How to Handle an Elbow Hygroma: A Story of Cedar, the biggest dog in the world

Long time readers of the blog may remember some posts we've done on an English Mastiff named Cedar. His owners, Mike and Ellie, are our good friends and cycling companions. In fact we are headed up to Santa Fe tomorrow for the annual Santa Fe Century bike ride.

The four of us will be doing a 100 mile ride with about two thousand other crazy people. Mike and I did it in 5 hours and 15 minutes last year and we hope to beat that time this year. 

OK, back to Cedar. He has a problem called an elbow hygroma. In fact, it's a little more complicated than that. Let me explain. An elbow hygroma is a false bursa or fluid filled sac that develops over the bony protuberance of the elbow.

 

It's a fairly common problem in large breed dogs...

 

like German Shepherds, Labradors, Newfoundlands, Great Danes and Mastiffs like Cedar. These hygromas develop over time due to repeated contact with hard surfaces. When you watch a large dog lie down you'll notice that the elbows are involved and will come into weight bearing contact with the floor. 

 

Cedar's problem is more severe. His hygromas are ulcerated, infected and painful. Even though Ellie takes pains to bandage the area, Cedar manages to remove the bandages and continue damaging the area which impedes, if not precludes, healing. As you can imagine, the constant contact with the floor and the way the skin stretches over the elbow joint with normal movement makes this a tough area to immobilize. Immobilizing the area, however, would allow for healing to take place.

 

It is possible to surgically remove these hygromas but the issue always comes back to protecting the elbow enough so that it can heal. In addition, if you remove this tissue you are taking away skin, too, and this puts a lot of pressure on the sutures holding the whole area together after surgery. Often they will split and the whole process starts all over again. 

 

I have read reports of an experimental surgery where the surgeons take a piece of the rectus abdominus muscle and a mesh skin graft to repair the void left after removing the hygroma. In addition they apply an external fixation device that limits movement in the joint and allows the whole thing to heal.

 

That sounds like a very involved, expensive and complicated procedure and Ellie and Mike are understandably reluctant to put Cedar through surgery and general anesthesia at his age. 

 

So what can they do? 

 

One recommendation is to purchase a special bandage that protects the area and relieves the pressure on the elbow so healing has a chance. This special bandage, called an Adjustable DoggLegg, might be just the ticket for Cedar. It pads the area around the hygroma and allows the hygroma to sit in a fenestration or doughnut hole. That way it's not getting banged up every time the dog lays down. They make a model with a soft cover that would allow for more protection and the application of topical medication that would facilitate the healing process. The photos on this site do a better job of explaining how this thing works.

 

The best solution to hygromas is to try to prevent them in the first place. This is easier said than done, however. You can provide your big dog with a lovely foam mattress dog bed which he may never use. Some dogs like to lie on a cool hard floor, especially in the summer months, especially in a place like Southwest New Mexico. It's certainly worth a try, though, because dealing with an existing hygroma can be a pain as Cedar can attest.

 

We'll get Cedar his special bandage and see what happens. We've got to do something. I'll report back when I visit Cedar this summer in his Jackson Hole summer home. 

Comments

[Sherry Stanley]

Our weimaraner was recently diagnosed with a elbow hygroma. We have him on homeopathic arnica 6c which our vet has had good luck treating this condition with....let you know if it works.
-Sherry

[John-Henry Gross]

Dr. Larry,
Thank you for the reference to the Standard Adjustable DogLeggs. We heard about the posting from Ellie when she called us.

In the past dealing with hygromas has been a perplexing problem that did not have a good solution. In fact the reason DogLeggs got started was we had a Rotti that developed a hygroma and the vet said there was no effective solution; we invented DogLeggs and now there is a great solution (www.dogleggs.com/files/story.cfm).

Over the last 10 years we have shipped nearly 10,000 pairs of DogLeggs and have an extremely high percent success rate, certainly in the high 90’s, including massive bursa much larger then a tennis ball.

It is sad to say that we still hear horror stories from our customers on a weekly basis about veterinarians that tried to treat a hygroma with multiple aspirations or worse surgery, that end up as ulcerative sores. I have heard multiple conversations at veterinary conferences between surgeons saying “I will never touch another hygroma with a scalpel again it only ends up in misery for both the patient and me.”[actual quote]. Fortunately, Standard Adjustable DogLeggs with a foam doughnut can also be used to help heal those too, but the problem was preventable in the first place.

I also have heard and read about the rectus abdominus muscle surgery and it is great that it exists for situations when the hygroma has swollen and ruptures or for other situations where there is a major wound at the elbow. The even better news is that there is a very effective and economical way to heal a hygroma, DogLeggs.

Again thank you for your support and recommendation.

John-Henry Gross
VP of Marketing and co-founder
DogLeggs
www.dogleggs.com