Elbow Hygroma - Page 1

My pup at 5 months had an elbow hygroma. I treated it with DMSO and at quickly went away. Now almost 7 months later it's back. Does anyone have any experience/suggestions for dealing with this? The dog is on grass during the day and crated at night. I try to keep soft blankets in the crate since his first episode but with it being a young dog these blankets end up shredded many times and aren't effective. Also I would like to show this dog. Should I anticipate any problems with showing this dog?

You should purchase some Mondo Rubber to place in his crate or dog run. You can cut it yourself to fit the space if it odd shape and size. Example would be the thick rubber floor in most commercial gyms.

I had a nightmare with this for a while and posted about it some time ago. There is a product called Dogleggs that you can find on the internet - a neoprene pad protection that stays on well and really seems to help. My puppy had this problem on both elbows at 7 or 8 months, the hygromas were drained, but then took a few months to heal, and kept refilling. In the end the dogleggs plus injections of an antiinflammatory for joints, given into the elbow joints ( I have forgotten the name of it, but I posted it in the earlier thread and could look it up again if necessary) cured it. By a year old he was fine and he has competed in shows. He had a brief recurrence of this problem on one elbow at about 2 years old, but is now 3 and has not has it again, his elbows look totally normal, surprisingly with no scars.. He is very active. I also had a female puppy who developed it on one elbow, but it disappeared quickly and has never come back, maybe in her case it was caused by a knock to the elbow rather than constant trauma. good luck with your puppy.

My experience is it will eventually go away. They don't seem to cause pain. Keep the puppy off hard surfaces if you can. You might let a vet drain it, but don't get talked into a $800 operation, like I did. by the sheer nature of the hydroma, it will return due to the leaking in that area of the elbow. Time was what fix my two problems. When the hydroma subsided, there were no after effects. The animals had no problems and elbows were not a problem in adulthood(those animals are almost 4 now)

Yes, I definitely don't reccommend draining, because the elbows are constantly bending and leaning on surfaces, it takes ages for the wounds to heal.

Thanks everyone. Based on my research, I agree that draining probably isn't the best option because it often introduces infection and as SGBH and oso have indicated often it returns. I used DMSO again for the past two days and this morning it was basically gone. I am really just hoping that it doesn't come back again.

I forgot to mention, I kept mine wrapped in a ankle wrap(compressed) and isolated the pets in kennel boxes to restrict movement. This is a pain in the rear, but I kept them isolated for 30 days, to control activity/inactivity.

Which DMSO did you buy? The liquid, cream, or gel? and how did you use it, my vet is tring to get me to do surgery!!! I don't want to put him thru this.... thanks.