Today's Date - July 17th, 2014
Had an 8:15 AM appointment at Trusty Vet for Emmett's 3rd series of puppy shots then an 11:15 AM appointment with Dr.Jones at Animal Hospital of North Alabama for x-rays of Emmett's right front paw.
I had always felt that Sadie, Emmett's mother stepped on him when he was very young and that his leg healed crooked. Looking back at some of the first photos that I had taken of Emmett his right leg looked larger. Not knowing the growth patterns of a Great Dane, I just thought his right leg grew larger first and that his left leg would catch up. The picture below was taken when Emmett was 5 weeks old.
I noticed it started to look like he was bow legged at 6 weeks old. He walked okay, I didn't notice any limping or that anything wasn't normal.
This is the first picture that I had taken that I noticed his leg was different.
Each growth spurt his leg looked more bowed.
Once he started to gain weight and looked like a small adult dog, even though he was still a young puppy, he started to favor the leg and as he grew his gait changed and limping became part of his normal stride.
Dr.Jones brought us into his office to show us Emmett's x-rays and I about cried. The x-rays were scary looking to say the least.
Below in blue is what I later posted on Facebook.
"Just received an e-mail from our Vet and Emmett has,
severe hypertrophic osteodystrophy
I about cried when I saw how bad his leg looked in the x-ray. We will be seeing the Vet next week to see if anything can be done to help with any pain he has. He gets around alright with a noticeable limp and I want to know everything there is to know to help him as he gets larger and heavier. He's a sweet boy and to him all of this is normal. Very, very sad but then again who would understand him better than me. We can both be slow and awkward together."
Dr.Jones said for his leg to be this bad that both his parents had a recessive gene and that it was genetic. That he should never be bred but we weren't going to mate him anyway. I asked him questions about breeding because one of the Great Dane books I have said Mantles & Merle's should never be bred together.
He himself was a breeder at one time of high quality Labrador puppies and he answered my many questions.
He commented that none of Emmett's littermates should ever be bred and that if the breeder was ever going to mate the mother again, what ever male she was considering should be tested.
All the puppies from his litter carry the inherited recessive gene and their puppies could have health issues.
The mother and father looked healthy and fine to me but I know nothing about genetics. I had no idea how involved Great Dane breeding was or I guess any breeding for that matter.
It never occurred to me that you couldn't breed two healthy, beautiful dogs and not get beautiful, healthy puppies. The other puppies in his litter looked fine, though he was a good 5 - 7 pounds smaller than the others. The reason we brought him home at 5 1/2 weeks old was by the time he worked his way towards the feeding pan, all the food was gone.
He was so much smaller than the other puppies and there was one that was even smaller than him.
When we first brought him home the top of his head was all scaly with scabs. We were told it was from the other puppies playing too rough with him. I noticed it never healed and Dr.Jones suspected Demodectic Mange, did a skin scrap test and he was right. He actually let me look through a microscope and I could see the actual mites crawling all over the slide.
Below in blue is what I later posted on Facebook,
Emmett is going through a growth spurt and weighed in at 47 pounds at 4 months of age. The medication for the Demodectic / Puppy Mange looks like it's starting to work. Our Vet said even when his coat starts to look better we need to keep giving him the medication for 6 weeks. I'm about to give him a medicated bath. I guess he'll be presentable by the time he gets his final puppy shots. Apparently it's something puppies get from their mother so I don't have to worry about Rosie catching it. I can't wait to introduce him to my family, friends and neighbors. He's got an incredible personality and keeps me laughing all the time.
Today's Date - July 19th, 2014
Emmett is 16 weeks old / 4 months and weighed in at 47 pounds.
Today's Date - July 23rd, 2014
Today, I posted my concerns about Emmett's leg on Facebook's Great Dane Lover's page and copied it here as a reference. I wanted to see if any of the other Great Dane owners had ever experienced or had first hand knowledge of hypertrophic osteodystrophy. Below in blue is my post.
"When we first brought Emmett home, we
didn't notice that his right, front leg was a little bowed. We
thought perhaps his mother stepped on him and accidently broke his
leg. The day after bringing him home, I fell and broke my leg and
there was no way possible that I could carry a wiggly puppy in his
own cast outside. So we went and had the x-rays done after I got my
own cast off.
Our vet took a bunch of x-rays and
Emmmett has severe hypertrophic osteodystrophy. I about cried when I
saw the x-rays and they were sent out to a specialist for a 2nd
opinion. Emmett is now 4 months old, 47 pounds and he gets around
very well considering everything. He does limp but he has his whole
life and doesn't known any difference.
My Vet said Emmett's disease is treated
with medication to help the inflammation, but will eventually need
surgery to correct the damage caused by the disease.
He said for it to be this bad that both
parents had to of had the same recessive gene. I don't know
anything about breeding and thought 2 beautiful, healthy dogs would
have beautiful, healthy puppies.
All the other puppies in his litter
looked extremely healthy, he also was 2nd to the runt and
all the other puppies were 5 – 7 pounds heavier than him.
The breeder offered to give me another
puppy with her next litter and she is a very nice person but we love
Emmett and he is, what he is. Hopefully, surgery will be an option,
but to be truthful the x-rays were absolutley the saddest thing I've
ever seen. I'm disabled myself and besides loving Emmett with all my
heart I have empathy for him and who better to understand him than
me.
He's a very smart and happy little
boy. I'm just really concerned about what his quality of life will
be like if surgery can't be done. I have my own issues with fatigue
and balance so the two of us, in a sad way make a great team. We can
be couch potatoes together, go for short walks and enjoy life the
best we can.
I've researched amputations and seen
videos of a few Great Danes with 3 legs on YouTube. They seem happy
and got around well so I wondered if surgery were not an option would
Emmett be better off limping and keep in mind I have no idea what his
limp will be like when he's full grown verses amputation. My Vet
said he will be a small male and in his case I think that is probably
a good thing.
I was wondering what other people would
do in the same circumstances."
I also attached this photo to show what his leg looked like.
A lot of Great Dane owners responded to my post. Many felt I was feeding him the wrong food and that he was growing too fast. We actually weigh him every Saturday and I record his weight.
At 5 weeks old at his first visit to the Vet with his littermates he weighed 5.3 pounds and the largest puppy was almost 11 pounds.
We brought him home at 5 1/2 weeks old and he weighed 6 1/2 pounds and at 7 1/2 weeks he weighed 12.4 pounds.
10 weeks - 22 pounds
11 weeks - 26 pounds
12 weeks - 30 pounds (3 months)
13 weeks - 33 pounds
14 weeks - 40 pounds
15 weeks - 45 pounds
16 weeks - 47 pounds (4 months)
17 weeks - 51 pounds
A couple had similar situations with their puppies. I am very happy to report that Dr.Jones said Emmett would be able to have surgery but it would have to be done by a Board Certified Orthopedic Vet and there are two locally. We have to wait until he's full grown and his growth plates are done.
Great Danes stop growing anywhere between 18 - 24 months so we have about 14 months to save for his surgery.
He will be on an anti inflammatory to help with the pain and soreness until then.
Last night I noticed the top of his head touched the top of our larger crate so I guess we need to save for the Great Dane size crate now. He can still lay down in it but not for much longer. Watching him grow taller almost daily has been fascinating to watch.
He's taller than Rosie now and perhaps just a hair or two taller then Emma had been when she passed away.
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