Have his back checked out...........sounds like a spinal problem.

Thanks Annz - that's a good idea - i'll ask her about that.

Another thing I've been thinking about (dangerous, i know) is maybe he was kept in a small cage and has muscle weakness. He's the product of a backyard breeder, i'm sure of that. Oh well, no use speculating - we'll see what they say next week.

vicky

One other thing I just thought of that would be worth mentioning to your vet. One of my dogs suffered with pain for a year before I was finally referred to a neuro specialist who diagnosed her. He could tell she was hurting but she kept passing all the neuro tests, so as a last resort he drew some fluid off her hip joints and discovered she was suffering from polyarthritis.

A heavy dose of prednisone solved her problem, but she did suffer from arthritis in her neck in her later years.

Here is a link that might be useful: polyarthritis

plus............i suggest keeping him quiet and isolated from the rough-housing of other dogs until this is diagnosed. He must be hurting a good bit from what you've described :(

The muscle weakness is probably secondary to not using the rear legs muscles because of pain. My Ana has deformed rear legs, and when I found her at 6 months old, she already had severely atrophied rear leg muscles. She is also a front end loader, but it doesn't sound like as bad as your dog because she can easily position to defecate.

I remember you asked about hip radiogrpahs a little bit ago. If your dog has that severe hip dysplasia, he probably has radiogrpahic changes already too. Hip rads will also show many other problems if he has any. Has the location of the pain been isolated yet? Is there a reason the vet didn't think hips were the problem?

Anyway, there are plenty of other diseases your dog may have, so don't worry too much about hip surgery yet. Shar Peis have a familial disease called Shar Pei Fever that may cause severe lameness due to joint effusion, but it also has other clinical signs such as fever and other problems. Panosteitis, osteochondrosis, luxated patellas +/- meniscal tears, neurological problems (spinal cord diseases), lumbar-sacral instability, and polyarthritis are all possibilities, and luckily can be easier and cheaper to treat than hip dysplasia.

Ana, despite her problems, is doing pretty darn well. She can't walk as long as she used to, but she does a fast 45 minute walk without problems. Longer than that and she limps. She isn't on NSAIDs yet, but I started her on glucosamine/chondroitin as soon as I got her, plus vit E, fish oil, vit C, and duralactin. I just recently started her on Adequan injections because she had an episode of limping after 1 hour walks (hence the cut back in her walk time). It seems to be helping, so I'll continue it. You may be able to manage your dogs pain while you save up for surgery if needed.

I hope he does well and feels better soon.

Yes Meghane - I should have asked her WHY she didn't see any hip problems. Well she did palpate the right hip and didn't feel anything. Damn, I wish I could palpate doggie bodies and be able to tell something! LOL

Another thing I should have mentioned is that this dog does in fact do the "froggie" thing with his back legs. Would a dog with hip problems throw his back legs straight behind him when laying down? Also, I saw him defecate today and he was steadier than yesterday.

vicky

I'm impressed, Meghane, that you know about Shar Pei fever - a very breed-specific condition with a breed that is not very popular these days.

I'd thought about that with this dog but FSF, according to both the literature AND my own personal experience, does not last for days and days - it lasts only about 24 hours. I lost one Shar Pei to FSF (which can lead to liver(?) failure) and I now have two Shar Peis that have it so I have experience with that condition. My sense is that it's not that but if it is there's no treatment except colchicine and I also give MSM to one of my FSF dogs.

Maybe his temperament is just low-key and floppy and that's ok but I don't want him to be in pain.

vicky

I know the fever lasts only 1-2 days but that some symptoms can last longer. But I really don't have any direct experience with the disease at all, just stories. I've read that up to 25% of Shar Peis are affected, so it's not that rare for the breed. Although the Shar Pei isn't that common any more, which is a shame because they are really cool dogs. I guess people got tired of all their medical issues.

I know people worry about the splay leg thing, but I've known dogs that do that and don't have HD and dogs that don't do that and do have HD. So I can't say there's a way to correlate the splay-leg laying down with HD.

