Just wanted to share with everyone my experience with Pano. I have a 3 year old male GSD that still has pano at 37 months old. It started when he was around 6 months. Finally around the age of 2 it seemed to go away completely. However we have had 2 bouts in the last 3 months. Just had his shoulder x-rayed again and it was pano. Just thought I'd share...the vet looked up some case studies and said the oldest known case was a 5 year old dog.

I have seen that report about the 5-year-old. http://www.critterchat.net/pano.htm

But isn't pano specifically growth-related? I've never understood those rare but verified cases in adults.

Connie,

That is what I had thought too. I have sent copies of the x-rays to my sister a Equine Veterinarian in Lexington, KY. She is going to look at it and have a radiologist review it just to make sure as well.

There appears to be a lot of myths about pano. One thing I read which explains its presence in adult dogs is that it is simply excessive bone cells push out bone marrow. The marrow exits the bone. This creates the halo effect on the x-ray and the excessive bone cells create a high density spot that appears very dark on the x-ray. As the bone cells go away the marrow comes back into the bone and the inflammation leaves.

The vet did meantion that if he comes up lame again in the same shoulder she wants to re x-ray him and compare the two x-rays. One thing I questioned her about was bone cancer and she said it had crossed her mind at first but it was lower on the bone then you would typically see bone cancer develop in the shoulder. Also the x-ray was consistent with Panosteitis. I will keep everyone informed.

Funny thing is that this has not affected my dog for probably a year and now has come back up. I find that to be very interesting.

Out of academic curiousity, is this dog neutered?

Yes he was neutered around 9-10 months

Please keep us posted as he works his way through this bout of pano, and beyond.
This is rare, and your firsthand experience is probably the best source of info we'll ever find.

Best Wishes.

I would suspect this is a misdiagnosis and something else is at play.
Either way I hope your boy feels better soon. Is he american showline?

since we have removed grain from the regular diets of our dogs 9 years ago we haven't had any cases of pano. It may be coincidence but out of curiosity, what do you feed this dog?

Michelle, it's possible. Caleb was almost 3 when he was misdiagnosed as having torn his ACL. It was Pano. Pano doesn't look like anything else on an xray...so unless the vet is not really sure what he's looking at, it's not cancer.

I asked if it was possible that Caleb had something else, and the ortho vet (who has saved me thousands on several dogs) said he was positive; absolutely nothing else looks like that on an xray.

Caleb is of course intact, and had been fed exclusively raw at the time of the last bout of Pano. My vet wasn't all that shocked; he shrugged and said there are lots of things commonly thought in medicine that don't always hold true. I may be able to find his xrays and post them.

Sorry for the delay everyone...I was and am still sick.

To answer a few questions.

Jordan is American German Shepherd from what I can tell in his pedigree. He is 26" and 96lbs. Has a very flat back unlike showlines.

Cindy he is fed Eukanuba German Shepherd.

My sister finally got a digital copy of his x-ray. Her and a small animal vet in Lexington think that there is something else going on. The copies of the x-ray she said were not very good. However they both agree that his left elbow looks enlargered. I am taking him down Saturday to be re-xrayed. They will re x-ray his shoulder bone and do a full x-ray on his elbox. From what she said the position of the elbow in the x-ray was not the correct angle to tell if there was something wrong with it. Just that it appeared too large.

I will keep everyone posted on what is found out this weekend.

Marc