I'll probably talk about this in tomorrow's entry, but as long as we're over here, I wanted to know if anyone has any experience living with a dog with hip dysplasia. The vet is very worried about Doc, who goes in for x-rays on Thursday. There is surgery that can be done on young dogs before their joints deteriorate too much, but the vet is worried that Doc's symptoms might already be too bad for that.

Have you dealt with this? Any advice? Anyone ever built an access ramp for a dog who can't handle stairs? (I don't care how much his hips get to hurting him, I cannot carry him down the stairs to go to the bathroom.)

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

Answers

How bout wrapping his rear two legs up, throwing on some of them kevlar pads (like the ones you use for kitchen appliances- see, I'm on topic. Wrong thread. But on topic.), and let 'im slide around?

(okay, it's not funny. much.)

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

You are a very bad man. If you ever come to my house I will wrap your ass in Kevlar and let the dogs eat the rest of you.

So when are you coming to visit?

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

My Newf, Belle, was diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia in her right hip and mild in her left at 6 months. We had her re-x-rayed at 1 year to see if her hips had improved at all, since dogs' skeletons aren't fully formed until closer to that time. She wasn't any better at 1 year, but she also wasn't any worse. She limps when she gets up after laying for awhile, and we can occasionally hear a 'pop' in her hips when she moves around.

Our vet didn't recommend the surgery unless we felt that her symptoms were severe, and her quality of life is affected. She's not in constant pain and her symptoms are fairly mild, so I don't want to put her through that unless it becomes necessary. All that being said, we've done some things that seem to help. We give her 500mg of vitamin C every day. Our vet recommended this (one school of thought is that hip dysplasia is a scurvy-like disease, so vitamin C should help, although it mostly useful when they are very young). She is also on Cosequin, which is a glucosamine supplement that helps keep joints healthy. I can see a difference when she is taking the Cosequin versus when we run out. Cosequin is prescription only and expensive, but the glucosamine supplements you get at PetSmart, etc. don't seem to help at all.

We haven't built any ramps yet, but we don't allow Belle to jump out of our truck, and we discourage really rough wrestling with our other dog. We let her run as much as she wants, and we walk everyday. Swimming on a regular basis to strengthen the muscles around the hips was recommended to me, although I haven't found a place where I can take her regularly (beaches in the Twin Cities hate dogs).

I know you've probably searched the web. I got great info from the Newf list, Newf-l. If you don't mind dealing with all the other stuff, most big dog lists will have worthwhile discussions on hip dysplasia.

I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. I wanted a Newf so badly, but I wavered because of their health issues. When we found out Belle had hip dysplasia, I was devistated. I hope that Doc's hips aren't serious, and you can find a successful treatment.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

I was actually devastated, not whatever I said. I need spellcheck desperately.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

I read about the vitamin C treatment the other day. Jeremy started giving Doc glucosamine supplements a few weeks ago (Jeremy takes them for his knee and says they help) -- it's pretty cute, because Doc is so dumb and accomodating that you just hand him the capsule like it's a treat, and he eats it. Big dumb dog.

I also read about swimming therapy, but of course big dumb Doc is afraid of water. Poor guy.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

Both of our Cockers have dysplasia - one has a mild form of it, and has an odd walk, but is otherwise fine. The other, Maggie, has an X- ray that isn't even recognizable as hips and knees and back. She has had several other surgeries to fix her knees, and last year I decided no more surgery for her - she is 10, it is a good age to reach, for such an awful little dog, and the pain after the surgery drove her a little (more) insane. The hip surgery wouldn't really fix the problem, at her age, but might give her more comfort. Might not, either.

We give her the Glucomsamine/Chondritin stuff - we buy the human version, because it is so much cheaper than the veterinary stuff, and our vet figured out the correct dosage. We also give her a painkiller once a day, in the morning, after her first walk - vet prescribed. This gives her the most comfort during the day, when she is up and around, and at night she sleeps in a little nest by my bed, or smack between my husband and I, when she needs to be a baby.

I know that we are on the road now to the end of her life - I will put her down as soon as the painkillers stop being effective, or when she is unable to get around the house. Right now, she is suprising me - when we heard the news a few months ago about the latest of her joint problems, I figured that would it, but she suprises me with how well she is doing on the pain killers/glucosamine. Now, the vet says, as long as she doesn't fall and hurt herself, she could stay in this 'holding pattern' for another few years.

No ramp, here - nonflat surfaces freak the dog out, but I did move stuff around so that she could get up on her favourite chair and look out the window - that webbing stuff that people put down in their kitchen cupboards makes great non skid surface for this sort of thing.

We also work really hard at not getting her excited, because that causes her to jump around like a freak - wiggling, and hopping. When my husband comes home from work, he drops to the floor so she can greet him without jumping up, and we don't let her jump up on furniture, or the bed.

Painkillers. No jumping. Jeez, I could have written this whole thing in 3 words. My old vet used to do hip replacement - if you want to mortgage your house, it might be option - wicked expensive.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

This brings back hard memories. My family had a Golden years ago who had hip dysplasia and my parents ended up putting her to sleep. While she was young enough for the surgery (about 6 months), it was $800 per hip with no guarantee of it working, and we couldn't afford it.

My friend has a Lab with elbow dysplasia, though, who was operated on and what seems to work is the no jumping and painkillers routine too. They limit the rough-housing, and pay close attention to any signs of fatigue or pain in order to cut back on walks/running when needed.

