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Puppies front paw knuckling over


DiMaurice
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My daughter recently bought a golden retriever puppy from a breeder and now 2 weeks in her right front paw is showing signs of knuckling.  She's taken her to the vets who put her onto anti inflammitories, and told to keep her quiet for a little while.  It seems that she needs to change her diet from what I've read. She has contacted the breeder who put her onto the great dane ladies website, which is helpfull.  My question is, is this something that will fix itself with diet, mats etc or will it have long term issues that she'll need to worry about.  Because she bought from a breeder, is this anything that affects her, as in genetically? We've had goldie puppies before and it has never happened.  Any ideas?  Thanks.

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The breeder was feeding her supercoat puppy mixed with optimum tinned, as well as chicken necks. Wet in the morning, dry at night.  My daughter has changed her to Advance puppy (as she had fed her previous goldie puppy on) with optimum tinned. 

The first 2 photos are before the vet visit, and the third is a few days after.  Notice its better but the foot is now turned out a little. Sorry about the blurriness.

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Nature is a funny thing but I would normally expect both legs to be knuckling over if it was diet. Although both front legs look very odd in that pic. Could be the photo of course. They should be strong and straight. How old is the pup? It looks very young to be suffering from a growth/diet issue. I'm wondering if the puppy has leapt off something and injured itself? If it doesn't start to correct very soon I would be getting an x-ray and/or second opinion. 

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I had a cross breed who had that. 20 years ago now. Can't quite recall what I did but it all turned out fine. First thing I would do is get the pup off all puppy food and onto adult. I wean my pups onto puppy food but by the time they are 8 weeks old they are on adult dry.

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Our corgi x Jack Russell rescue has turned out feet, no knuckling as such but just ballerina feet similar to your 3rd photo.

I doubt diet would have fixed our situation, (although we did feed him supermarket food until he was 5, because we didn't really realise how bad it was! I'm not sure it would help the legs, but personally I wouldn't feed those brands of dog food that you mentioned. I'd be looking at 

"Pet Food Reviews Australia" website and feeding a 4-5 star food.) 

You'll definitely have to see some sort of specialist though, that will probably cause some issues for the pup in the long run. 

As mine was a little rescue pup it wasn't a worry, but since your daughter bought her from a breeder that is a cause for concern because obviously it's legs shouldn't be doing that. 

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My daughter lives in a small town and her local vet is trying to get her into one in Albury who will know more. The puppy is only 9 weeks old and is full of life.  She limps a little with it. What I'm worried about is can it be a genetic thing as she paid over $2000 for it or is it an injury/environment thing. The puppy's parents have papers, but she is only as a pet.  They are talking about doing an xray, but don't know if she's too young to show anything.  The breeder suggested it was knuckling.

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at 9 weeks of age this can be turned around in a few days. But I have to ask, how old was the pup when your daughter got her? And did the pup have the knuckling from the start?

 

Stop all puppy food and only feed her adult dry for a week. Supercoat is fine. The great Dane ladies advice is very good but as she is in America a lot of food she recommends is not available here.

 

Scrappi&Monty I rear all my pups on supermarket food and I continue that with my adults. As well as raw. It's about 50/50. My dogs do very well on their diet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The knuckling over and the east/west are usually 2 unrelated things.

East/West is super common in larger breeds that usually have straight forehands and carpus when they are younger. The feet typically start appearing to go east/west around 12 weeks but it can occur sooner. Puppies have little to know chest depth and little spring of rib. As they develop the chest will push out the elbows which will inturn straighten the forehand...to a degree. What we end up with is either genetics and diet related.

Also when puppies are young they will sit east/west as it is easier for them to balance this way. for a pet dog I would not be concerned about the east/west.

 

Definitely be extremely concerned about the knuckling over.

The knuckling over, like others have said, definitely diet. Off all puppy food and it should rectify pretty quickly.

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  • 1 month later...

Can I ask, how is this puppy going now?

 

We would see this often in the Shelter environment in my animal rescue days. Often caused by poor or incorrect diet. Feeding a large breed puppy on adult would generally rectify this and at times a splint was required.

As an owner of large breeds in the past, I was always recommended to only feed an adult diet to a puppy by the breeder. Just as in the wild on raw, there was no such thing as a special diet for puppies so why do it now. 

However a vet who does not specialize in any particular large breed will argue the fact and only recommend puppy. 

 

I hope all goes smoothly for both pup and owner :)

 

 

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38 minutes ago, Freetoroam said:

As an owner of large breeds in the past, I was always recommended to only feed an adult diet to a puppy by the breeder. Just as in the wild on raw, there was no such thing as a special diet for puppies so why do it now. 

However a vet who does not specialize in any particular large breed will argue the fact and only recommend puppy. 

These days they recommend large breed puppy diets. They are adapted in a way to help prevent these issues. :) 

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Yesterday I watched an episode of "SuperVet" on YouTube, Noel Fitzpatrick, he's an Irish vet with an amazing hospital in Surrey UK. He does all sorts of fascinating surgeries and treatments on animals, often with bone problems needing plates/pins or bionic limbs.

There was a 16wk staffy pup with "east/west" paws (as Starkhere said) and bowed forelimbs. Poor baby needed to be in hospital for months and had to have 2 surgeries, one to pop elbows into alignment and fix bowed legs, and another to try to even out the leg bones (Ulna & radius grew at different rates so one was longer) 

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16 hours ago, Papillon Kisses said:

These days they recommend large breed puppy diets. They are adapted in a way to help prevent these issues. :) 

This is exactly what we were recommended to stay away from whilst a pup was experiencing this condition. A rush of too much calcium and protein was causing it. The results witnessed were favorable when pups were fed a super premium adult kibble.

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