Arthritis so Young???

[koda girl]

Thanks so much for all your opinions. I live in a small city and we don't have ortho vets. But I do plan to get the x-rays and ask another vets opinion, just to make sure it is arthritis we are dealing with. This happened last Thursday night, she was in pain for about 3 days, able to walk but you could see that it was hurting her, now she is fine and wants to run, run, run. Of course we are not letting her, the vet said no excercise for 2 weeks then light walks for 4 more weeks. I don't think we are going to be able to keep her down that long, she is going crazy now and misses the dog park so much. Again thanks a million for all your advice. I have to look up so many different things now that you all mentioned.

[jocoyn]

Calmness is required for back injuries.

As much as I hated to do it, I put Grim in a darkened room in his crate which is where he spent most of hist time, alone, and sleeping....he was just too excited otherwise...we were able to go in and quietly hang out with him.

You could probably post the x-rays to see if anyone here has some comments. No we are not veterinarians but some of us do have personal experience with spinal arthritis to tell you what we observe.

[koda girl]

Got Koda's X-Rays today from the vet. If anyone has any opinions on them I would love to hear them. The ones called Abdomen Lateral, L Spine Lateral and Pelvis Lateral are the ones where she pointed out the arthritis. It is from half way down her back then down to her tail.
Thanks,

[jocoyn]

You can definitely see that it is...spondylosis.....some links. A holistic vet may have more to offer. I have had two dogs develop significant spondylosis but they were older - Grim at 8.5 and Linus at 12

The hips look pretty good to me though.

I hope you get some good suggestions for such a young dog.

SPONDYLOSIS DEFORMANS
http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/projects/sa..._61/61mast.htm
Hometown Veterinary Care - Spondylosis
Hip Dysplasia & Spondylosis

[JakodaCD OA]

so sorry To young of a dog to have spondylosis..I to had a gsd with this, but like Nancy's he was older when he developed it. Kodi was around 7.5. This was years ago, but I got into Dr Belfields stuff , lots of supplements that are readily available.

At the time, my vet gave Kodi a poor prognosis, he did live another 2 years and actually did very well with all the supplements he was on (and it was so long ago, I honestly can't remember 'what' most of them were!)

I would check out the links Nancy provided,,good luck to you both.