the Air series will be in Helsinki from the 17th of June through the 18th of September according to today's HS. I've seen the exhibit in London and will be happy to see it again as the enlarged photos are quite amazing. This summer, the London exhibit will be getting textured photos so that the blind may enjoy them as well.