Puppy with dysplasia - heartbroken

[Puppalicious]

My 10 month old puppy has just been diagnosed with hip dysplasia and grade 2 luxating patella (neither condition associated with her breed). I suspected, but it’s heartbreaking to have it confirmed. The vet says there might be a period where it’s not causing her pain, but I guess she’s never going to be able to run and jump is she? She’s very off colour this evening and is whining, could that be the after effects of sedation and limb manipulation? I gave her her first dose of pain killers tonight. Does anyone have any experience or how things might go for her?

Also we have slippy floors, how likely is this to have caused/worsened her position?

Condition, not position

We had a puppy who was crippled with this. We started to take him to a doggie swimming pool every few days then weekly. He lived to be 14 and only stopped running and jumping into old age. hope you find a solution

We were able to stop metacam when he was about 2 and he restarted it when he was 9. The vet was always shocked how bad his joints were on X-ray but he was so active. Swimming built up his muscles to do the work of his dodgy joints to put it in simple terms. Worth a Google and asking your vet about swimming

We had a cocker spaniel with luxating patellas, her hips were fine but her knees needed operations. The op was pretty tough and took some recovery but afterwards she was running around like nothing ever happened.

@AntiMaskersAreTwats , thanks for that. There is a canine hydrotherapy centre not too far from us so I’ll look into that. @MrsRubyMonday , the vet isn’t sure it will need surgery, we’re to keep an eye out to see if we notice further lameness. He said it was a much easier operation than a hip replacement so the latter must be really tough!

Have a look on the Canine Arthritis Management website. It’s not just about dogs that have arthritis, there’s lots of info re, management and prevention of damage to joints of dogs with conditions like HD.

Physio and Hydrotherapy are both good ideas to build strength and help support the joints.

It was a long while ago and treatment was pretty much non existent, certainly nothing in our budget. We had a 2 yr old rescue retriever and the vet told us that she had the worst dysplasia. He had ever seen and not to expect her to live much beyond the age of 6 because she would be in such pain she would need to be PTS.

We were very careful to limit the amount of jumping/running she could do but we did let her swim a lot. We would walk along the river and whereas the terriers would walk on the path she would swim all the way. We were very careful to keep her weight down - we kept her slightly underweight - and tended to drive to places where she could swim instead of walking the streets.

She had a wonderful life and died in her sleep at home in her basket at the age of 15.

This is not automatically a big thing( well it needs management) It may not alter your dogs ability to have a good life.

Dysplsia does not automatically mean arthritis.

Build up the dogs muslces and strength, see physio advice now and do the fun exercises regularly. Add in some hydro instead of a walk on some days and your dog can go on to have a good fun filled life.

Get them on a good supplemement Canine HA and Green lipped Muscle from Riaflex.

Slippery floors are horrendous for dogs and so some rugs or runners would be a good idea to stop the hip and knees from slipping out of position.

Agree about weight that will be one of the biggest impacts on her health and prognosis. However a thinner lab is a much healthier lab.

It is quite common to see these issues at about 9 months and then they appear again at 7 or 8 years of age BUT if you have taken action now then there will be no reason for them to reappear.

I can imagine the shock but this need not be a change in life style for your dog just put in some management now.

Thanks all, some of those stories are really reassuring. Looks like swimming/hydrotherapy is the way to go. She’s not a big fan of swimming (she has a lot of hair to weigh her down) but hopefully she could grow to like it! She’s slim at the moment, so we just need to keep her that way.

My dog was diagnosed at 5 months, then elbow dysplasia at 8 months. Dodgy litter, most were affected. He is now nearly 8yrs, had an op for his elbows but not hips. It’s not stopped him doing much. Long walks, he would vault sofas if allowed. It does depend on degree of dysplasia of course. Things that help - staying lean (just the thin side of perfect), supplements like glucosamine, omega 3, MSM, chondroitin, hydrotherapy for building up muscle to support joints - also physio. And, keeping lean - again, prob most important thing.
Slippy floors are a no no for young pups, as are climbing up and down stairs, long walks and throw and fetch games which involve fast turning. That said, it is an inherited condition - I was paranoid about all these things and our pup still had it.

I can sympathise with how you are feeling (I started a thread earlier as my puppy has just had treatment for elbow dysplasia).

It's great to hear stories from those whose dogs enjoyed a full and happy life with these sorts of conditions.

I knew about climbing stairs, but we have slippy floors, we take our pup on the odd longer walk (she's a 5 month old working cocker and has once or twice been out walking for 1.5 hours - that would be her only walk of the day though, normally its 2 x 20-30 minutes which the vet said was fine) and we dont do a lot of fetch games but she does do fast turning because we are teaching her to recall - im really not sure how to teach her recall in all different scenarios (around other dogs, around people etc) when she's not looking directly at us if we need to avoid fast turning. God its a minefield.

Ddog had both patellas dislocated, and at a very old age we found out one of her hips had completely dislocated as well. She still chose to weight bear on her dislocated hip, as it hurt less than her opposite knee that had been operated upon and became overly inflamed.

