Osteo Symptoms

[Guest peacehound]

So many dogs on here have gone to the bridge with osteo. I have watched my hound limp on and off since I adopted her three years ago, have xrays done several times a year and just hope that is just an old injury and arthritis like the vet assures me. I will read postings where a dog is fine and just breaks a bone and is diagnosed and euthanized that quick. Do you see any other changes in your dog physically and behavior wise when they have cancer? if a dog doesn't limp, how would someone even know to suspect osteo? just wondering..today is a good day for my limping girl, maybe she is adjusting to the weather change.

Edited November 17, 2010 by peacehound

[greyhounds1234]

I thought a lot about this when Bay was diagnosed because I kept thinking that I must have missed seeing something, anything other than the limp.

The absolute only thing I noticed was that about 2 months before she developed the dreaded limp, she started getting 'matter' in her eyes. Doubt that there is any type of relationship there but that was the only change I could see.

[RobinM]

^{My Polli died of osteo at the age of 10 years, 2 months. She was one day shy of 5 months post ampuation/chemo.}

 

^{She started limpng 1 year prior to the fracture and she was x-rayed 2 x over the course of the year. It wasn't until she tripped going up the steps and fractured her leg that it became a do or die (literally) decsion. There was so much life left in her- we just couldn't end it like that so we opted for amp/chemo. It wasn't an easy thing for any of us to go through but GT peeps held me up when I thought I would fall and we all got through it together.}

 

 

^{Polli was everyone's baby girl. (as I sit with tears pouring down my face)}

 

^{So, in answer to your question... for us- she limped but there was no diagnosis from that. For some, they develop a lump in the bone. I'm sure others will chime in.}

[Guest kar]

Doug had bone sheath cancer. No limp. Just a minor squeak now and then when he jumped from the couch. Otherwise he was perfectly normal. xrays were fine. mri showed it.

[gryhnd_adoptee]

I always say that 20-20 hindsight haunts me! We lost our LuLu almost two years ago to osteo. She was a real live wire, and just turned 7 years old two weeks prior to walking her to the bridge.

 

Looking back to the many, many weeks before her diagnosis, I remember little things that I would never have associated with cancer. I remember one rainy day late in the summer, she was tearing around the yard and stumbled. She did a small roll, recovered and just continued running. I just thought it was because the grass was wet. She was never a clumsy girl, and tore around the yard all the time without incident. She made nothing of it, so neither did I.

 

At Thanksgiving a couple of months later, we took the pups to Ohio like always to visit family. Lu was laying on the floor and suddenly jumped up, yipping and trembling. I ran over to her, assuming it was a muscle cramp and rubbed her down with no unusual responses. A minute later, she was all happy and kissy face like nothing had happened. She made nothing of it, and neither did I.

 

A few weeks later, I took the pups for a joy ride. Lu slipped between the seats on a very slow turn (I drive like an old lady with the pups in the car). I thought this was rather odd as Lu was always a good rider. She had great car legs from all the rides she went on.

 

About a week later, on Christmas day...Lu showed a very slight limp. I thought it was because she scraped her leg when she slipped in the car. Took her to the vet and they gave me some pain meds to try with a 10 day follow up. Well, around day 4, the limp was getting worse, and the meds were not helping. New years day I took her in for x-rays....they found osteo. We lost Lu 7 weeks post diagnosis...our lives were just shattered.

 

After the hard crying...I began to look back at all those incidences. I think she was reacting to the osteo before we even realized what was going on. Other than occassional mild seizures which began just before she was 5, she was a very vibrant, healthy baby girl.

 

I have been haunted since losing my heart girl by the coulda, woulda, shoulda's. What if I had looked into it when she slipped the very first time? Would they have been able to find something then? Would I seem like a paranoid nut for bringing her in for being clumsy on a run, and for what I thought was a muscle cramp? Could I have done something different had we known the few months sooner? I beat myself up all the time with these questions!

[Charlies_Dad]

Our Charlie developed a limp on a Wednesday evening in July, it was there still in the morning (no swelling). DW e-mailed me that morning as I was on travelling and I told her to schedule an x-ray immediately. We were booked in Thursday afternoon with an orthopedic surgeon and I got the call from DW while waiting at the airport to return home. I will never forget that call....nothing was 100% because it didn't have the typically look of Osteo and they could not be certain without a fine needle aspirate. I told them to amputate immediately as he had injured his leg racing right where the suspicious spot was and he is a Greyhound. His leg was amputated the next day and we haven't looked back. Osteo was confirmed a couple weeks later after his leg was sent to the University of Colorado.

 

Prior to his limp Charlie was always his normal crazy self. No other symptoms.

[Guest greytloves]

There is one thing I noticed with Lucy that made me "know" before we even went for her first x-ray and it is not anything you can really use for help. But, here it is, my two boy dogs who have been with her all of her life, started to sniff her a lot. I knew then that something in her body chemistry was changing.

 

 

Other than that, No. Not with any of mine.

[teri_d]

rivie's osteo was on her rib -- i noticed a very small less than pecan sized "lump" on her side 2 days after a rabies shot last june. looking back i ask myself what other symptoms i might have missed - she seemed to have been shedding heavily during the summer....other than that no clue.

[Guest Smiley]

This may sound odd, but about 2-3 months before we ever noticed any symptoms with Smiley, we did notice that Peanut would go and lay by him which she had never really done before. We would often find them together in what we thought of as "Smiley's room" since Peanut never had much interest in sleeping there. So that said, I would pay attention to your other dogs behavior and see if you notice any changes. I think they understand sickness in one another long before we as humans do.

 

I do also recall both of them also licking the affected leg. Not the typical grooming, but prolonged licking of the painful leg. I can't recall though if it was before or after the limps started.

