For the first time in many years of breeding, I have pet buyer whose dog has been diagnosed with severe bilateral FCP.

I am looking for opinions if surgery is generally successful and what type.

Everything from surgery to euthanization has been put on the table and I want to learn more about others experiences before any decisions are made so that I can be sure the right thing is done.

The best interest of the dog is absolutely the #1 prirority here.

TIA

Who diagnosed the puppy with FCP? If the regular vet did, I would send the x rays to a orthopedic specialist, or OFA (Dr. Keller) to be read, just to be certain what you are dealing with.

A consultation with an orthopedic specialist would be next on my list for the puppy's owner, to evaluate the extent of damage to the articular cartilage. Then a treatment plan should be made, if it is really really severe, and the puppy is in excruciating pain, euthanasia might be the best solution, but otherwise, surgery and/or supplementation should be considered.

I put a dog through bilateral elbow surgery, and I probably wouldn't do it again. It was expensive, and didn't really affect the long term quality of life my dog had. We managed her pain, kept her lean, and moderately exercised her.

Best of luck for the puppy.

Thank you. Yes the diagnosis was made by a specialist.
Nothing has been sent to OFA.
This is so sad. Of course both parents are OFA normal elbows.

Have a dog that had FCP, both elbows. Did scope surgery, cleaned out the elbows, recoup time about 4 weeks. He did ok for a couple of years. Arthritis set in of course. We manage that with supplements and occasionally some deramax. He's ten now.

My field bred bitch started limping at a year. She was diagnosed by 3 independent specialists at 14 months with the conclusion being bilateral FCP. We had arthroscopic surgery done immediately. We lost 1% cartilage in one elbow, 3% in the other. The bitch is 8 y/o now. We found the right supplements for her over the course of the years. Once we finally got her on a good balance of right weight, supplements, exercise, it was like nothing was wrong with her. In fact the older she's gotten, the better she's gotten. I have performance titles on this dog that were earned AFTER surgery. It was the best decision we made with her. I didn't bother her breeder because honestly, we made a bad decision picking them (not surprised she came down with ED). For us, surgery kept this girl's quality of life the way it was meant to be for her. And at an age where I would expect some slow down or lameness, she acts younger than some of my younger dogs.

Same here, dog diagnosed, we did the clean up surgery, he gets G&C plus Trixsyn. We keep him lean and watch how hard he plays, he's just over 6.

We had the surgery done, then rehab. He then had 4 weeks plus supplimental adaquan shots. He hasn't had one in a long time. Glu/Chon., fish oil. We are ready to give him adaquan shots again, but he hasn't needed them. Our boy is 9 and going strong, although a bit overweight.

Had surgery done on one of our pups that had FCP. It was before they were doing arthrosopic surgery. She's now almost 14 and has a slight limp but otherwise has done great. I've had her on G&C and fish oil for years. Just my experience.

Elbow dysplasia can lurk behind the scenes for generations, then, as is typical of other polygenic traits, it appears, seemingly randomly, so it really doesn't matter what the parents/grandparents were. The genes were lurking, and it is everywhere.

That said, there are more options for elbows. In my experience, arthroscopy has been quite successful, and the earlier the better. In addition there are some new techniques, including elbow replacement surgery.

8 year old male. Diagnosed at OFA's at two with a grade 2 and 3 elbow. FCP. No surgery. Adequan, Dasaquin MSM, 4000 mg Fish Oil. Once in a blue moon a Rimadyl. He is kept in light weight. you can feel but not see his ribs. He is working on his Master Hunter. I warm him up good and cool him down. Try to keep him from being an idiot. It has not been the death sentence I thought it would be, though I have a good sports med vet close to advise and occasionally do a chiro adjustment on. Feel free to email me for details.

Sue Puff

I know ED is genetic, but I think it's very much influenced by environment, much more so than HD. That's also what our ortho surgeon told us as well. I think the genetic component needs to be there, but it might not rear its head unless the dog has the environmental things happen. For us, we had an ACTIVE pup who was an eager retriever and while we knew better, allowed her to run and jump like a border collie. She also only had a few elbows cleared in her pedigree. It really wasn't a surprise for us at all.

