I had posted earlier about Malik, 1 yr old, holding his left paw at an angle. We had him x-rayed, doc thought it could be elbow dysplasia, so sent files to an orthopedist, who thougth perhaps yes.

Today we saw another orthopedist who comes to town once a month. He seems quite good with 30 years of experience.
It turns out Malik has
1) onset of arthritis in elbow, can't tell if there is dysplasia without a CT, but he recommends this anyways as he can't say much from just x-rays.
2) His ulnea bone has stopped growing 1 month to early, causing the bone to be too short and thus the crooked paw. He would like to cut the bone and insert a rod-like metal piece into his ulnea to lengthen it a tad, hoping this will resolve the paw thing, and prevent worsening of the arthritis in the elbow.

Wow, 1 hr consultation, my head was spinning. I'm not exactly excited, we're talking $2500 or so. I wonder what would happen if we just leave Malik as he is. The doc said it wouldn't be a good idea.

Feeling down tonite: my husband's previous GS cost him $300 and he only took her to the vet for shots, never a problem. Malik cost us $1200 and a fortune so far between skin allegies, me skiing over his paw and cutting it, now this... But I love him to pieces, so I can't count. We are considering going w/o surgery and a holistic approach with chiropractic work, but is it worth it?

So I'm still trying to get info from people who have dealt with this. If you have any suggestions, please, share them!!

I am all for holistic approaches when the conventional approach doesn't promise a surefire fix, but in this case, I don't see how any chiropractic anything is going to lengthen a bone. Go with the surgery, then use chiropractic for the recovery and maintenance to help w/arthritis. This sounds like something that can be fixed, so why not do it? Holistic approaches are not much cheaper in a case like this that is going to be a lifelong thing w/out surgery. Remember that arthritis is a secondary disease; there is always a cause-it does not just occur by itself. Maybe you should keep in mind that this advice is coming from someone who just spent $3k on spinal surgery for a chihuahua... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Eric, there are dozens, if not hundreds of sites that discuss the fraudulent nature of chiropractic "medicine" - again, I'll just let Google do the talking there. There are also several good books that discuss the damage that chiropractic care causes done by former chiropracters that finally had a change of heart and were willing to expose chiropractic care for what it was.

And if you had only one business course in your program, that would be unusual as compared to the course programs that I saw documented.

I'm sure that snake oil salemens were just as sincere in the defense of their livelyhood a hundred years ago as you are of yours today.

And the benefits of lower BP to decrease cardiac events is pretty well documented - although I also get a chuckle out of the chiropractic attack on modern medicine.
< shrug >

I would go with the surgery if it were my dog. If the orthopod is seeing arthritic changes at this stage (1 yr), I wouldn't want to take chances because the longer you wait, the worse it gets.

Eric,
That came out more negative than I wanted, so consider this an apology -
Just to let you know, I'm not attacking you, but as my training is in conventional medicine, I haven't seen any benefits from chiropractic medicine that couldn't be explained as more than PT. And I'm sure than 98% of MD's and PA's would say the same thing.

Again, nothing personal, my view of you as a person is not related to your profession ( which I wouldn't have even know if you hadn't mentioned it )

Aude, did your vet say it was a growth plate injury? One of My females bones stopped growing at about 5 mo old when she jammed her leg ( can't remember the two major bones names), she let out a yelp and 2 weeks later her paw was turning into a flipper, what a nitemare. The surgeon cut out a peice of the bone that stopped growing(about 1.5") and injected fat to retard the bone from growing together to fast to allow the normal growing bone to grow to it's natural length, then the abnormally growing bone grew together and it turned out ok, but i always worry about it. It was called Angular Limb Deformity, caused by a seemingly mild impact. I can't remember the other medical terms, hope this helps you a little bit. When i read your original post i thought it sounded just like what happened to my dog.
AL

I am not one to elimate any treatment that might work, as long as the possible side effects are reasonable. I would reserve anything chiropractic for those cases that are really difficult, possible crapshoots, or cases where conventional medicine hasn't a clue what to do. This seems like a pretty easy decision. Surgery apparently has a good chance of helping this dog.

FWIW, I go to a chiropractor myself, and he's gotten rid of issues I've had for years, and expected to have my whole life. I truly believe that the proper alignment of the body impacts health, and I am in much less pain than I've been in since the injuries. However, if I had one leg that was shorter than the other, I'd have the surgery. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm sure a lot of chiropractics benefits can be explained by PT, but don't tell them that, they're already trying to take over everything <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />, if you know some athletic trainers and chiropractors its kind of a running joke. The big difference between our professions is philosphy of how and why things should work. I wouldn't expect many MD's or PA"s to agree with what I say, we look at things from totally opposite ends of the spectrum, its ok, I still get referrals from a few MD's in the area and still send a few people out. Not one thing works for everyone.

Usually I don't care what people say about me or my profession, but I can't let everything slide by. So, apology accepted, and thank you. So no worries, I've met you before, you probably don't remember, but you're a memorable person and can grill a heck of steak. Even if you don't know squat about chiropractic, you give some good training advice <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />