Did Osteo Show Up On Your Gey's X Rays ?

[Guest Loki]

Tonight we are taking our sweet loki boy to get X rays of his rear right leg. I have read that sometimes Osteo does not show up. We live in a city, and the place we are going has top notch modern equipment. I just wanted to get an idea of how often it does not show up on first X ray. If it does not show up we plan on re testing in a month or so.

 

any thoughts or advice also appreciated

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dave

[RobinM]

you are dong all you can do. Take it one film at a time. For Polli- although she had a severe limp on and off for a year, it took the full year for the osteo to be discovered and that was only because she fractured it.

Keeping Loki in my prayers.

 

 

Update as soon as you can.

[greyhounds1234]

This is what Bay's first x-ray looked like. The osteo was in her left front leg. It looked nothing like the xray of our other grey when she had osteo. Her's was quite apparent and right on the bone.

[Guest Energy11]

Max's showed up about a month after I discovered his limp. It was VERY distinct, and easy to see.

 

He lived three more months with good pain management, and was able to make the move up here from Florida with us.

 

Good Luck with all of this!

[Guest jettcricket]

With Chance and Cricket, initially, no it did not show up.

 

Prayers for your sweet baby. I know it's hard, but try and be positive. There could many other reasons for his limp. Please keep us updated.

[cmc333]

Gypsy's osteo showed up on first x-ray, about the size of my thumbnail. Clear as day.

 

Connie

[fourofem]

I took Lewis in for his limp as soon as I noticed it. There was no swelling or bump...just a slight limp. I figured he had pulled something or maybe some early signs of arthritis. I think my vet knew something was up and ordered xrays. The OS showed up on those.

[ozgirl2]

Also, remember to ask your vet to send the xrays to Dr. Couto at Ohio State... Someone here will hvae the info if they haven't already given it to you...

[NeylasMom]

We went to my usual vet first and there was a spot there, but she didn't notice it even though that's specifically what we were looking for! I followed up with an appt with our orthopedist. He noticed the weird spot and decided to take his own x-ray since his office has HD equipment. The osteo was plain as day on that one although he wanted me to come back in 2 weeks to see if it had changed before he would definitely dx it. If I had done that, we would have went on thinking it wasn't cancer b/c her lesion for whatever reason didn't really progress for 5 months. But with encouragement from fellow GTers I sent the x-ray to Dr. Couto instead of waiting and he dx'ed it as osteo immediately with a high degree of confidence.

 

Here's her first x-ray at his office:

 

And here's what it looked like 3 1/2 weeks ago when we confirmed for the first time that the lesion has started to progress:

 

Even with the latter x-ray @nearly 6 months, we're still in the earlier stages of the progression so ours is not as obvious as many people's are. Hopefully that's helpful to you if you're looking at a similar scenario. But of course, I hope very much that it's not osteo for you guys. :hope

 

Oh, ETA: here is an x-ray of her healthy right shoulder, taken the same day as the first x-ray above. My vet took it for comparison purposes and noted that in this shoulder the bone looked like that of young dog, basically perfect even though she's 11. So it gives you an idea of what healthy bone looks like:

Edited November 18, 2010 by NeylasMom

[djsgreys]

For Suzy, it was clearly and undeniably osteo on the first set of x-rays.

[Guest Maddison]

It did for us. The bone looked different from a normal bone, it had a marbling to it that was just not right. Stinkerbelle had a limp that did not go away and suddenly the leg swelled above her knee joint. The vet said it is most commonly seen in the legs and above the knee. He said it also spreads to their lungs first and we did notice her breathing was a little labored. We were so used to seeing it that we didn't really notice the breathing until the vet told us about it.

[zimsmom]

Lexi began limping & non weight bearing for 1-2 days before I brought her in. (although she had other signs she was sick) 1 set of xrays showed the lesion. My vet diagnsoed it right away.

 

I just had Zim a few months ago for the same thing & the same vet did xrays & did not see anything. I trust her opinion since she was spot on with Lexi.

 

Keeping fingers crossed for you.

[Guest Ohiogreymom]

By the time they're limping, it usually shows up. Darlene

[Guest Smiley]

With Smiley he started limping and our x-ray within the week clearly showed osteo. His decline was very quick. With Peanut's we had two "clear" x-rays according to our vet, but when Dr. Couto's team looked at the second set they clearly saw it. We did one month between x-rays for Peanut. If your vet offers to have a radiologist examine the films, I would definitely say yes-they are trained to look for the smallest abnormality. And of course, sending each set to Dr. Couto is a great idea. Good luck and I really hope this turns out to be absolutely nothing.

[Guest Loki]

Good news. the vet saw no signs of cancer in the X rays. We have called and emailed Dr. Couto and plan on trying to get him to take a look at the films as well. Our plan is leave Loki on the pain / anti inflammatory meds till they run out in a few days and see if the pain / limp continues. We also will likely retest in a month or so either way.

 

Thanks so much to all who replied. This forum has been such a help , and the warm , kind wished are greatly appreciated.

[greyhounds1234]

My fingers are crossed that you will always have clear xrays!

[Guest Adrianne]

Good news. the vet saw no signs of cancer in the X rays. We have called and emailed Dr. Couto and plan on trying to get him to take a look at the films as well. Our plan is leave Loki on the pain / anti inflammatory meds till they run out in a few days and see if the pain / limp continues. We also will likely retest in a month or so either way.

 

Thanks so much to all who replied. This forum has been such a help , and the warm , kind wished are greatly appreciated.

 

 

So happy to hear this! Hoping and praying the pain and antiinflammatory meds help your sweet pup.

[NeylasMom]

Great news!

[Charlies_Dad]

Excellent news! Hopefully the meds help Loki quickly and everything's back to normal soon.

 

Unfortunately Osteo can look different for each pup. I agree that a Radiologist should look at the images as they are the specialist - and/or send them to Dr. Coutu 's team at OSU (along with a donation if you can).