CASE REPORT article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Imaging
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1611436
Presumed non-septic erosive sacroiliitis in a juvenile Bernese Mountain Dog with 1.5 - year follow-up
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- 2University of Helsinki, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Helsinki, Finland
- 3VetRad, Gießen, Germany
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Four-month-old intact male Bernese Mountain Dog presented for orthopedic examination due to abnormal hind limb gait and tarsal hyperextension for 2 weeks. Pain was observed upon palpation of the lumbosacral region. Moderate bilateral tarsal hyperextension and mild metatarsal outward rotation were observed. Wide and slightly abducted stance and stiff gait were noted in the hind limbs. Radiographs revealed symmetric erosive lesions in the left sacroiliac joint (SIJ) and laxity of the hip joints. The computed tomography (CT) revealed multiple deep articular bone erosion with peripheral sclerosis of both SIJs accentuating the iliac bones with consequential irregular widening of the sacroiliac joint spaces. Dog was treated conservatively with carprofen, physiotherapy, joint nutraceuticals and restriction of exercise with complete resolution of clinical signs in orthopaedic examination within 3 weeks. The dog remained clinically normal with partial resolution of the radiographic lesions upon a follow up after 6 weeks. The dog remained in clinical remission and radiographs and CT revealed complete resolution of the erosive lesions at 1.5 year follow up. Sacroiliac joint pain is a possible rare cause of lower back pain, gait abnormality and lameness in dogs. Case reports of septic erosive and non-erosive non-septic SIJ arthropathy exist. However, sterile erosive SIJ arthropathy is presumed in this case, since the clinical recovery was uneventful with carprofen and physiotherapy.
Keywords: canine1, sacroiliac joint2, SI joint3, sacroiliitis4, erosive5, pain6
Received: 14 Apr 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mäkitaipale and Eley. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Johanna Mäkitaipale, johanna.makitaipale@helsinki.fi
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