# Hip Dysplasia - What you would do/have been told to do?



## funshine (Jan 21, 2010)

Hello:smile:

I have a rescue puppy from local rescue, Ponyo, estimated age 9 months advertized as Lab/Terrier(Pit bull) mix. My husband and I adopted her in September and she’s absolutely a lover <3. She's doing great on raw (we never got kibble to the house for her) and doesn’t have that horrible smell anymore from crappy food like she did during detox.

Wookie (our first dog) and Ponyo get along really well and keep each other company during work days. However last week Ponyo was diagnosed to have hip dysplasia and scared the whole family. She got a little more free running than normally, even started limping in the run, and made me freak out. Our vet seems to know his stuff very well, except he seems to have no idea about raw diet. We got the following “prescription” I’m planning to follow, but would just like to make sure that this is not overkill:
- Ester-C 500mg twice a day for 30days then once daily
- Glucosamine-Condroton with MSN 500mg twice daily
- ¾ of a Bayer asprin if needed (always with food)

For a couple of days she’s got 1000mg of glucosamine, but only 500mg of vitamin C. I’m little worried how she’ll stomachs all this. We’ve seen some loose stools and don’t know if we should increase bone intake… She has to lose 2 lbs. (I know, bad parenting… I feel so horrible about especially this part :frown: ) so we’ve cut back on her food, but adding bone would put her heavily on chicken (I’d like to feed her more muscle meat since the larger variety).

So I would highly appreciate everyone’s comment on the prescription; Good? Bad? Common among hip dysplasia dogs? Too much/little something?

Sorry about not posting since we started Wookie on raw back in March; I’m a lurker. I love to read and learn, but somehow putting my own thoughts in writing takes forever. I’ll go an post a couple of pics of our girls though :smile:

Something kind of lighter and funnier for raw feeders at the end :biggrin:
The vet did ask what she eats and the conversation when pretty much like this (he has heard before that Wookie is on raw):
Vet:"So, what do you feed her?"
Me: “Oh, she on raw”
Vet:”Umh, this not any puppy raw or anything anymore?”
Me:”Oh no, she technically eats human grade meat, bones, and organs”
Vet:”Oh, okay. Well… she does look good so …let’s not change her diet whatever it is. Except these supplements (he mentioned).” “You know these grocery store foods…”
Me:”No worries, no ol’roy for my dogs.”
Vet:”And too much protein can be bad too.”
Me:”Yeah, meat is about 70% water” (couldn’t remember exact… but wanted to say something)
Vet changing a subject to comforting me one more time how her good muscle tone helps etc. it could be worse although her left hip popped like a balloon…
It's okay that he doesn't know, at least he's not trying to convince me to feed some SD (or even kibble in general).

Thanks for reading!


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## funshine (Jan 21, 2010)

Sorry forgot to mention her current weight. She 46.5 lbs. right now (and on her way losing a couple).

I can't take a decent picture of a black dog; most indoor ones are quite desperate, but I set up a folder "Wookie & Ponyo" if you want take a look.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

funshine said:


> However last week Ponyo was diagnosed to have hip dysplasia and scared the whole family.


Did he use x-ray to diagnose?



> We got the following “prescription” I’m planning to follow, but would just like to make sure that this is not overkill:
> - Ester-C 500mg twice a day for 30days then once daily


I'm not a fan of giving Vit-C to dogs as they manufacture their own and probably manufacture exactly what they need. However, try it and see what happens. I know when you give Vit-C, you need to do it as often as you can as excess if filtered out pretty quickly by kidneys.



> - Glucosamine-Condroton with MSN 500mg twice daily


I gave my Abby 1,500mg twice daily for a couple of years and couldn't tell any difference. I also took it when I had a bad hip and couldn't tell any difference. Again, try it and see what happens.



> - ¾ of a Bayer asprin if needed (always with food)


This is for pain and should be given as needed. 



> For a couple of days she’s got 1000mg of glucosamine, but only 500mg of vitamin C. I’m little worried how she’ll stomachs all this. We’ve seen some loose stools and don’t know if we should increase bone intake…


Too much Vit-C will cause loose stools and even diarrhea sometimes.



> She has to lose 2 lbs. (I know, bad parenting… I feel so horrible about especially this part :frown: ) so we’ve cut back on her food, but adding bone would put her heavily on chicken (I’d like to feed her more muscle meat since the larger variety).


If you want her to loose weight, I would just feed her less of the same things you normaly feed her. Normally I would also exercise her more but with the bad hip, I'm not so sure.



> So I would highly appreciate everyone’s comment on the prescription; Good? Bad? Common among hip dysplasia dogs? Too much/little something?


Like I said, I gave my Abby 1/4 of a pain pill twice a day. Can't remember the name right now but its made for horses. I also gave her large doses of Glucosamine-Condroton with MSN but couldn't see any difference and took her off. Couldn't tell a difference when I took her off either.



> Vet changing a subject to comforting me one more time how her good muscle tone helps etc.


Vet sounds ok, keep him. :smile:



> it could be worse although her left hip popped like a balloon…


I don't understand "popped like a balloon".


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## funshine (Jan 21, 2010)

Thank you RawFedDogs!

Unfortunately diagnose was so obvious that x-ray wasn’t necessary. We will get that done to see how bad the hips are if she gets worse. According to the vet X-ray must be done under general anesthesia and the dog will get “stretched” to get the right picture causing the dog to be in pain afterwards. If she gets much worse we might also consider surgical options, but right now hip replacements are outside of our budget.

“I gave my Abby 1,500mg twice daily for a couple of years and couldn't tell any difference.”
What a bummer, I'm so sorry:frown:. I was hoping that the supplements would do some good. We’ll do that 1000mg and hope the best, but maybe we should move to daily chicken feet if we notice no difference:wink:.

“If you want her to loose weight, I would just feed her less of the same things you normaly feed her. Normally I would also exercise her more but with the bad hip, I'm not so sure.”
Yeah, we were told to keep up moderate exercise level. She loves to free run so we keep that on schedule max once a week and make sure that our walks are short enough.

“I gave my Abby 1/4 of a pain pill twice a day. Can't remember the name right now but its made for horses.”
This would be interested to know. We’ll stick to asprin when needed if we can’t find anything else safe.

“I don't understand "popped like a balloon".”
This was just a side comment from the examination. The vet said that it’s so bad (left hip) that it popped when he was moving it around (like some people can pop their fingers). However, she has some great ways to cope with the issue; she sits on her legs and her toes point kind of out (while standing) because she supporting the loose area or something. Kind of hard to explain, but these were related to the issue.

Thank you so much for the reply:smile:

...I just can't do that multiple quote thing...


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