Anyone whos been through this, can anyone advise what symptoms your dog first showed of hip dysplasia?
Im not talking about puppy h/d im asking for people who have dealt with this in a adult dog.

If x-rays come back showing very bad hips is there any hope for the dog to live a happy pain free life again?

If you lost a dog to h/d at what age did you lose them?

Please dont just copy and paste info from other sites, i have read them all, i am asking for peoples personal experiences please

Diary of a hip replacement.

This is Malmum, on here. Her dog has had a bilateral hip replacement. Message her, she's super helpful.

She has a wealth of knowledge. I'm gong through it now with my youngster. It's rare for the hip to right itself, not sure whatyou mean about puppy displaysia.

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Transplanted Geordie
RIP Jake, my best dog. 10.8.10
RIP Boomerang, beautiful horse. 27.5.08

Apparantly some puppys show h/d before a year old, and other dogs dont show signs it until they are much older.
Im asking about my adult dog so just wanted to explain that part.

Im just starting to wonder about all my options, and if other people that have been through it have found that all the medication/ops have been worth it in their opinion, ie that the dog has a good quality of life worth living.

My dog is very good at covering pain and i know this, so im having x-rays done to check the situation, but i have a feeling by her behaviour lately it might not be good

I want to go armed with as much info as possible so i know what decisions i make are going to be the best.

I dont want to be one of those people i see at the vets where their dog is obviously in agony and should have been PTS a long time ago, and they are holding onto it for their selfish reasons. but i also dont want to lose my dog if i know she can still have a good life

I think if the dog is young and otherwise healthy, it's worth looking at the remedial options eg full or partial hip replacement. As you say, x rays are the way forward.

Mine was holding his hip oddly, nothing visible to the vet but we knew, having been made paranoid by previous issues with another dog. An x ray has shown mild hd

If your dog is even slightly lame long term, it's definitely worth checking out. Pain killers are all very well, but long term, an operation is the only way, IMO. I don't think putting to sleep is the only option, so don't despair.

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Transplanted Geordie
RIP Jake, my best dog. 10.8.10
RIP Boomerang, beautiful horse. 27.5.08

We found out Banjo has HD in his left hip when he was just over 3 yrs old he also has osteoarthritis in his back & other hip probably because he was compensating for his bad hip. He was doing great on Prevecox & Synoquin, hydro & limiting his excersise But last year he started getting worse so was put on Tramadol then Rimydl & Gabapentin to. He recently had to have an op on his neck & has been makeing a good recovery & off all the drugs, but since comeing off them he is not as good with his back end again but he also has bone growth from his arthritis near the base of his tail & an enlarged nerve in his rear light leg so we dont think it is just his HD causeing his problems now.

Banjo also has accupunture for his leaking but that has helped his other problems to, we also have a ramp for the car the less jumping the better, hard I know Hopefully your dog wont have HD & you may see a huge improvement with some pain relief or suppliments or both

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All my children have paws!

keeping the dog lean - not merely fit but slightly underweight - also helps, as does low-impact exercise.

hydrotherapy is ideal, but if U can't literally swim the dog, wading in water at least halfway up the legs is good.

walking on natural surfaces [avoiding huge stretches on paving] also helps to maintain muscle, which provides
some of the missing skeletal support. The more muscle U can keep, the better.

accupressure or accupuncture help some dogs, as does chiropractic.
T-touch can be done at home - Getting in T-Touch With Ur Dog is a good reference for learning.

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

Bella was diagnosed at 10 months with quite severe H.D. We were very upset as thought she wouldn't be able to do anything.

Luckily we had insurance so knew we had many options.

We kept her rested for a good 2 months and then slowly built up her exercise. She seems to be most comofortable walking in a slow trot. Walking slowly she seems to be more uncomfortable. She has certainly adapted her walking to put more pressure on her front but is doing really well.

We of course don't walk her miles, but she is now having a good 30 minute walk off lead in a field and copes very well every day. We also take her swimming at a local vets for 15 minutes and then helps. We know what to look out for so if she has had a tiring day we might not do a long walk the next day. She lets us know though.

She is very happy and you wouldn't know anything is wrong with her. Obviously she is a young dog so we may have further problems in the future as she gets older. Our vet though seems to think we will do ok with her and she will have a near normal life with only a small chance of having to have a hip replacement.

She is only having half a pain killer each day as that helps. Very low dose too.

Don't think it's the end of things, it can be managed and the dog will still have a very good quality of life.

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Bella Buggar Face , a Golden Retriever born 26th July 2010!

Thanks, she is kept very lean, she is probably slightly under weight as i have done alot of work lately to keep her weight down, reducing food and treats (she has blueberries now rather than crap) so thats under control.

She is awaiting the vet letter to undertake swimming after we go tomorrow.as i tried to book her in a couple weeks back and they said i need a vet letter to say shes fit to go. She does wade in the water and have a little swim already when near water.

Walks are also good, she has good exercise in the woods, fields etc but her muscle tone is not what it used to be despite big effort to keep it up

Shes so good at hiding pain so the x-rays will shed some light thank god on whats going on. But i can see shes not happy at the moment.

I feel for you because I can understand what you must be going through.

From personal experience, most vets we found, if they don't write the dog off immediately because of its breed/size, will want to treat the condition with medication/pain killers and therapy etc.

But with Large and Giant dogs the only true remedy for a completely pain free life is hip correction surgery.

Oscar was diagnosed with chronic HD at 9 months.
Many vets refused to carry out the surgical procedure because they said, with him still being a young Giant, the operation was risky as they would first have to calculate his growth. They advised euthanising him.

But we refused to accept this and searched the net for a solution.
We found one veterinarian who specialised in this field.

This is Oscar's life saver.


And this is the same dog 8 weeks later enjoying his first pain free walk.



All the best for you and your dog
Zaros.

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Gentle as the Lamb. Ruthless like the Wolf.

Forgot to say that we originally took Banjo to the vets becasue he was limping on his front left leg, & occasionally looked like he was drunk, I dont think that was to do with his HD though more his neck problems starting the only HD sign he seems to have is stiffness in his leg when he has been lieing on it & his left leg is a bit thinner than his right.

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All my children have paws!