Straight From The Vet's Mouth


Just a few days ago my puppy was bumped by a car when she got out of the yard. She seemed just fine after it happened. But in the last few days we have noticed that her front leg is starting to look crooked near her wrist. What's going on? Does she need surgery?

Here is what my vet said:

Your puppy has premature closure of the distal ulnar physic. What has happened is that the area of active growth of the end of the ulna (one of the two bones of the forearm) has stopped growing. The problem is that she is not yet full-grown. Since there is a second bone in her forearm (the radius) that is continuing to grow, her front leg is starting to curve. You see, her forearm can only grow straight if both bones grow at the same time.

It would be easy to assume that since she seemed okay after the injury, no bones had been broken and everything would be fine. The truth is, even if she had been examined by a veterinarian, we would have had no way of knowing if a growth stoppage was in the future for that bone. X-rays cannot show the microscopic changes that started all of this. But with that area of bone near her wrist no longer growing, the curving of your dog's front leg will only worsen unless she has corrective surgery.