Frankly, for Ddog it wasn't the patellas and hips that were the problem, it was the arthritis that came after, formally diagnosed as Immuno-mediated Poly-arthritis: willows.uk.net/specialist-services/pet-health-information/orthopaedics/immune-mediated-polyarthritis-in-dogs/

We lost so much time and early treatment being fobbed off by vets who had never dealt with such a severe case, frankly. Years. So my main advice for you would be making sure your vet is capable of treating your ddog. Don't be afraid to ask if she needs an orthopedist, and if in doubt, ask for a second or third opinion.

(The x-ray is ddog's, by the way. I have several of various parts of her body showing the polyarthritis).

Wow @InTropicalTrumpsLand , those legs are pretty far out. Here’s my dogs x ray. The hip on the right looks like it’s totally out of the socket.

It was completely out, @Puppalicious. That particular orthopedic vet asked us for 12 X-rays and not a single one came clear. I was gutted when I saw the pictures, and absolutely furious at the amount of vets who fobbed us off with 'oh, it's just age'.

I'm also amazed at the picture clarity of yours - was your dog sedated? Mine was merely immobilized, as is the standard over here, and naturally there was some movement.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that ddog attended physioteraphy and it made a massive difference. She went from being bed bound to being able to stand and move on her own, so I'd definitely recommend it. Insurance doesn't exist over here so it was very pricy, but your dog might also not need it as often as ddog did (initially 2x weekly!).

Also, I can't help but be curious: what breed is your ddog? Mine was a Lhasa Apso, not particularly known for orthopedic issues either.

From the look of that xray and the uneven-ness, I would assume that's probably an injury when quite young. Is the luxation uneven too, or standard across both?

@InTropicalTrumpsLand , yes she as sedated, I thought they had to be to manipulate the limbs properly. She was a little sore after I think - I certainly haven’t seen any change from the painkillers. She’s a rough collie - vet says she has the worst hips he’s seen on a collie so the breed definitely isn’t known for it.

@Whitney168 , what do you mean by an injury? A trauma that would have knocked the hip out? I was wondering that myself - I mean the ball looks like it fits in the socket so I don’t know why it’s been pushed out. The luxating patella is worse on the right leg apparently.

My springer has this in both knees and has had 1 operation at age 1..and will get the other done next year....his was grade2 knee oneside. i would keep a close eye...our specialist thinks if the repair takes he should be like a new dog next year! The concern was the impact on the cruciate/ligaments of the dislocating knee and they did find some....
If you have a good specialist they can look out for that

We unlucky none of his siblings/parents any issues. Thank goodness for insurance

My 9 month lab puppy has just seen the vet and they suspect hip dysplasia and said she may need a hip replacement. Gutted. They won’t X-ray her until she is 1 year though. He recommended minimal exercise but sounds like swimming is the best thing. I just need to find a spot I can drive too and get her in the water without too much walking being involved. She is the sweetest dog I’ve ever met and I’m gutted for her. Some positive stories on this thread though so I’m a bit more hopeful!

[quote Puppalicious]@Whitney168 , what do you mean by an injury? A trauma that would have knocked the hip out? I was wondering that myself - I mean the ball looks like it fits in the socket so I don’t know why it’s been pushed out. The luxating patella is worse on the right leg apparently.[/quote]
Just that hips are generally (not always, I accept) relatively 'even' genetically, or when affected by excessive exercise at a young age - so when one looks so bad I would suspect there would be an environmental influence.

sounds like swimming is the best thing. I just need to find a spot I can drive too and get her in the water without too much walking being involved

Don't mean this snarkily, although it sounds it no matter how I word it LOL, so please don't take as such - when people recommend swimming for therapy, they are talking about controlled exercise in a heated pool, overseen by a trained therapist - not in a cold pond.

You’re right it does sound snarky .

I do understand that hydrotherapy would be the ideal but not everyone can afford to do that, especially as it’s not be diagnosed yet. The vet just suspects, so no way to claim on insurance yet.

So from my point of view while we wait until she’s a year old and can have x rays surely short sessions swimming with minimum walking is a better way to build muscle than going for short on lead walks. I know the water is cold but it would only be for a few minutes at a time and not up and down steep banks. I don’t think cold water prevents muscle formation.

No, honestly, don't mean it grottily, it's a bloody expensive old game I know - I just wonder whether it would do more harm than good when weather is cold. I'd probably stick to gentle road walking instead.

Almost a week on, can I ask those who managed hip dysplasia without an operation, is it managed exercise for life? I mean, I know she won’t be doing agility, but is it realistic to think she’ll be fit to do one hour off leash weekend walks at any stage or be out with us all day (interspersed with cafe stops) or that I can relax and let her play with other dogs? Or that she can go for one hour outings with the dog walker? The managed exercise could be trying…used to love our relaxed off lead strolls! She never strayed too far from me, but meant she could have a sniff and I could have a good brisk walk.