15 month German Shepherd with Weak Pasterns/Carpal Subluxation - Page 1

Hello,

We recently went to the vet and he mentioned to us about our GSD having weak pasterns, something we have never heard of or even realized before. After more investigation, we are concerned for his health, now and in the future. I don't want to seem like we are bad parents/owners, as we love him and give him tons of attention with tons of walks, training, and good food.

Fritz has suffered from Panosteitis, which has affected him for probably ~6months of his life in 2 different spurts. The first occurred at 6 months, and his lameness was extreme as it was impossible to get him on a walk as he would just lay down, but he would still love to play. We would take him to daycare quite often to help burn off energy by playing with other dogs. The second spurt occurred about 3 months ago, and we were able to keep him more active, he would limp around but we were able to take him on short walks.

Fritz is still fairly weak from Panosteitis, he tires pretty fast compared to most other dogs, but we have so far had a busy summer with lots of swimming, walks, etc. and he is getting stronger. At the moment he is 68lds, and can still add more weight but has a slightly smaller build than most other GSD's so I'm expecting him to be around 80-85lbs. The main concern lies with the weak pasterns, and from what we have read, high protein diets may play a role in this. Currently we have fed him a mix of Acana and Orijin (he is a bit of a picky eater and this seemed to work) which are higher protein foods, but supposedly really good. I was hoping high protein would actually help build his muscles to put on healthy weight, not be detrimental.

Has anyone else seen improvement in a dog's pastern's moving from high protein to lower protein? I also heard too much calcium can be negative for pasterns.
I have read to take him for walks on soft ground (sand) and swimming which may help as well.
We really just want to improve them so he can live a happy & healthy life. Any other advice?
Will his weak pasterns affect him into old age and make him more prone to injury? Our vet didn't go into much detail.

We are currently experimenting with cooking him meals (chicken, beef, pork, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, beans, etc.) and were wondering if anyone had tips on portion sizes. At the moment we were aiming for meal sizes at 3% of his weight, so ~2lbs x 2 per day, but supplement with dog food to make sure he doesn't go hungry. Fritz has always been good at regulating his own food and won't eat when he isn't hungry.

Please let me know if anyone can help, I will post pictures of his posture once I figure out how!

I lost everything I wrote, but it wasn't really useful information anyway. Please click here for a similar thread.

 

The pasterns don't look too terribly awful to me, but I'm still pretty new, so somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.

The swimming and walking/running in sand will help a lot with his overall strength/conditiining and muscles/ligatures. His pasterns are not as bad as some dogs, at least he is not "wrist-walking". There is lots of information about pupoy feeding and calcium content, but the rule of thumb is to keep the calcium content low for feeding large-breed puppies. Many people feed a quality adult food to their large-breed pups. If you are going to be doing a home-made meal, then consider raw feeding vs. cooked - the raw is more natural for them. You can buy pre-made raw diets or make your own, there are several web sites with good information about this, and threads on here about raw feeding if you search for them (can't remember sites now, sorry).

It sounds like you are doing the right things for your dog, just keep his weight on the low side so his joints are not stressed, you should be able to easily feel his ribs and see a "waist" on him. Swimming as much as you can get him out will be good for him, and is a great way to beat the summer heat.

Koots

That much about vets...

His pasterns are not perfect, but they are okay, and he´ll never get problems because of "weak" pasterns.

How old is he? 12 months+?
Did the vet x-ray for Panosteitis, or did he "assume" only?
I´d x-ray elbows and hips, just in case.

Good luck with your youngster! Keep us updated.

Susie, the title of the thred tells us he is 15 months. Reliya, great that you made the link to Boltipo's topic, saved me the effort - it was what I came on here prepared to do

 

@Fritzy, you may have similar problems to Boltipo at first. In his case it was because the dog had been kept tied out while a growing puppy.  With the Pano, your dog might not want to do too much exercise at times if there is still pain. But if you keep steadily at it, increasing the exercise as well as you can, he should come good eventually.  Pano fortunately has a limited life. Like others, I cannot on the strength of the one photograph see that there is too great a problem, I have seen much weaker pasterns over the years.  Your vet may just be concerned that there is a lot of laxity in the joint when he flexes the wrists during exam.  But good exercise and diet will firm that up in due course.  Good luck.

  Guess I should read the titles, too...

Thanks for the replies, I have read that previous thread prior as well as several others.
He did x-ray and couldn't find any other issues other than Pano.
Fritz did display common symptoms of Pano as well, being that the leg he limped on would constantly change, and it comes for 2-4 months than disappears.
At the moment he recently came out of his second stint with Pano and isn't limping anymore, it's been about a month.

Just wondering on the issue of a high protein diet though, should we cut down the amount of protein given?
Anyone have experience or good information about lower protein diets helping with weak pasterns?
I've checked the sites below, but they don't exactly say what is high protein, as in, do we cut down on the protein in his food and any high protein treats (which as we know are the tastiest for a picky GSD).
His current food (Orijin/Acana) is ~ 33-35%, and we were thinking of moving to Science diet Hills Large breed mobility which has ~22%.

http://locknloadkennel.weebly.com/weak-pasterns.html

http://www.grunfeldshepherds.com/articles/lanting/carpal-subluxation-and-weak-pasterns-two%20different-conditions.html

" He did x-ray and couldn't find any other issues other than Pano. "
Glad to hear this.

Personally I never heard about a connection high protein/weak pasterns, but there seems to be a connection high protein/panosteitis/ puppies growing too fast.

Over here a lot of German Shepherd Dog people either avoid puppy food, or, in the best case, feed raw.
Even most of the adult "working dogs" don´t need high protein food, but something "normal" ( 20 - 25 % ).

I made very good experiences with low protein food, a lot of raw green tripe, fish, chicken, and beef.

I've always fed kibble rather than raw and mainly aim at 26% protein or below.
Add green tripe quite often.

We did have a case of Pano and I found changing him to a different branded food with slightly lower protein did seem to help a little but it wasn't that marked a difference. Can't recommend the food as at this length of time afterwards I can't be entirely sure which brand I changed him to (and I'm in the UK so it may not be available to you).