So that's not really advice, but I wish you luck and I hope the vet appointment goes well.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

I agree with Allison re: Cosequin Beth. I also use Cartrophen injections in combo with and have had great success! If rads show very bad hips and you need to discuss surgery let me know. Unfortunately Rottweilers are plagued with bad hips and my first one had grade 3 HD bilaterally. He didn't have surgery but was neutered at 18 months of age (no showing or breeding) and then was off and on meds for the rest of his life. Good news is he died of cancer at an old age and lived a happy (if less active then most) life.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2001

I have a German Shepherd and sadly, she too has hip dysplasia. We adopted her from the human society 2 1/2 years ago. She's rather small in size, so we were hoping she wouldn't have the hip dysplasia which is notorious in German Shepherds. Unfortunately, she didn't escape it.

And because of her size, she wouldn't be able to have a full hip replacement surgery, even if we could afford it (I think the vet said it was $5,000). The vet was encouraging however and said that she would qualify for the joint surgery, where they place a plastic ball in place of the joint. Forgive me if my facts are wrong, it's been a while since the vet visit. Anyway, he said that he's seen many dogs go on to live long and healthy lives after the surgery. I believe the surgery was around $600 - worth it in my estimation, as my puppy is my baby.

Fortunately, he doesn't think the dysplasia has gotten to the point of surgery. He said to walk her for exercise, but he was very adamant that she wasn't to run!! How on earth do you stop a dog from running?! We also have her on Iams Less Active because with the hip dysplasia, it's important that she not be overweight and have added stress on the joint.

I'm not sure that I was much help. I hope the visit goes well.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

Our German Shepherd/Malamute mix had pretty bad dysplasia, but he was 7-8 before we started to see signs of it. We didn't let him jump in/out of the car anymore, but he still got around pretty well after that - not too much pain or stiffness until he was nearly 13. We did get him a big cedar/stuffed bed to sleep on in a warm place, which seemed to help.

He was fine on the stairs, it was just jumping into the bed of the truck that was hard on him.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

I have found cartrophen injections very helpful for my 4 year old kelpie cross. My friend's golden retriever had terrible HD and instead of hip replacement they did a surgery where they remove the joint and create a kind of sling out of muscle to hold everything together. He's not perfect but he gets around fine and doesn't seem to have any pain.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2001

re: surgery to remove joint... excision arthroplasty surgery (they remove the femoral head and neck to eliminate joint pain) is primarily a salvage procedure when pain cannot be controlled medically and/or other surgery is cost-prohibitive. it is not recommended in dogs weighing more then 45 lbs.

-- Anonymous, January 25, 2001

Our vet said Murray has very mild hip dysplasia - common in large dogs, particularly weimaraners. (It's so cute when he's tired and walks slow - his little but wiggles back and forth.) But so far, we haven't had to worry about it, although it's something we'll have to think about in the future. For now, our preventative measure is to make sure he's at the right weight. If he starts to pack on the pounds, the extra weight can cause stress on his joints.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Doc does that wiggle, too. The vet told me that was from bone grinding against bone. It seemed a lot less cute then.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Info on TPO surgery:

http://www.petsurgery.com/triplepelvicosteotomy.htm

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Info here on total hip replacement:

http://www.petsurgery.com/totalhipreplacement.htm

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Okay, so now I'm getting paranoid. Beth, you said Doc wasn't really limping at all...so what led you to the vet? Sasha doesn't limp, though she's sometimes slow and, well, stretchy, for lack of a better word. And she has always - since we adopted her at 14 months or so - walked crooked. Her back end doesn't look like it's quite in line with her front end, and so she sashays more than she walks when she's not bounding or running or galumphing. (Don't laugh at her though - she thinks she's quite dignified when she does this.)

So, does she need a hip-focused vet visit? The vet has never said anything about her hips one way or the other, but we haven't really asked, either.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

Not to scare you or anything, but those were basically Doc's initial symptoms, the ones that had me worried for a long time. I'm not sure, though, because I had read all over the place that you can't see HD by just looking at the dog, but ever since Doc was a tiny little puppy (the day we got him, in fact) I thought his back end looked weird. I'm not sure that has anything to do with the HD, but I don't know. But he got hurt a while back, we think on the stairs. We didn't see it happen, because until recently we just opened the back door to let the dogs outside, and so if he fell on the stairs we wouldn't necessarily have seen it. But he got scared of the stairs, and started to go down them very slowly, and he would wait for Mochi to go away before he'd descend. (Mochi likes to bite him on the head while he's trying to get downstairs.)

Then he growled at us a couple of times when we touched his hip. He's not THAT bad a dog, so that was an immediate concern. He doesn't do it all the time, unless he's wet and you're about to dry him off with a towel -- I think we must have accidentally really hurt him one time, because now he's terrified of towels. He also sometimes growls when Mochi snuggles up to him and lays on his hip.

And over the last month or so, he's just gotten slower and slower on the stairs, getting up in the morning, etc. He does that sashaying thing really badly when he's tired. He sometimes won't go up or down the stairs even though it's clear he wants to. He sometimes doesn't want to play with Mochi.

The vet said he had a bone spur ... I'm not sure if that could be the more recent development that's been causing him pain, but maybe.

-- Anonymous, January 26, 2001

I have a 6 year old white german shepherd. In the past week she has been very reluctant to jump up on things. (ex: bed or couch) Yesterday she got up on a wooden loveseat rocker, laid down for 20 min. or so then could not get down by herself. She comes to the side of our bed and whines to be helped up. We have not taken her to the vet yet, but I am getting worried about her. She has 2+ acres of property to run and chase things on, I thought maybe she might of pulled a muscle or something. She doesn't yelp when you massage her hips or hind legs. I read a reply in regards to the vitiam C. What does vitiam C do for dogs? Do you give them the pill form you get from a grocery store? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001

Jill, before you give your dog *anything* I would definitely take her to the vet.

Incidentally, Doc has his appointment with the surgeon tomorrow. Wish us luck.

-- Anonymous, May 29, 2001