At Charleston Referral Hospital

[Walliered]

DaVid is being examined by Dr. Jennifer Au (OSU) right now. He may have a blown knee, maybe both. Please say a prayer for this poor hound.

[beledi]

Prayers

[Batmom]

Oh, gosh, hope it's something much simpler!

[GreyPoopon]

[racindog]

Praying for the boy! Make sure it is not a tibial crest fracture-how old is he? Slim got that. Greyts only rarely have knee issues like other dogs.

[queenwinniesmom]

Oh, Nan, I'm so sorry that you and DaVid have been through so much! You are taking such good care of your boy, and I hope Dr. Au is able to help him.

You are both in my prayers.

[Houndtime]

Poor boy. Has gone through so much, already.

[robinw]

Good luck and keep us posted, ok?

[Walliered]

Just talked to Dr. Au. She is not convinced he has a knee problem. Actually she can find nothing that points in that direction. He is resting now and later she is going to push/pull on him again trying to get a response. So, no camera scheduled yet. I guess I will know more later and will post. Thanks

[Remolacha]

glad it is not a blown knee! I hope she can find the problem and it is simple/easy to fix!

[Walliered]

Talked to Dr. Au again. She can find nothing wrong with anything. She is sedating him and taking fluid from 3 places in his body (including one knee). While he is out she is hulling the corms. She wants to put him on Rimadyl for awhile and see if that helps..But, my question is: what happens when we are off the meds and he starts limping again. She was also thinking about putting on Pred., but I have a problem with that so that one is a no-go. More later. Thanks

[Batmom]

Are the corns on the leg(s) with knee concerns?

 

As long as the dog gets along with Rimadyl (or other NSAIDs) and you keep up with periodic bloodwork, there's no reason he'd have to come off of it.

[Walliered]

Just talked to the doctor again. She had hulled the corms (both rear feet) and taken the fluid. The fluid looks just fine. Dr. Jason King checked him also. He is the doctor that did his back surgery about 4-5 months ago. He is satisfied his back is just fine. He will be able to go home tonight after he wakes up. I hope and pray the corns were the culprit. Yes, he limps on both hind legs and they is where the corns were. Thanks again everyone.

[Batmom]

Good thing to check before anything else -- they pretty much always make a limp, and you can't evaluate anything else (except a gross and obvious tumor, a broken bone, etc.) until they're addressed.

 

If they've been there for a time, you may have some callus built up around them, and that can mean the dog will still limp after the corn has been removed. That callus needs to be trimmed back (NO ANAESTHESIA NEEDED!) and some time given for the pad to normalize before reassessing.

[Walliered]

Thanks Diane. I had never seen corns before except on the computer. I found them yesterday and took him to my vet. She confirmed they were corns. DaVid has been limping 2-3 month, but I did not see the corns until yesterday. I am pretty much all over my dogs and think I would have seem them. Vet said maybe they were growing inward (hence limp) and then turned outward. It is anyones guess.

[Batmom]

Yeah, sometimes you can't see them until they get bigger. There are times (some, not all) when you can't see them but can feel them by running your fingernail over the surface of the pad -- harder/firmer spot. Rotten little boogers. Really hope that's all that was bothering him!

[Walliered]

She hulled the corns. He had several. But, she thinks the corns are not the problem. She thinks maybe it could be scar tissue in his spine from the two surgeries. She wants him on Rimadol (spelling) every 12 hours along with his Gabapentin (spelling, Amadadine (spelling) and tramadol. She wants me to try this for 2 weeks. She may want to switch him to Pred. He is really asleep right now. Hasn't even had his 8 o'clock meds. Just looked at his corn holes and they are deep and pretty big.

[rascalsmom]

My Jack had corns, and he limped something fierce. Don't underestimate the power of corns.

[Booker_Aye]

Just a thought -- if he will tolerate them, therapaws on his rear feet should help him over the recovery from the hulling of the corns. And if with the therapaws he can walk well, that would suggest that it might have been the corns after all.

[queenwinniesmom]

Just a thought -- if he will tolerate them, therapaws on his rear feet should help him over the recovery from the hulling of the corns. And if with the therapaws he can walk well, that would suggest that it might have been the corns after all.

I was going to suggest this! When I put a Therapaw on Calvin's foot that has the corn, he doesn't limp.

It could very well be something else (scar tissue like the vet thought), but I hope not! Therapaws might be worth a try.

[Walliered]

Thanks, I have 1 Therapaw left. Sent all the other three to Greytalkers that needed them. She is now talking about Root Signature pain. I am trying to google this term and see what it is. I think the Rimadyl makes him very anxious and afraid. Last night about an hour after his first dose, he was panting and crying and acted like he had never seen the back yard before. He has settled down now, but I will give him another one at 9:30. She has him on 75mg every 12 hours. i was wondering why I had a whole bottle of the drug on my shelf. I knew there was a reason I had not given it to him before, but could not remember what. I need to keep a journal on him. If this does not work (and I don't think it will) then I will have to make the decision. I do not keep dogs around just for me and I have seen a lot of that on this forum. If we cannot fix him pretty soon then I will have to let him go. I hate it as he is my heart dog, but won't let him hurt forever.

[tbhounds]

If its a root signature issue gabapentin is a better medication choice. If its a corn problem you may want to try NeoPaw boots rather than the therapaws.

[4My2Greys]

It's probably the tramadol and not the Rimadyl that is making him anxious. Tramadol is known to cause that effect in some dogs.

Regarding his limp and diagnosis of knee injury and spinal problems let me share with you my introduction into the world of corns. I spent over 2 years carrying Nadir to 5 different vets and spending thousands trying to find out why he was having so much trouble walking. I thought for sure it was a spinal problem. I had one vet give me a diagnosis of spondylosis, but a year later a MRI showed nothing wrong with his spine. By this time he had got increasingly worse to the point like you I was thinking of letting him go. Then I took him to another vet who tells me he has a knee injury like DaVid was diagnosed with. The final vet I took him to in this saga took the time to watch how he would stand and move around and the first thing out of his mouth was ' there is nothing wrong with this dog's knees. The problem is in the foot'. He then picked his foot up and showed me the corn on his foot and said that was probably what was causing him so much pain. This was prior to my education of corns here on GT so I had no idea how painful they could be. I tried having the corn hulled which only increased the pain for him, it wasn't until I had the entire corn surgically removed and about 3 months time for that to heal that I had a dog that could final not only walk, but run without pain on his walks.

[dante2zoe]

I have a 12 year old (in a week) that was attacked in his former home and sustained serious damage to his hip and tuck area. My vet believes he has scar tissue that has wrapped around the nerve/tendon running down that leg. He limps. He also has corns on his back feet, which I hull regularly and he wears his boots. He is taking gabapentin and receiving adequan injections, which have helped. He still limps, but he wants to go on walks (just S L O W L Y) and is an active participant in the craziness which is my life with dogs. I understand where you are coming from. While he is happy/content, he will stay and I will continue to manage him as best as I can.

 

I hope this new regimen and the corn hulling gives your handsome boy some relief.

[Batmom]

It's probably the tramadol and not the Rimadyl that is making him anxious. Tramadol is known to cause that effect in some dogs.

 

Yep.

 

First time I used it, tramadol made Joseph so stoned I nearly had to take him to the ER. I wouldn't've used it for him again, but there was an incident where we had no other good options. It worked much better for him to split the prescribed dose and give the two halves @ an hour apart. Then little/no stoned behavior, panting, etc.