Hip dysplasia in golden retriever

[PeggyandCream]

My 2 year old golden rescue, Peggy, has been diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia today :( After a difficult few days (she was very depressed and inactive last weekend, then Monday it became evident her legs were a problem), xrays today have confirmed the condition.

For the next couple of weeks we have to keep her walking to a minimum (5 mins on lead at a time) with no off lead time, even in the garden, to let it settle down. She's being referred to a specialist to see if hip replacement is feasible. She's also being referred for hydrotherapy.

I'm not an experienced dog owner (we've had Peggy for 6 months), and my main concern is recognising when/whether she's in pain. Also, hearing other people's experiencing of coping with/managing a young dog with this condition. Eg. how long does it take to really degenerate....? Thanks in advance!

My rescue GSD has mild to moderate HD and he manages really with medication (previcox) which he has every day and also we have additional pain relief if he needs it.
He is as wild as any other dog and runs and plays like anyone else. Sometimes he goes slightly lame if he's overdone it so we do try and limit the amount of ball chasing or hard work he does. We also don't do things like agility and fly ball any more. I can tell he is sore as he is less mobile, slower to sit etc.

My friends dog has had hip replacements and did amazing so I would have considered that as an option if the medication didn't work.

My 4 year old rescue lab has just been diagnosed with it, and quite severely on one side. We're monitoring her at the moment and she's on Loxicom when she needs it, but she does seem to be needing pain relief more often at the moment. We have limited her exercise but occasionally I think we overdo it and allow her too much. Less ball play and jumping, and we need to get a ramp for the car. So sad when she's so young.

She's on a diet although she doesn't need to lose much and seems to be a bit of a natural chunky monkey. In addition, we have put her on YuMove Advanced, chondroitin and glucosamine with green lipped muscle amongst other ingredients. It's expensive, but it does seem to have made a difference. If she needs a hip replacement, we need to do it fast before insurance refuses to cover, as it'd be around £4k for each hip... .

In terms of recognising when she's in pain, it's just... difficult. Only you know your dog and it's hard when they are a rescue (we've only had ours for 10 months and we're still getting to know her). Mine has a tendency to look very sorry for herself and pins her ears back and doesn't move as much. Other than that, it's only when she refuses to put weight on her leg. Sorry, it's hard to be able to give any direct pointers, but I sympathise with you; when my dog is hurting, I'm hurting too - I hate it.

Hydrotherapy will sort her out. Our lab was diagnosed with hip dysplasia as a puppy, it was so severe, the vet suggested putting him down. The vet nurse took my dad to one side & gave him all of the info for local hydrotherapy. He lived a long & happy life with fortnightly hydro.

My dog was diagnosed with moderate hip dysplasia on one side just after his first birthday. It was discovered during investigations into another potential problem (which he turned out not to have). We were so worried at first but he's been mostly absolutely fine. He has previcox if needed but he's only had two occasions when we've given it to him (and one was when he had 'limber tail' which he could have had without hip dysplasia).

We took him to hydrotherapy for a few months, now he goes swimming several times a week and we get him to walk through water too . He's always been very lean (burns through calories at a rate of knots) and as he gets older we'll keep him that way. He has supplements (YuMove Active) and frequent servings of oily fish. He loves playing with his ball but we limit it to a few minutes at a time and alternate throwing it so it bounces high, which means he can catch it while cantering without screeching to a halt so it's easier on his joints, with hiding it in long grass and sending him off to find it. He does fun agility but only over very low jumps - I know he's not supposed to jump but he's not read the instructions and hurtles through the woods, throwing himself over fallen trees at high speed so we thought it would be good for him to be able to jump in a more controlled way.

He's just turned 4 and 99.9% of the time you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with him. He tends to throw himself into everything he does with huge enthusiasm so we're careful to make sure he doesn't overdo things so if he's had a very busy day then we'll give him a quieter day to follow.