ED Question - Page 2

So Guys... You're saying to cut-OFF from puppyfood  at 6 months... eventhough  books says  " to feed puppy food upto 1 year...and upto 1and a half year with large breed dogs... because they tend to grow slower..."

I noticed the wither height reaches almost maximum around 7 months...  I switch over brands of puppy food... for medium dogs (since the GSD is supposed to be a medium-sized dog...) I alternate medium and large-breed hoping to improve on bone and substance...( since dogfood nowadays are so nutritious...) I try to develop my pups stomach resistance to diarrhea and loose stools... Adding RAW meat usually conditions their stomachs...

I think the guys issue is PanOsteotitis... I've read ED is most common in overweight conditions is that true..???

Mirasmom, I agree with you 100%.  I feed my pups only puppy food until they start eating dry by themselves (iwhen I have had litters) and then switch them to adult food.  Why I started feeding adult food--w/o realizing I was dfoing a good thing--was the pups got to where at a certain age they didn't like the puppy food anymore.

Puppy food is the DEVIL! LOL NO really though why does it always cost more than regular dog food? It's all a ploy to make more money. I have always used one bag of puppy food and after that they go to dog food. Now I will just feed RAW and not worry about what formula to feed.

if the xray didn't show a prob w/elbow, it's probably pano. my dog had the same problems, except the xray showed a bone fragment in his elbow. he had surgery which will alleviate arthritis, but not eleminate it. the specialist recommended to just feed him adult food. my breeder recommended the rc large breed puppy because it was supposed to help slow fast growth. my dog also has mild hd. he still has bouts of pano, and the specialist said dog aspirin or rimydal (everyone on this board seems to hate that stuff) would not do anything for the pano. just exercise gently and step it up if pup is okay, back it down if it worsens. good luck. btw, i feed rc gsd and supplement w/ yogurt, cottage cheese, raw chicken. he also gets the missing linkPlus, HA and omega 3 and colloidal silver.

My vet gave me 2 weeks worth of Rymadil for my dogs Pano. It did work for us and I only gave it to him on exceptionaly bad days. I still have 4 pills left but havn't needed any in weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Not enough use to warrent a blood test or cause any health issues. I was told it is an anti inflamitory and that is what is need for Pano. Just use like you would yourself an aspirin for a headach. You don't take it if you don't feel the need.

My vet and I agreed on that plan of action and it worked out great. I ended up not needing a refill or a blood panel. I'm not one to keep giving the pills to keep it in their system.

Take a baseball bat to a hind leg.  After that, the pano in his front leg wont bother him a bit!

the reason the specialist said rimadyl wouldn't help the pano is because its in the bone. as an anti inflammatory i guess it might mask any pain, but won't actually do anything for the pano itself, like a strained muscle or swollen leg or something like that. however, if it helps w/pain, i would prob use it again if i didn't have doggy aspirin around. after "listening" to some of the posters here, i've gotten kinda paranoid about liver damage w/rimadyl. i use doggy aspirin now.

Sounds like pano if the vet knows how to read an xray correctly. I believe there is some info disproving the high protien diet and hd or ed. Scroll down some on this page: http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html

Thank you all for the precious discussion on the subject. Anyone to suggest what can be done if it is pano?

Best Regards

Rest your dog, cut back on food/take off some weight, anti inflamitories when you see a bad limp. I don't believe in the lower protein content so many people swear by, helping with pano. So instead of doing that with no success, I switched to RAW food and saw a big difference within a week and by week 3 no more limping.

The most important thing is to make the dog comfortable, rest/meds. They will eventually grow out of it by age 2.