My Shar Pei was diagnosed with possible elbow dysplasia by a radiologist who read the X-rays taken by my vet under mild sedation. My vet gave a preliminary read of no elbow dysplasia. I was then sent to an orthopedic specialist who put him on Cosequin and Adequan.
Just to be sure I had the X-Rays sent to OFA and they were read by 3 radiologists who all confirmed that he has no elbow dysplasia. His initial symptoms was limping for several weeks from his right to left front. He has been limp free for months and seems to be fine. I believe he has some underlying issue that caused the limping but cannot afford a CT Scan or MRI to get the root cause. He is still being treated with Cosequin and Adequan. My question is how can there be such a discrepancy from a local radiologist vs OFA? I plan on breeding him but still have a question in the back of my mind if this would be appropriate (to breed him).
Answer by: James L. Cook, DVM, PhD, DACVS, DACVSMR:
It is very hard to say why there is the discrepancy among radiologists (and other vets) other than this diagnosis is based on subjective findings. The limping could definitely be explained by panosteitis or HOD, but there also could still be some elbow dysplasia not noted on X-rays. My recommendations would depend on your dog’s age at this point.
My dog is 2 years and 7 months old. One thing I do notice is that he does very little stretching on his front legs where my other Shar-Pei can stretch his front legs all the way out and touch his chest to the ground. He is a GCH Bronze level show dog, however his reach and drive is somewhat compensated.
He is doing well on conservative treatment but in the back of my mind I know he has some underlying issue with his elbow joint. His litter brother did have pano.
Would appreciate any recommendatons.
I highly recommend a complete orthopaedic examination with X-rays to definitively diagnose and characterize the problem. Non-surgical management may be optimal, but it is really not possible to make good recommendations without a definitive diagnosis and characterization of the problem.
