Panosteitis Help!

Yes, guys, its his right rear leg if you are looking at him from the back end. He never stopped peeing normally, but he did stop pooing when there was no more food to poo and the vet said it may be a few days after he is eating again before he poos normally.

I was thinking obstruction since he does tend to chew and eat anything he happens to find on the floor, but the 2 sets of x-rays are showing that the gas patterns are changing and they show no obstruction. The vet said that if he had something in there that doesn't appear on x-ray the gas patterns would be different. The x-rays on his knee came out good, but the 2nd set she x-ray'd him on his back and got everything from his chest to his rear paws and there is definately some really white spots on his thigh bone which lead her to Pano.

Her theory is that Owen ate the small piece of cow hoof around the same time he started feeling the pain and that the foreign object plus an empty stomach caused irritation and excessive gas. She also thought that the cow hoof piece would have passed naturally had there been food to push it through the anus.

As for the refusal of food and water, that could be explained by the pain. Vet thinks he isn't eating because he is in such severe pain. We were hoping the new meds would help with that. He was started on Carafate once a day one hour before food and Deramaxx with food also once a day.

last evening I fed him some burger and rice by hand. I basically opened him mouth, put some in and held his head with my hands under his jaws til he chewed and swallowed. A few hours later I did it again and he ate a few bites that way and a few more bites on his own. This morning I had to put it in his mouth again but he did drink his usual amount of water on his own. When I take a bit of food and place it in his mouth he seems to chew and swallow willingly enough and he does seem a bit more perky an hour or so after.

I'm hoping he is on the mend. I was really hoping there were some tips or tricks to try to tempt him to eat solo, but maybe I will have to muddle through. From what i read here this could last 3 weeks? Gah, I'll be a basket case!

Since the x-rays aren't showing any obstruction, I can't prove the problem is just the removed hoof. But, years ago, I had a Lab mix that went off food. Turns out he had a few pizza crusts with the cajun seasoning on them and the dough turned into a ball in his stomach that was trapped in place by gas. Antacids and burger-rice for a few days and he was fine.

Considering that I am leaning toward the hoof irritated his tummy, he got all gassy and didn't feel like eating because gas gives you that over-full feeling and can be painful. The limb pain could just be a coincidence.

I looked up the meds he was originally given and the pain med could have caused further irritation and the Flagyl is an antibiotic that can reduce intestinal irritation, but I think an antacid would have been better in the first place. Now that he has had 2 doses of the new tummy med he is more active, barking and whining like usual and is more interested in eating.

Since you other Basset owners haven't had them go off food due to pain I think I am siding with experience rather than guesses made by the vet. The Pano seems to be there and hurts, but I think the gas and irritation from the hoof was what got him not eating.