One thing you can do is when your boy is standing up or laying on his side, try to move his rear leg back as far as it can go. Push from above the knee. If there is pain in the hips, he won't let you get very far. A normal dog can extend his hips straight back. PLEASE be very careful because painful dogs may bite. You could also try moving the other joints in the rear legs and seeing where he responds, if at all. You could also palpate his spine by just pushing/pinching next to his vertebrae down moving down his back. My K'Ehleyr has back pain, and when I do that she just sits down to avoid being pushed. Most dogs don't react that badly. Localizing the area of pain may help the vet decide what areas to radiograph next week.

Hope that helps a little bit. It's so hard when you know something is wrong with your baby and you can't do anything yet. Hang in there. Sending good thought for your dog too!

I'll try that thing with the hip extension while he's laying down. He can be very relaxed at times and will probably let me at least mess around with the leg.

I'll refresh the thread next Tuesday and let you know what we found, if anything. It's actually good that it's a few days away so I can do some more observation.

vicky

I don't know if this will help but...

We recently went through some hip issues and xrays with one of our dogs. Her main symptom was that she absolutely refused to go up stairs. I did a lot of reading and this is a very common symptom for hip dysplasia. So - does your dog do stairs? Another common symptom is the "bunny hop" - running and moving the back legs together.

Good luck, I hope your vet tracks down the problem.

Well, prairie - what happened with your dog? Was there a diagnosis?

Oh, yes - this dog goes up stairs just fine but the bunny-hop thing - I don't know. I've read that too and heck, I don't really know how a bunny hops unless that means that they move both rear legs at the same time instead of using one leg at a time. I'll try to see if he does that.

vicky

vicky, she has mild degeneration in one hip joint. She's seven years old, and it isn't too bad. We put her on rimadyl until she felt better, and now have her on glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate (and I can't believe I didn't have her on that before - I should know better). She is still able to do agility and is mostly completely fine. We just have to watch for her overdoing it or stressing herself. Thank you for asking.

The bunny hop is moving the back legs together. Our other dog does it going down stairs - not because she has any problems, but just because she never learned to do stairs properly! Each step, the front legs go down one at a time, then the back two come down together. It's very funny to watch. As I understand it, a dyplastic dog that bunny hops will do so just running across the yard. Of course, if your dog doesn't run it's hard to know, isn't it?

Also, although I have read that these two symptoms are characteristic, I certainly don't know how frequently they correlate to HD. That is, maybe a dog can be dysplastic but not do either, and maybe a dog can do one or both and not have hip issues, perhaps Meghane can tell us the correlation.

The bunny hopping could be any painful condition in both rear legs. I've seen dogs with bilateral torn ACLs do it too. Reluctance to climb stairs is tough- could be front legs, back, rear legs, sight, or a neurological problem. The orthopedic surgeons can tell right away by the way the dog walks up the stairs which part hurts, but it takes me a while.

There is no such thing as "common symptom " in hip displasia, there are symptoms that suggest hip dysplasia but also suggest other orthopedic and/or neurological disorders, the only way to be shure the dog doesn´t have hip dysplasia is by X rays. I´ve seen many dogs with literally no hip joints ( yes, the dysplasia was THAT bad ) that run like Throroughbreds and jump like kangaroos without showing any signs of pain, the only reason why I discovered the problem was because I had to take the X-rays so they could get their free of hip dysplasia certificate for breeding purposes, on the other hand I´ve seen dogs with insignificant joint changes that simply refused to move.

Hi Vicky- how's your puppers? I hope everything is OK.

meghane - this is so strange. He has been acting like a normal, active, silly, goofy puppy for the last few days!!

So much so that I did not do the x-rays. He runs around, jumps up and down, has no apparent lamenesses.

Now - (no lectures please) - I gave him prednisone last Friday and Saturday and then Sunday and Monday I decreased the dose to half like they say you should. Today (Tuesday) he is not on it anymore so if it was that drug that made the difference I'll know by this weekend or sooner.

He's a brand new dog to me (yes, another) and maybe the transition was overwhelming but I KNOW the lameness was there - even my husband saw it. So this is so strange.

I will let you know if he seems worse in a few days.

thanks for asking. This dog is an example of such poor breeding practices - I love him but he is an ugly sample of the breed. I'm a new clicker trainer and I've been using it to housebreak him. I take him outside and say, "Mickey - pee-pee." and when he does, I click and treat. I just love clicker-training. Heck, I'd pee for someone if they'd give me some mexican food!!

vicky