With butterflies in our stomachs Thursday morning we met the doctor who began a very thorough, and at times painful, examination of Sherlock. He was such a good boy, as always. We expected to see pain in his shoulders, not his elbows. The more the doctor examined Sherlock’s elbows the more serious his expression became. After the exam he looked at the x-rays for the first time. He found the problem with the shoulders & continued to say this isn’t why he is limping. Then the doctor pointed to obvious bi-lateral problems with the elbows the radiologist should have seen and proceeded to explain the seriousness of this and, depending on the amount of damage, the worst case scenario would eventually be a completely crippled dog.
Sherlock has incongruent bone growth in his two front legs which potentially effects his elbows, so elbow dysplsia. The bones may catch up with each other-the miracle we are praying for-but not likely. Displasia ultimately causes arthritis which can be crippling, or not too bad. Initially the doctor wanted to put pins in the shorter bones to even them out, until he did the Cat Scan. Now that is impossible until he stops growing (Keith & I were both relieved). Instead he did arthroscopic surgery, as he did on the shoulders, removing cartilage fragments from the right leg. So far there isn’t any damage.
We will return in two months to reassess. If surgery is required it will be a nightmare, one elbow at a time. Recovery for each surgery will require 8 weeks of confinement in a pen. Of course he would have to be tranquilized the entire time. Since there hasn’t been any damage so far, and if we can keep it to a minimal, we are hoping to avoid those surgeries even if the bones don’t readjust as he grows.
