[erdos]

I have a five year old Vizsla who has come up lame in the right front shoulder. It's an ongoing thing, we started to notice it about 6 months ago and it seems have gotten slowly, but progressively worse. Took him grouse hunting yesterday and today he is virtually completely lame. He started strong and I rested him frequently, by the end he was obviously limping. If this follows the course it has before, after a few days he will be better (still with a small limp) and then after exercise he will regress again. The vet x-rayed him and says he has bone spurs on each shoulder though he only seems to limp on the right foreleg. She prescribed Glyco-flex (1200 mg/day) and Rimadyl (100 mg/day), but it seems to have little effect. When I asked about a surgical repair she seems ambivalent or even uninterested.

Does any one else have experience with this? Are his hunting and hiking days over?

 

[gunnr]

Time to find another Vet! Unfortunately most vets look at a dog as just a family pet, and base their decision on a more sedentary dog that doesn't have a specific purpose.
There are Orthopedic specialists for dogs, just like people. If he truly has bone spurs, they'll need to be removed. There is a drug that works at "disolving" them in humans, but I don't know that it is the same for dogs