Vet says our pup's knees are malformed
Hi - I took our 4-1/2 month old cardi, Brody, to "our" vet this past week. He had his early puppy shots when we were given him, but this was his first time at our long-time vet. Just to get his last round of shots and a health check. She said his fknees on his front legs are more turned out than corgi's knees normally are and he is likely to get arthritis and we need to limit him to moderate exercise and prevent him from jumping down and landing on his front legs. I knew that it is not great for corgis to jump down and land on their front legs, but this is worrisome. He's such a bright guy and he's a real candidate for agility training. I was also hoping that he would accompany me on my 5 mile walks (I'm a racewalker). Guess not. I started giving him glucosamine/chondroiton on the recommendation of the vet. Anyone else heard of or experience this and what did you do, not do, etc. and what was the outcome. The vet said some surgery would help a little.
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Permalink Reply by Kent and Lisa Kubie on
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I have a 2 year old Pembroke Teddy who has front feet that are turned out. He has recently developed a limp when he gets up after he has been laying down for a while. He soon "shakes" ir off. My wife took him to the vet a few days ago. She X-rayed him and found nothing was wrong. She thought he had inflamation in his shoulders. We have him on crate rest and he appears to be getting better. He is very active as we have a two of them and didn't know if it was a sports type injury or this was a bigger problem.
On thing our breeder told us is to find a vet who has experience with Corgis or dwarf breeds to get a more accurate assessment.
Our other Corgi is a 3 year old female that is very close to the breed standard and she has had no problems. -
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Permalink Reply by Renee Kovacs on
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My "Ed" has one leg that is quite crooked. It wasn't visible when he was a baby, but it sure is now! We took him to a specialist who said it was congenital, and he blamed the poor nutritional content of most commercial dog foods. He felt that it was likely poor nutrition during gestation - not that the breeder was intentionally causing harm, just that many people rely on commercial foods to be optimally nutritious when he felt they were not.
They could operate and "easily" fix the leg - to the tune of $6,000. Suffice to say, Ed still has his crooked leg. He is 6 now, and no way could he do 5 mile walks because of his leg. Being that it's a front leg - when that joint is very painful (and I say very, because Ed over-rides pain pretty successfully) - he can NOT GET UP. Bad engineering there! lol It is unfortunate that Corgi's just don't do very well operating minus one front leg.
I used to have horses, and this has me wondering ...what if we made a 'splint boot', along the lines that they use for horses? Just neoprene and velcro ...would seem easy enough to figure out. It could help support the leg, add stability? -
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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Thanks for this. Brody is a year old now and doesn't seem to have problems at this point. I guess we'll see how it goes. I don't have $6K for the surgery either.
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I have to tell you - the first time Ed's leg hurt so bad he couldn't get up, I FREAKED. He was laying down and I came home, and he didn't greet me ...he seemed ok but would NOT get up. I tried food, I begged, I was so scared - he would only wag his tail but not even TRY to move. I was convinced he'd hurt his back, you know how your mind goes - thought for sure he was paralyzed or some horrid thing. Rushed him to the emergency vet (of course it's on a Sunday), I'm choking back tears and fears ...he's laying on the floor in the waiting room (he's a large Cardigan, NOT fat but not a good lap fit!) and another dog walks in ...
Ed gets UP and walks on over to this other dog! I was stunned! Well, the emergency vet was sure it was a shoulder injury, gave me some pain med for him (which I didn't give him - he wasn't miserable, and I don't need him falling down stairs from drugs). Followed up with the specialist who actually diagnosed the leg deformity.
I'll try and get a good photo of his leg posted, but it looks similar to your dog's but more exaggerated and only one leg. He's 6 now, and WE monitor his activity because he WON'T. He would run himself into the ground if we let him - and then he'd pay the price the next day. I guess Ed lives in the moment?! =)
He can handle 3 miles walking, he does 15 min a day laser-light-chasing (he's obsessed), and beyond that he'll be limping the next day. If it gets beyond limping - as we've learned, he can't get up. So - if you come home to a dog that can't get up ...just bear this in mind. In a perfect world, my house wouldn't have stairs and the deck wouldn't be off the ground (Ed does "Super-dog" flying leaps off the deck, NOT good for his leg) ...but I can't spend 6 grand to fix his leg, and I can't move to a different house! -
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