Panosteitis is the long form for what breeders call "Pano." Pano is a growth disease which is more common in large dogs. It can show up as young as 6 or 9 months and usually does not occur after a dog is 18 to 20 months. This disease is very painful to young dogs.

As it was explained to me in laymen’s term, the pain comes at the growth platelets on very fast growing dogs. After a dog is finished growing there is no longer a conflict with the growth platelets and therefore there is no more pain.

With that said it can show up in one leg and go away only to appear in another at a later date.

When I used to feed commercial kibble, especaily puppy food, I saw my share of cases of pano. Now that we have fed a raw diet for many years I have yet to have my first case of pano in the dogs we raise here at Leerburg.

In fact just today we had a customer call whose dog had pano which lasted for some time and then just returned today. These people did not follow our instructions. They don't feed a raw diet. This customer spent $350.00 on Vet bills the first time they took it in to confirm pano. They went back to the Vet today and dont have those bills yet.

The Vet pretty much said everything I talk about in this article. Even to the point where he prescribed steroid pain killers (which is dangerous and stupid).

When a young dog gets "pano" it's important to take them off of puppy food if thats what you had them on. You want to slow the growth down. In fact I recommend that my customers feed an all-nartural diet and not feed commercial food. Commercial food - especially puppy food - causes dogs to grow way too fast (thats what PANO is - growing too fast).

Because of the extreme pain of this disease people will often describe their dogs as being depressed and I am sure they probably are. To deal with the pain the dog should be crated as much as possible and given "Ascription" a nonprescription aspirin with Maalox available at any pharmacy. This works well for cases that are not so severe.

If you have not had much experience with "Pano" you are best advised to take your dog to a vet that specializes in canine orthopedics. The reason I recommend a specialist is that pano is diagnosed with x-rays. Reading those x-rays is not a simple matter. Unless your local vet is an expert in this area he is going to have problems reading the films.

The prescription medication that Vets prescribe for Pano is often Rimadyl. This is a terrible drug - it kills some dogs. DO NOT GIVE YOUR DOG RIMADYL. It's expensive and its dangerous for your dog. Put it in a crate and give it a human aspirin.

There is a lot of information on the Internet for this disease and explanations of it's disappearance after the growing cycles stop.

Here is an article for more detailed information on this disease.

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