[Guest SueG201]

with my first greyhound Grace she got aggressive with my oth er grey Joe and bit him in the face which I thought odd because they were best buds, 3 yrs later Joe out of the clear blue sky tried to bite my leg as i walked by, he did not have o ne aggressive bone in his body, Could be coincidence but you need to look for personality changes. This breed is very stoic and will try and hide th eir pain.

[Guest MorganKonaAlex]

I've had 3 with osteo. No symptom other than a limp in each case. With Morgan, he was on Deramaxx for arthritis in the same leg for several years. I asked if it was possible it was osteo all along and was told no. It develops too fast to have been a symptom that long. However, there are anecdotal stories that osteo likes sites of previous injury.

[Bevd]

Darcy had no symptoms AT ALL. None. And then she walked across the room and her leg broke. Then she was xrayed and then diagnosed and amputated. (Leg broke around 11am and apmputation was at 3pm ish).

 

I've wondered whether I missed a sign beforehand but I know in my heart that I didn't. We had already lost one dog to bone cancer so I was more than aware of textbook signs and symptoms but Darcy really did not have anything at all.

 

 

15th October 2007 - playing with our Westie, Ella. Her front right leg is fully weight bearing as she plays

 

 

 

 

 

16th October 2007 - leg broke as detailed above.

 

 

I've puzzled over how the osteo had been there long enough to weaken the bone to the extent that it did, yet not give ANY outward signs or symptoms. I don't think I'm ever going to know the answer to that

 

 

By the way, in case there is anyone who doesn't know ( ) Darcy is now celebrating 37 months (and 2 days)

 

[cmc333]

Gypsy had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer about a year ago. About two weeks ago, she started limping, so took her to the vet right away. One X-ray blown up and you could see the cancer spot, about the size of my thumbnail. Only sign (except for the limp) was the other dogs in the house seemed to sniff her excessively. Other than that, there were no symptoms at all. It's a hellish disease,

 

Connie

[NeylasMom]

I thought a lot about this when Bay was diagnosed because I kept thinking that I must have missed seeing something, anything other than the limp.

The absolute only thing I noticed was that about 2 months before she developed the dreaded limp, she started getting 'matter' in her eyes. Doubt that there is any type of relationship there but that was the only change I could see.

Don't doubt yourself, that's exactly the answer I was going to give. It's the ONLY thing that changed with Neyla, mostly only in her right eye. Strangely once I started her holistic treatment it subsided for a while, but when things started progressing right after Dewey, the gunk came back in full force. My dogs are raw fed and have never had eye or ear issues so I don't doubt it's related. Otherwise, nada aside from the limp.

 

Darcy, our hero. But wow, I can't believe that picture followed by her fracture a day later, this disease is crazy. And horrible.

 

 

To the OP, I do suspect 3 years is too long for it to be osteosarcoma without you knowing it.

 

ETA: Zuri has also never changed his behavior toward her. None of the sniffing that others have described or being more affectionate.

Edited November 18, 2010 by NeylasMom

[greyhounds1234]

I thought a lot about this when Bay was diagnosed because I kept thinking that I must have missed seeing something, anything other than the limp.

The absolute only thing I noticed was that about 2 months before she developed the dreaded limp, she started getting 'matter' in her eyes. Doubt that there is any type of relationship there but that was the only change I could see.

Don't doubt yourself, that's exactly the answer I was going to give. It's the ONLY thing that changed with Neyla, mostly only in her right eye. Strangely once I started her holistic treatment it subsided for a while, but when things started progressing right after Dewey, the gunk came back in full force. My dogs are raw fed and have never had eye or ear issues so I don't doubt it's related. Otherwise, nada aside from the limp.

 

Darcy, our hero. But wow, I can't believe that picture followed by her fracture a day later, this disease is crazy. And horrible.

 

 

To the OP, I do suspect 3 years is too long for it to be osteosarcoma without you knowing it.

 

ETA: Zuri has also never changed his behavior toward her. None of the sniffing that others have described or being more affectionate.

 

You know, if I had taken Bay to the vet just because she had matter in her eyes....even if we had a full range of xrays...I'm just pretty darned sure the osteo wouldn't have shown up. That's the thing about the osteo that gets to me the worst...that, for the most part, you can't catch it fast enough. It always seems to be one step ahead and you can't always catch up.

I can understand that an osteo cure isn't on the horizon but darn, I sure wish they could just find genetic markers or something in neon that would light up and say "hey, your dog has osteo..you just don't know it yet". You can't fight what you can't see.

[Yamaha_gurl]

I don't have much to offer here, other than some hugs.

[Guest bigorangedog]

In some of my guys, I have noticed weight loss. Gradual, though, so that you don't really notice it. Then you see a limp, and you put two and two together and think, "Oh sh--." I've also noticed that some of them (I've had 5 with osteo) began hanging around closer to me, like they wanted to support. While a couple others started hanging around by themselves more, like sleeping in the bedroom alone instead of in the living room with everyone else. Little changes in behavior like that. But of course those are things you don't think much of, or explain away with some other reason, until you have the diagnosis.

[Tracey]

A few weeks before Cosmo started limping we noticed she was kind of tracking funny, as in not exactly straight, when we took her on walks. It was subtle; we thought maybe we were seeing things. Of course, weeks later when we had the dreaded osteo diagnosis we realized in retrospect that her slightly "off" gait must have been an early warning sign.

[Guest peacehound]

I just wanted to thank everyone who shared their stories on here, I am sure it is tough remembering just a sad time. Thank you for loving those hounds and giving them the best care during their last stage of life. I just found out today that my hounds brother is dying of a tumor on his pituary gland..cancer is such a monster.