I have yet to encounter just plain genetic ED problems with my show dogs. So we either got the genetic component right or else they are exercising better now.

Managing Polygenic Disease : Canine Hip Dysplasia as an Example
By : Jerold S. Bell, DVM,
Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine

Polygenic disorders have been difficult for breeders to manage. Examples are hip dysplasia, many congenital heart
defects, and epilepsy. To manage them, they must be considered as threshold traits. A number of genes must
combine to cross a threshold producing an affected individual. If phenotypically normal parents produce affected
offspring, both should be considered to carry a genetic load that combined to cause the disorder.

definition of polygenic taken from OFA website:

Polygenic
Coming from more than one ("poly") gene pair. These traits are more complex than the typical dominant or recessive genetic trait. The additive interaction of the genes can cause variable results and the gene can be easily passed on to other generations without being identified.

Thank you for your kind responses.
I am still not sure if the dog is coming back to me or not but I am more confident that he has some decent chance of a good quality of life either way now.
I will continue to work with the owners until they come to their decision and if he comes back, I will try to make the best choices for him I can afford to make.
As for the questions about elbows in his pedigree, yes there are elbow certifications for many generations.
I do believe anything can silently lurk in a pedigree and it takes a special set of circumstances to express the disease.
Anyone who has been breeding dogs for any amount of time knows that.
The best we can do is breed clear dogs and make note of issues if they do come up and try to avoid them in the future generations.
This issue has already caused me to change plans on a breeding I had considered so maybe I avoided another issue because of this

My now 6 year old was occasionally limping as a pup, diagnosed with ED, had bi-lateral arthroscopic surgery for FCP at 14 months. Did recovery, rest for 6 weeks with slow walks, then longer walks, swimming, exercise. He is 100% no, no arthritis so far, competes in agility, obedience, rally, and hunt tests, no issues, no lameness. Good surgery by a specialist and good rest and rehab, you can get a good experience.

You've gotten some good stories here. Several cases of dogs living the good life for many years. My experience was with an absolutely gorgeous yellow male that to this day lives with us and when standing in the yard breaks my heart. He was diagnosed by an ortho surgeon on a referral at age 5 months, just like yours, bilateral FCP. We did the arthroscopic surgery and we also did 4 rounds of gene therapy post op. He also had rehab for 6 weeks - swimming at a pool rehab that we are fortunate enough to have close by. He would go for his gene therapy, and drive straight over a few blocks for his rehab. He's done great. He's unfortunately heavier than I would like because he doesn't get enough exercise because we're careful not to overdo him. He's 5 now, and has a lot of spunk and wonderful temperament. It's because he is so sweet that he has stayed. As one other poster pointed out, the surgery is expensive. We paid $3700 - and I would do it again choking all the way to the bank.

Greg, our bilateral elbow arthroscopy was over $4,000 6 years ago, you got a good deal.

I know folks who went to VHUP in philadelphia and were offered arthroscopic surgery to remove the fragments. Supposedly the dogs do well.

Remember, once the pup leaves the breeder we don't know what has occurred. There are also environmental causes but no way of knowing if it's that once the pup is out of our premises. Some homes will over exercise a young pup or while the growth plates are open. I drum it into pup buyers heads to be careful with exercise especially until age 18 to 24 mo.

Either way, dogs affected with bi-lateral ED can and have lived good lives. Some with surgery, some without.

I beleive either environment or genetics can be the cause. Not all buyers listen to what we tell them to do or not to do.

I am fortunate not to have experienced any form of ED but I try to stay away from particular lines from the other side of the ocean that are notorious for it. I have twice had dogs with unilateral CHD not bi-lateral. The 1st was over 20 years ago. The 2nd was more then 10 years ago. Both cases the pups were with me. Happy not to have had bi-lateral ED-FCP in over 20 years. I know it will happen but so far, I've been lucky.