I have a large 8 month old male pup that has been limping on one front leg for 2 months. He has an OCD lesion on xray of the elbow, plus a little pano in the ulna. His parents are OFA normal. One breeder says to do the surgery and the other says don't. The ortho vet says do the surgery. It's quite a severe limp; he has a little arthritis already. The surgery will be $1500, followed by 4 to 6 weeks of crate rest except for walking to eliminate 3 times a day. Thanks for your opinion.

I did it on a 5 month old 4 years ago. She has been fine since then but doesn't lead a very active life. She is a city dog and doesn't get many walks. Of course I have no idea how it would have been for her if I had not had the surgery done. I took her to a surgeon. My regular vet said...what would you think a surgeon would do? I went out of state..in retrospect that was not necessary.

I elected to do elbow surgery on my boy. Vets, especially ortho vets, will typically tell you to do surgery. Really don't think it would have made a big difference - he still limps as arthritis set in almost immediately after surgery. Have you tried adequine (sp?) injections and supplements (dasuquinn, salmon oil, Vit C, etc.)?

Same scenario, but OCD of the hock. How many have done surgery and was it effective. I believe they will get arthritis either way and wonder if putting them through the surgery is worth it?

sorry...mine was of the hock. I didn't read the original question carefully

Absolutely. The critical thing with elbow surgery is to do it sooner thank later, don't delay. Use an ortho for diagnosis as well as surgery and one that is adept at doing a lot of elbows.
Many ED surgeries can be done arthroscopically. Pups that are predisposed and acquire eblow dysplasia in one or both elbows will show signs(many pass it off as an injury that will heal or they say pano) of intermittent lameness starting at generally 4-5months of age with some sooner. It is hard to see ED on film at this young of an age. By 7months it can be seen. Make sure anterior view is used along with the lateral view. Anterior many times will reveal at a young age what the lateral will not.

You opt not to do surgery, the arthritis will continue. You have the ability to stop it(the arthritis) and his pain.

I have seen dogs that haven't had surgery for ED and they are so severely lame and very painful by 4/5 years of age. I think this is so sad. I have seen dogs that had ED surgery and some do not even limp unless they have played seriously hard or retrieved a lot. Do they have some arthritis? Sure, but it's minimal because it was helped tremendously early on through surgery.

The original poster said OCD not ED. I believe she's asking for opinions/experiences from people whose dogs had OCD.

OCD of the elbow IS ED(elbow dysplasia) There are three issues with the elbow in reference to ED; one being OCD, another FCP and final being UAP.

Our first Labbie girl has severe Dysplasia of the hips and elbows. At about 10 months she was lame one day on her right front leg, so bad she could barely walk. The x-rays looked like shards of bone and we thought it was fractured but the vet told us it was a diseased joint. We did a month of Adequan injections and she has not been lame since and she is 9 now. I would try the least invasive thing first always before a surgery. It could work a miracle on your puppy too.

We have had two here in 10 yrs. Have done arthroscopic surgery on both and they are thriving. First one was diagnosed at 4 months was very severe and we were told at the time that "we were just buying her time" and not to expect any quality of life after 4. She is 10 now and is a normal 10 yr. old dog not medicated unless as another poster said too much play or too much retrieving . I would do this again in a heartbeat! The other pup is now in a pet home and is going strong too. I have added Lubrisyn to her diet and I have to say that she moves better now.

Thank you for the information. I think I am planning to have the surgery done. The ortho guy wants to do an open surgery instead of an arthroscopic one and it is $1,000 less expensive, but I wonder what effect that will have on recovery time.

Why does he?? OCD is done arthroscopically. Is he suspecting more to be found? Even so, FCP is done arthropscopically too. Less invasive and recoup time is way better not to mention less pain for the dog. You open up that elbow and you are looking at a much longer time frame for recouping fully.

Please do it!!! My puppy is a 7 month old male, and tomorrow is 4 weeks post surgery. It was his right elbow that was done by arthroscopic surgery, and he is doing EXCELLENT! When my vet scoped his right elbow joint, they found 4 small broken pieces of cartilage free floating in between the bones in the joint and they had very sharp edges. The surgeon compaired his pain to someone walking around with tacks in their shoes. They cleaned out the joint, did a little micro-abraision to clean it up, and he has a great prognosis. He limped for 2 full months before I took him in because I kept telling myself he just had pano. The surgeon told me that the earlier you take care of this type of thing, the more possitive the outcome. Those sharp pieces if left in there would have continued to tear away at the healthy tissue and he would have a lifetime of pain. That was just not an option for him.

You can barely see a limp now after just 4 weeks. Yes, the surgery and all the x-rays was over $2000, but it was SO worth it to have him out of pain. Please don't let any surgeon do anything but artrhroscopic surgery on that joint. I have had it done both ways, and there is NO comparison!

Also, the surgeon told me to put him on Dasaquin and Omega 3 (fish oil) from now on to keep the joint as strong as possible, and help slow the progression of elbow dysplasia. Good Luck, I pray you will do the right thing for your boy.

Please, please, please don't let the ortho doc open up that joint! Arthroscopic surgery is so much better and his future outlook 100% better! Good luck!

Definitely do the arthroscopic- it is half the healing time. Had a boy go out, months later diagnosed with FCP and OCD of the elbow. Had it scoped and he was up and around within two weeks.

I agree arthroscopic surgery only! I would hate to have to have that joint opened up.

I thought y'all might like to read an article recently published in a veterinary journal/forum- and note, I do realize that horses are not dogs, but there are many instances in which one can see and use similarities in issues & treatments. Below is a portion of this recent article:

Some OCD Lesions Are Normal
There is research evidence that fragmenting lesions on the bone surface of a young horse's joint can keep changing and even repair themselves (in the hock up to five months of age, in the stifle up to eight months). Scientists at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands followed a number of these foals through the first months of life. They found evidence of lesions at three months in many foals, but by five to six months the lesions were gone. They hypothesized that a repair process exists early in life. The same potential applies to bone cysts, since cartilage can repair itself in animals up to a year old. It has blood supply and a high metabolic rate while the horse is still growing.
Once a horse is a year old, however, this tissue becomes set and is almost inert. "Finding an articular cartilage lesion in an older horse is bad news because it will never repair itself and will only continue to degenerate further," says Michael Schramme, DrMedVet, CertEO, PhD, Dipl. ECVS, clinical associate profeesor of equine surgery at North Carolina State University. "But in foals, there is a repair capacity and a window of opportunity--which according to some authorities goes to eight months--in which cartilage can self-repair some of those lesions."
Consequently, if a young horse has radiographic abnormalities, veterinarians might not rush in with surgery until the self-repair window of cartilage has come to a close at about a year of age. Some lesions might be part of the normal growing process and only become important if the self repair hasn't worked.--