DEVISTATED-BAD HIPS - Page 3

Just wanted to share that I expect my promising female and I will be in a very similar situation shortly. I also did my best to limit her exercise and provide high quality food and supplements. We did her prelims at 6mths are they were borderline dysplastic. Of course, after hearing that I wanted even more to protect her health, even if not to work, but quality of life. She is a high drive, busy, talented girl. How sorry I am to know that her future is perilous. She is nearly a year and we are going to re-xray next month. I am hoping for the best. I bought my dog from a reputable breeder, it was a repeat breeding, I did not expect any serious problems. In my excitement and naivety I neglected to buy a puppy with the best 'warranty' and I am completely out of luck. Regrettably, I have 3 dogs with no room or time to get another working prospect. It is so disappointing.

I had a similar thread about my 6 month old. http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/149314.html Since yours is crooked the x-ray is really not acceptable. Also was she in heat at the time? This will make them look looser. I will look for the link that explains the importance of a straight on dog with a straight x-ray. If she is not in pain there is hope.

I would not jump to a hip replacement either. If the dog is not showing any signs of pain or discomfort the best you can do for her as others have said is to keep her very lean, no pounding exercise, but she should still have exercise, plus a good supplement. It is, unfortunately a crap shoot sometimes.

I want to thank all of you who replied to my message! You are a great bunch of people, taking the time to encourage me and not accept the vets opinion. I am now optimistic about our girl and hope she will be able to spend a long, good quality life with us. Thanks again! In reply to davegaston, she was not in heat at the time of the xray, but went into heat two weeks later. Thanks.

I'm curious as to why your vet recommended hip replacement on the xray alone. I work for a vet and that's not something that we routinely recommend lightly. Of all the dogs that we see with bad hips, there's only one that needed the surgery. Actually kinda cool to look at on xray. I would suggest possibly going to ortho specialist and see what they have to say. There's also adequan injections that can help too, but I really don't think that she's at the point where she should have them yet. There's dogs out there with very little ball and sockets and they don't hip replacement. The funny thing about hips is that they can look pretty bad on a xray and the dogs don't seem to notice. And then there's the cases where the hips don't really look so bad on xray and they are having problems.

In my job as a community nurse, I see many people who have had joint replacement surgery. It is not an easy surgery, and takes quite some time to complete. The longer the surgery, the greater the risk of infection. I have had several patients who had to have the new joint removed, then go through it all over again once the infections was completely cleared up. All the patients I've seen who have had this surgery are elderly, and even if the surgery goes well (no infection) the results are often less than perfect. It is not something I would do to my dog unless they were in severe, constant pain.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f399/jocoyn/Cyrahip012606scanfromxray.jpg If the link works this should show you just how bad they can be with a happy dog Two years ago this is what we found (bad x-ray it is a scan from a poor quality x-ray film, not digital) but there was no need to get a better one). Sorry the picture is not bigger. Had to save file size for emailing. Perfectly happy, limber, not stiff. No signs of pain - but does bunny hop on a run but would run all day if I let her. Surgeon told us - hip replacement - last resort. Had we had diagnosed when younger there may have been other options.

Hi, I have nothing new to add, but I wanted to let you know I feel for you, and have been down that road, as so many others have. As so many have said, these days there are a lot of good treatments available and we know so much more about managing hips, and your having found out about it while the dog is young will make a big difference. Good luck.

http://www.leerburg.com/hipart.htm This article explains the importance of a good x-ray. Yours was not good. I fealt the same way you did after my 6 month old had an x-ray and after reading this article and reading all the responses from my thread that I listed earlier I came to the conclusion that theres was nothing wrong with my dogs hips. I can't say for sure on yours but there are many issues that will make a good hip look bad. Especially just like on mine it only looks bad on one side. Thats because the dog and x-ray are not all aligned perfectly. Also is she was under anesthesia or in heat it will make it look looser than it really is. Read the article you will feel better I promise

I am glad that Pink came here with her troubles. Most of us have been there done that. The recommendation to have surgery on this dog is poor advice since the dog is not lame. It would send me on a search for a new vet. She will most likely end up like most you have heard about here, living a normal life. The only thing I can add is another story with a happy ending. I had a young male puppy with horrible hips on his xray plus he was so lame he could barely pull himself on his feet from a prone position. After a few months of forced rest and an occasional aspirin, he was up and about ready to take on the world. He was a very sweet and obedient dog and when a family came along with a little blind boy, it was love at first site and Tuffy and this child were as one for many years. The only "complaint" I ever heard was that they had to rebuild their fence to make it higher, he was jumping the 6 foot one LOL. Good luck with your girl. I have a feeling she will do just fine and so what if you have to give her an aspirin when she's 10 years old?