Rocky Mountain Great Dane Rescue, Inc.

Sweet Lola came into rescue on April 7th, 2007. She was found as a stray and taken to a shelter, so we really don't know anything about her history. She is an amazingly mellow and very good puppy! She fit right into the pack at her foster home and has been the perfect house guest.

After being in rescue for about a week, she started limping and showing quite a bit of pain in one of her shoulders. On Saturday, we took her to Dr. Bechtold at Belcaro for x-rays and she was diagnosed with OCD in her left shoulder. He recommended we take her to an orthopedic surgeon.

Osteochondritis dissecans, commonly known as OCD and osteochondrosis dissecans, is a disease of the cartilage that affects the joints in a dog’s body. In any joint in the body two bones come together and movement is allowed between them. Where the two bones meet, an exceptionally smooth area of cartilage covers their surfaces. This acts as a cushion and protects the underlying bone. If anything disrupts this smooth cartilage surface, movement of the joint becomes painful. In a dog with OCD, this cartilage is damaged or grows abnormally. Instead of being attached to the bone it covers, it separates or cracks, causing great pain. OCD primarily affects large or giant breeds

April 24, 2007

Today, Lola made a trip to visit Dr. Stubbs at Alameda East. He took additional x-rays so that he could examine both shoulders since 9 times out of 10, dogs suffer from OCD in both shoulders. Luckily, in Lola's case, she only needs surgery in the left one.

The surgery is very straightforward. The affected joint is opened and the offending flap or defect is removed. There is a very high success rate for surgery and most dogs recover fully without any further problems after 6 weeks. For the first 3 weeks, she will have to be kept as quiet as possible with very limited activity. After that, only leashed walks will be allowed for the remainder of her recovery. She is scheduled for surgery next Wednesday and will stay overnight at the hospital following the procedure.

The good news is that Lola's future family will not need to worry about any recurrence after surgery is performed. She may have a little arthritis, but that is just about the only side effect from her condition. She will be back to a normal, happy, and healthy puppy very soon!

May 3, 2007

Lola underwent surgery yesterday at Alameda to correct the problem with her shoulder. Dr. Stubbs said they he has never seen an OCD lesion that massive during the 26 years he has been performing this surgery! It was quite impressive and they had a test tube full of the pieces they cleaned out. They are very pleased with the results and Lola woke up nicely from anesthesia, so the outlook is very good!

She spent the night in ICU for observation and the incision site is healing nicely today. She is ready to be discharged from the hospital this afternoon and will get to return home to her foster family!