He did/does get swelling around the point of both elbows (back of he joint). The un-repaired right side is worse than the left. Massaging the joint will reduce it.
That's not what triggered the X-rays however. He had started to limp significantly following a trip to the off-leash where he had jumped over a small cliff following Jiggers and another dog. When he hadn't shown any improvement after a few days I took him in to the vet where he was diagnosed by with a sprained elbow, I had thought the problem was in his shoulder. The vet also commented on a minor clicking in both elbows. When he went from limping to non weight bearing despite being on pain medication I took him back and this time I saw the other vet in the practice. Upon examination she said there was significant crunching not clicking and wanted to do X-rays. A couple days later I his diagnosis.
Looking back there were a few signs that I didn't recognize that were indications that something might have been wrong. He was always tripping over his feet, I just took it as he was a puppy and hadn't learned to control his giant feet. The hardest thing to get him to do when training was lie down. I believed it was a training issue only not that he may not have wanted to lay down because it would hurt to get back up. The most telling was a few weeks before his diagnosis he had a carting lesson and the woman was trying to put the harness on him and when she went to lift his leg he growled at her. He let me put it on without a problem however so that was chalked up to him not liking her leaning over top of him.