7 week old puppy

[lehughes]

Hi Laurie,

I assessed a 7 week old Afghan Hound today that was referred to me by Vet School/Hospital. He had bilateral femur fractures at birth due to being breached (he was seen for the first time when he was 2 weeks old because the breeder realized something was wrong). X-rays at 5 weeks old showed healed femur fractures bilateral with deformation of the L stifle (I will attach the report from OVC for you to review). They indicated it was a quads contracture in his LHL, but he is not presenting as a quads contracture. He is weight bearing mostly on his front end. He holds his pelvis in caudal rotation and when standing still, he will lift his L foot off the floor. I could fully flex his hip, stifle and hock with mild resistance in the stifle and hock. I could not fully extend his L stifle and it is a hard blocked end feel. The hock has an early capsular end feel for extension. His stifle on the L is very thickened. He holds his hips in ER. He bunny hops when walking and running. He can go up stairs, but bunny hops. He is very weak and unstable in his hind end, especially the LHL. We need to get that stifle to ext and get weight bearing on his hind end. The owner has been working on ROM and weight bearing exercises already that I sent her before assessing him because I was away last week. He does run and play with his litter mates and she encourages him to do everything like they do.

He has been seen by a chiro as well. He is holding his spine in flexion and pelvis in caudal rotation because he cannot ext his stifle. He had tension and some soreness in the area, but I'm sure it is from how he is posturing.

Just wondering your thoughts on this and if we should be doing any type of bracing to help with getting his extension back. The breeder is going to keep him for now to see if she can get his legs working better.

Thanks,
C

[lehughes]

Hi C,

So, to me it sounds like the issue is in the knees mostly… maybe some hip too? Could you extend the hips?
X-rays on the wee guys is tough.
What about patellas? I have a little poodle with grade 4 laterally luxating patellas. She looks atrocious! I can get mobility in one stifle. The other one doesn’t straighten and it takes me forever to get it moving even just a little bit. Check for lateral patellar luxation.
Any laxity at the stifle? It’s concerning that it’s thickened.

Okay… so to be totally up front, there isn’t likely going to be much you can do to make this dog normal at this stage. He’s going to be a big dog. Realistically, the breeder should be making some hard decisions now, or be willing to do things like getting a cart for this dog to move around freely as he grows.

Now, if you are charged with doing all that YOU can, then you need to look at ways to do prolonged stretching to get the dog to straighten the leg and then use the leg… not easy with a dog leg or a puppy.
Since the puppy will be growing weekly, it will be on you to create something versus an orthotic company. My thoughts. Simply because he would need something new or revised every 2 weeks!
What about splitting a pool noodle and wrapping it around the front of the leg and bandaging it on to help with prolonged extension? Man! Such a crap shoot! But as much as I am thinking of things, I’d go with pool noodle first. Followed by a trip to the hardware store to see what you might be able to fabricate. Alternately, you talk to the vet about creating some sort of a half slab cast. Keeping it UP is the biggest issue with a dog leg.

I’m going to post this on the FourLeg Forum to see if there are any other thoughts that pop up!

I wish I could say, “Oh easy! Just do this…”

Not an easy case!

Laurie