Apparantly its quite common in larger breed young dogs, and often refered to as "growing pains". I had never heard of it until our 9 month old white German Shephard was diagnosed with it a couple of months ago...

He's got it in his front left leg and not allowed any proper exercise until the pano has gone, which the vets said he should be clear by the time he's 18 months old and fully grown, if not before.

It sure is hard work not being able to exercise a big puppy thats full of bounding energy and wanting to play all the time! We're currently taking him to Hydrotherapy to get rid of some of his energy and tire him out! He loves those swimming lessons lol!

Anyway, just wondered if anyone else had come across this "pano" in their dogs before?
Last edited by Alicia123 : 04-02-2010 at 19:38

I don't know much about Pano - but it is quite common.

In reality, you shouldn't be excessively exercising any young large breed dog in order to ensure their joints are protected - Pano diagnosis could potentially turn out to be joint damage - time will tell I guess.

Exercise breeds stamina - so the more you do it, the more energy the dog will have - try short periods of training - you will be surprised how much this can take out of a dog, much more so than an hours bounding on the beach.

Pano is one of the reasons heavily boned dogs like Basset Hounds should not be 'properly' walked until they are around a year old because their short legs have very heavy bones that consist of 'plates' that take a long time to knit together and excessive exercise can damage their joints.

The other day I saw a video on YouTube of a litter of Basset pups that were only 5 weeks old out walking quite a distance along some rough ground and I posted a message telling the owners that there is no way that Basset pups of that age should be walking along outside like these were shown doing.... they should be romping around with their siblings as there's plenty of time for walking!

I see the video has now been removed and I dread to think what a struggle the little pups were having, because they are quite chunky at 5/6 weeks of age, and surely sensible breeders would know what damage could be done to their leg joints!!

We still do the spurts of training and playtime with him, but not to the excess. We were recommended the hydrotherapy to build up his muscle and get rid of his extra energy as he is quite a boistress pup! This seems to work well and he thoroughly enjoys it Hopefully he's on the road to recovery. There's no given in what has caused the pano, the vet said it's just one of those things that are common in larger breeds, and the full reason for it is not known. That's why it's described as being like a childs 'growing pains'. It's nothing that we or the breeders have done. After having German Shephards in the past i'm suprised that we havent come across it before. We recently found out his father had it for a couple of months when he was a pup too.

I can't imagine how people can be that cruel, Mrs Robinson, those poor puppies. People shouldn't be allowed to breed dogs if they dont know how to look after them in their first few months of life