Ask The Doc: Lameness

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Hi, My son has an 8 1/2 month old yellow Lab., Snoopy. He has been limping on his front right foot since he was about 6 months old or so. He runs, plays, jumps, etc.... it doesn't seem to bother him at all. You can just tell when he's walking that he seems to favor that leg a bit. The vet said it is growing pains. And not to worry unless it starts bothering him, or it lasts until after he's a year old. He does seem to be growing VERY fast. But I've never been around a Lab before to see how fast they grow. So, I was just wondering if this sounds right to you. My son talked to a person that owns a relative of his dog. And they said their Lab did the same thing until he was over a year old.

Dr DeMichael: From the limited description that you have provided, I would expect that your pup most likely has a case of what your vet called "growing pains" and what we would medically call endostitis. This is an inflammation of the bones that can occur during periods of growth of the long bones of the limbs. Very often proper nutrition can prevent the onset of the disease process and that's one reason why I am very emphatic that all of our pups are raised on Eukanuba Large Breed Puppy Formula exclusively. It has been my experience having fed many Labrador pups over the years that the incidence of endostitis in pups raised on this formulation is minimal. So we insist that anyone who gets a pup from us feed this ration for the first 9-12 months. (For the record, I am neither paid nor compenasated in any way by the manufacturer to make the above recommendation.)

On the other hand, there are other musculoskeletal conditions that can cause lameness in growing Labradors (see the Question of the week from 2-15-00 and 2-22-00 and others). So if you desire, radiographs should differentiate and identify what process you are dealing with. If indeed your pup has endostitis, this tends to be self limiting and dissipates with time, leaving no untoward effects.