Actually, like father, and grandfathers. Yep, Coach has a bad knee. Yesterday was a beautiful day, so we took Coach to the dog park down from our house, on our way home we heard what we thought was his hip "popping" every step he took. Since great danes have major hip problems, we decided it was best to take him in for a check up sooner than later. After finding an emergency animal clinic (saturday at 4:45pm is quite difficult to find an open pet clinic) we got him in, and the vet pretty immediately noticed his back left knee being swollen and has calcification nodules on it.
Once we took a look, it was pretty obvious that his left knee is much larger than his right. We would have never noticed, because he doesn't limp or anything. She said it had been injured before, that the damage and swelling was built up, but it probably got irritated when he and Drew were playing at the dog park. Now that we watch him, we feel horrible for not noticing that he is very gentle with it and hardly puts weight on it at all when he stands, and it sticks out differently than the right side when he sits. Poor guy!
Once we took a look, it was pretty obvious that his left knee is much larger than his right. We would have never noticed, because he doesn't limp or anything. She said it had been injured before, that the damage and swelling was built up, but it probably got irritated when he and Drew were playing at the dog park. Now that we watch him, we feel horrible for not noticing that he is very gentle with it and hardly puts weight on it at all when he stands, and it sticks out differently than the right side when he sits. Poor guy!
The vet gave him some anti-inflammatories, and said to rest him. No more wrestling, which is just so hard to do because he gets soooo excited to play. Our long term option is most likely going to be knee surgery ($$$$) but she wants to do this series of anti-inflams (23 days) and then see how he is healing. Hopefully, if we can be very diligent about trying to keep him calm and rested, we wont do any further damage and he can be fine for a few years before we have to make any surgical decisions. So, for $250 worth of office visit bills and meds for Coach, we were not given too much good news, except that his ears are healthy and he weighs 130lbs. Great dane = great expenses. We are just going to try our best to make him rest and keep him from doing any more damage, but this is definately not what we wanted to hear. On a good note, he's being a darling and taking his meds like a trooper. Keep your fingers crossed for the best! 
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