Do you see what I see? (hips) - Page 1

OOOO WOW!!! Not so good. Poor dog. How old is it?

films taken 20 months. GREAT male. He is my best friend. He shows NO signs of pain, or discomfort. He runs, plays and does everything a normal 2 year old should do. I just feel so bad for him, maybe he really is in pain and he does not show it. I just feel if they were MY hips, I would not be walking, let alone chasing balls.

poor dog

Ruger- You would be amazed at how much dogs...animals....are able to deal with things that would other wise have us crying like a baby. Keeping the dog fit and exercised is a good thing.The build up of muscles helps. I have known of dogs that were dysplastic that you would never know cause they did all the obedience,obstacle course and ran every day. Sorry his hips aren't good but that doesn't mean that he can't lead an active life as long as he is fit.

If he were in significant pain, he would show it (lameness, bunny hopping, reluctance to exercise, difficulty getting up). There is often very little relationship between the X rays and clinical signs. LAVK-9 is right, building up the muscle mass will help a lot--it provides support for the joints. So let him run and play and be happy.

Thank you guys, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and build muscle.... I never saw the films until yesterday, however they were taken a year ago. I just never imagined them THIS bad. It just sucks, I feel horrible for him.
How often do you see one littermate with EXCELLENT hips according to OFA, and the other look like THESE?

If you haven't started the dog on glucosomine, get started now.  It made a huge difference in our girl late in her life.  Such a difference in fact that we started our new girl on it from day one.

Ruger-that is the luck of the draw so to speak. As we know that even if both parents have excellent hips there can be a % that don't have them in the litter. It depends on what card(gene) that pup is dealt. I am so sorry that your pup has hips like this. Doesn't mean he is any less of a good dog. I had an awesome black GSD that would have died for me and he had fair hips. If he didn't die from a chicken bone scewering through his intestines he would have lived a long happy life even with hips that weren't that great. I kept him active.We would hike in a different forest preserve everyday or I would run him on the treadmill. So keep up the activities but not things that would cause him to turn too quickly on his haunches. Here are a few things that might help him as well. Glucosomine & chondrointin aren't all that it is cracked up to be. Below is a a post from a study done on the 2.
Overall, there were no significant differences between the other treatments tested and placebo.”
The “other treatments” being glucosamine and/or chondroitin. Amazingly there are companies now referencing this study as if the results were positive, when in fact glucosamine and chondroitin overall showed very little efficacy. And to top it off, only a 20% reduction in symptoms were required to be considered a positive outcome. The bar was set very low and still glucosamine and chondroitin were unable to demonstrate clear advantage over the placebo


Hyaluronic acid is much better.Hyaluronic acid is responsible for the viscosity of the synovial fluid and contributes to its lubricating function in joint movement. I have seen it work well in people as well.My step dad was having some serious pains in his joints and was on the gluc/chond and it didn't help.So I told my mom about the hyaluronic acid and he tried it and did much better. It was liquid gold for some horse people when I worked at the vet clinic. Some people would use the horse stuff(lower dose) for their dogs.Then more products  for dogs came out. Also Evening Primrose oil (found in health food stores) is a good natural anti inflamitory.Had my old boy on it and he was spunky like a pup even at 10yrs.
Hope some of this helps.

God that's disappointing. So sorry, Rugers.