# Carpal Laxity in 12 week puppy..HELP!!



## KScarborough (Feb 26, 2013)

This is my first post on the forum...we brought our puppy home 4 weeks ago, and reading this forum has been so helpful! I have searched the threads to try and find some answers on our little ones leg problems, and haven't had any luck so far. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
So this is Lucy..she is our 12 week old puppy, our first Vizsla. At about 10 weeks, her front legs started bowing out...over just a few short days, it became really bad in the left leg and she started limping. We took her to the vet and after the xrays were normal...she was diagnosed with a "carpal laxity," meaning the bones were growing faster than the ligaments and muscles in her wrist, causing it to roll over. She doesn't appear to be in any pain, and runs and plays normally. After reading article after article about this...we learned that the increased protein in the food could exacerbate the situation, so we took her off of the large breed puppy food that she was on, and onto the regular Blue Buffalo puppy food. The vet originally had us cut her food to 1/3 of a cup 3x/day, and after losing a pound in 5 days, advised us to bump it back up to 1/2 of a cup 3x/day. She is now 12 weeks, and weights 10 lbs. She is very skinny, and finishes her food in less than a minute most times. I have read conflicting things about whether this is worsened by over feeding or underfeeding. We of course want her growing to slow down, but I also don't want her to be too skinny. It has now been two weeks,and her legs are not any better, but not any worse, as in the beginning they were worsening pretty quickly. I have attached a pic of her left leg, anyone had any experience with this?? Thanks so much!!


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## DixiesMom (Feb 5, 2009)

Just an FYI-Large breed puppy food is formulated to slow. puppy growth. My girl had an issue with inflamed growth plates and we switched her over to adult food, under our vet's direction. 

Yes, poor Maui thought she was starving but it slowed her growth and she has had no further issues.


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## KScarborough (Feb 26, 2013)

I have spoken with the breeder. She tells me that she has seen this before and they do outgrow it in a few weeks and have no further problems. This is the same thing our vet and an ortho vet has told us.

Our vet and the research I've done says that large breed food is meant to help these giant breeds grow at a rapid rate, so taking her off of it will help slow down the growth, since it has less protein. 

The breeder also suggested putting her on adult food, but the vet says she's too young to give up all the vitamins in the puppy food. 

I'm just stuck because I've gotten conflicting advise from everyone.


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## KScarborough (Feb 26, 2013)

She was on the large breed per our vets recommendation, but only for a few days until I did my own research and put her on the regular puppy.


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## WillowyndRanch (Apr 3, 2012)

The Vizsla Breed in general falls at the cusp of maturity weight of 50# (typical threshold for Large breed formula diets) , depending on the line and whether Male or Female. Nearly all males in the kennel are over 50#, Females range from 35-47#.

We feed our puppies large breed formula to 6 months, then switch over to an all life stages. It is incorrect that Large breed formula speeds up growth, it is generally a lower caloric intake per volume of feed than same brand regular puppy. Regardless of feed, the real component is to not overfeed, also known as the "Food is Love" syndrome.

Two men are standing by the roadside, one is blind. A horse comes by and the one man says "Wow, what a beautiful horse". The blind man says "It must be fat." 

Puppies, just as children, go through growth spurts. At times, they are uncomfortable, as the phrase was aptly coined "growing pains". These generally pass with time when the rest of the body catches up, so long as the reproductive organs are still in place to tell the body when to stop growing.

Here is a well written piece on the why's of Large breed Puppy formulas.
http://www.skeptvet.com/index.php?p=1_24_Large-Breed-Puppy-Food 

Ken


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## Darcy1311 (May 27, 2012)

KScarborough said:


> She was on the large breed per our vets recommendation, but only for a few days until I did my own research and put her on the regular puppy.


 I once owned a gorgeous Weimaraner and when he was a pup I also had him on large breed food, along with over exercise I damaged his growth plates and could not exercise him for months.......a 6 month Weimaraner...impossible, but he grew thought it and grew into a fine specimen, hopefully your pup will be okay..........and a warm welcome to the forum, keep us all posted..


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