# Hip Dysplasia



## RedneckCowgirl (Oct 28, 2011)

Can someone post some good sites about hip dysplasia symptoms and treatments? I've done some googling but I can't seem to find steady info, it varies alot and I'm not sure what is right and what isn't.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Well...are you suspecting that one of your dogs has HD?

Weakness, pain, poor range of motion are all symptoms of HD, but the only real diagnostic tool is to do x-rays of the hips. While a physical exam by a vet can be somewhat diagnostic, they wont be able to tell the severity of the damage from just that. 

Treatments? Surgery for good candidates but its expensive and time consuming for the dog, especially if your dog has bilateral HD because they will only correct one hip at a time. So upwards of a year from what I can remember. My dog was diagnosed by x-ray at 10 months and now at 6 she hardly has any hip socket left. I couldn't afford to do surgery and she wasn't a good candidate for surgery at the time because she had a grade 3 heart murmur (now it is better-maybe from raw feeding...maybe not). I give her pain medication relief when she's really painful or BEFORE we go for a long hike because pain management is better if it has a chance to work before the pain sets in. I limit her exercise as well. I still let her run like hell on occasion because she loves it so damn much, but she pays for it the next day. I also have my vet do acupuncture/aquapuncture on her at least 2 times per month, it all just depends on her pain level. I can tell when she needs it. I also give her adequan injections once per month. This is a drug that was originally formulated for horses and I know that it works well for Emmy. I know when the end of the month is coming around because she gets more stiff. After an injection she's better. Its pricey...but worth it.


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## malluver1005 (Nov 15, 2009)

Heres one...


ACVS - Hip Dysplasia in Dogs


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## RedneckCowgirl (Oct 28, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> Well...are you suspecting that one of your dogs has HD?


Yes, well, I think. He doesn't show stiffness, and only occasional pain. Moose has always had a very strangely built topline/hind end (see how it has a hump, with a really low set tail. Its worse then in this picture but its the best I have to show it)


He is a byb dog, so I won't say I didn't expect it, but I've done everything I can to limit issues. He hardly ever is allowed to run, we take him swimming almost daily and we don't encourage him jumping anything. From the time he was a pup he has always liked strong pats (not super hard) on his shoulders and down his back, and a few weeks ago he yelped when I did that, which is VERY unusual for him (usually he pulls his lips back and his foot goes crazy lol) and I've noticed that even sometimes when he is getting his butt scratched (another thing he loves) that every once in a while he will yelp when you go over his hips. I would love to get him xrayd, just waiting for income tax to come in and to find a vet that won't give me a 30 minute lecture on why I should feed Purina and how he should have been neutered at 5 months old (what the local vet does EVERY time I've been in there, even when it wasn't for my animals) On days he is allowed to run and rough house hard, he isn't stiff or ouchy at all the next day, there is no noticeable correlation between times he shows pain and hard exercise. He has been tackled HARD by Maddie on more then one occasion, hard enough that he rolls a few times before stopping and shows no pain or stiffness in the following days. I'd just like to know for sure so whatever it is can be dealt with  Thanks both of you for the info and link


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## Gavin (Feb 14, 2012)

DaneMama said:


> Well...are you suspecting that one of your dogs has HD?
> 
> Weakness, pain, poor range of motion are all symptoms of HD, but the only real diagnostic tool is to do x-rays of the hips. While a physical exam by a vet can be somewhat diagnostic, they wont be able to tell the severity of the damage from just that.
> 
> Treatments? Surgery for good candidates but its expensive and time consuming for the dog, especially if your dog has bilateral HD because they will only correct one hip at a time. So upwards of a year from what I can remember. My dog was diagnosed by x-ray at 10 months and now at 6 she hardly has any hip socket left. I couldn't afford to do surgery and she wasn't a good candidate for surgery at the time because she had a grade 3 heart murmur (now it is better-maybe from raw feeding...maybe not). I give her pain medication relief when she's really painful or BEFORE we go for a long hike because pain management is better if it has a chance to work before the pain sets in. I limit her exercise as well. I still let her run like hell on occasion because she loves it so damn much, but she pays for it the next day. I also have my vet do acupuncture/aquapuncture on her at least 2 times per month, it all just depends on her pain level. I can tell when she needs it. I also give her adequan injections once per month. This is a drug that was originally formulated for horses and I know that it works well for Emmy. I know when the end of the month is coming around because she gets more stiff. After an injection she's better. Its pricey...but worth it.



Hi

Hope you don't mind if I share our little story.
Jessie is now 2.5 years old, but at about 9 months old we noticed she was struggling to get up after laying down for a while. The alarm bells really rang when my wife had to help her get up one evening because as she was trying she satrted yelping. We immediately made an appointment the next morning at the vet. Our fears were confirmed, she was diagnosed with bilateral HD. We were given the option of either putting her down or just keeping her as comfortable as we could.

The first was not an option, so we started doing some research and found only one of two specialists in the country that could give us other options. One option was to do a double hip replacement, but because she was so young it wasn't really feasable and it also was very expensive (R24 000 /about $3000 per hip). The second option was a procedure called a TPO (Triple Pelvic Osteotomy). This was about half the price.

They did the xrays and found that she was the perfect candidate. We booked her in straight away.

It took a long 4 months of recovery, but it was well worth it. She now runs around like there was never anything wrong.

She is one of the lucky ones where it was spotted early enough.

Signs we noticed:

Difficulty getting up
Laying with back legs together and tucked in.
Running with back legs together (bunny hop)
Exaggerated swaying of the hips from side to side when walking.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

I'll share Lola's story too. The little pug I'm looking after had a hip replacement at 7 months old. As a puppy she bunny hopped on and off when running, but we didn't think too much about it. Then late one night her owner tripped over some stairs whilst carrying her, fell and the pup went flying. When I saw the pup the next morning, she was dragging the toes of one back leg on the ground. The vet diagnosed her with Legg Perths disease, which the fall had exasperated and had made appear sooner than if would have otherwise.
They tried immobilising the leg for 3 weeks but that didn't work so the next step was a total hip replacement. It think in the end it was upward of a couple of thousand, but there was a definite price difference between vets.
Well worth it though, you can hardly tell now, a slightly different gait to a normal dog, still bunny hops, but energetic, no pain, as mobile as any other 18 month old pup.
Your pup's doesn't seem to be too bad right now, which is great so I'd definitely try less invasive tactics first. Swimming is absolutely fabulous, we had Lola swimming 20 laps of the pool each day during her rehab, made a huge difference.


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