Hi guys
Badly in need of some expert advice, sadly our two year old girl has got such bad hips the vets are telling us to keep her lean, and not let her insurence lapse as she will need a total hip replacement when she gets older, is that normal I would of thought younger the better,

Now one of the things that has bugged the hell out of me is from 6 months old I have been telling the various different vets at our practice that something was terrribly not right with her hips, the way she sits, she has no muscle on her back legs worth mentioning,etc but each one of them (one of which was the resident ortho expert)said it nothing to worry about,

We bit the bulletin and had her xrayed friday(as orinally we were going to do wen she was spayed, but a ongoing phantom and a couple of crisis's with our other 15 plus years old dog have been going through we have put it off, )

But we felt we really wanted some answers and booked her in as vet said her hips were giving her some pain,

Personally would ask for referral to good orthopaedic consultant and discuss options with him. Would think sooner rather than later would be best in order to maximise potential for recovery

> have been telling the various different vets at our practice that something was terrribly not right with her hips, the way she sits, she has no muscle on her back legs worth mentioning,etc but each one of them (one of which was the resident ortho expert)said it nothing to worry about,<br />

Why on earth don't you have her hip scored, the BCA fee is the lest of the cost, it's the vets charges for the xrays that are the costly bit. 

Then you'll know, and certainly her breeder needs to be informed if her hips are bad, in case they are breeding from littermates or the parent in similar combinations.

Never any thort of breeding from her, she in my view is not 100% lab, she came with no papers, one of these sites that pop up pretending to be breeders, but at the time I was struggling with the loss of my soul lab and against better judgement bought her, she will be spayed wen she stops having phatoum pregnancys as I said,
I have not been with current vet very long as our trusted vet retired,
But we have got her well insured but I am troubled by the vet saying when she is older before any treatment

Depending on where you live, I'd be asking for a referral to Noel Fitzpatrick.   At least to discuss your options.    I'd not rush into this, necessarily - although your bitch is older, my nephew bought a chocolate lab. some years ago now (before I could get back to him with some 'names') and ended up having both hips and one elbow operated on when he was only 8 months.   He was insured but not only was it very hard keeping him quiet through the recovery he was too young to go ahead with the surgery and it wasn't as successful as hoped.

I'm not sure about having her spayed when she 'stops having phantom pregnancies' ....... in more cases once a bitch starts having these, they probably going into this after every season until spayed.   Something else to think about re surgery on this poor girl.   For sure these breeders need to be told re the hip situation (and anybody who produces a litter becomes 'a breeder').

Hip scores aren't just for dogs that are to be bred.  If her hips are bad, then the information from the score will be important to her breeders.

I'd be inclined to go sooner rather than later too - if she's already in a bad way, I don't see the sense in leaving it too long as she'll most likely be in pain.  I've known a GSD have a hip replacement at 15 months old and although it was hard going keeping him quiet, it was by far the best thing for him and he was much happier for it.  I think he'll have had the other hip done by now too (he'll be around 4 now).

I'm glad general consensus is as I assumed it would be, the sooner the better, I will ring Monday and enquiry about a referral letter, vet just left us with metacam and perhaps hydro,suggestion, again I have asked them about that various times and they just shrug Their shoulders,
Has anyone on here have any experience of the vet hsp in Liverpool?  for orthopaedics?

The so called breeder disappeared of the face of the earth the one I was scammed was  Pets4homeuk so avoid is my advice, I really should of known better,
Her first season at 11 months she showed very subtle indication of , it was the vet who said she is still producing milk 4 months after, her second season was in September so spay was going to be late Dec Jan time , I was concerned that her nipples again were still very prominent and asked vet again, this one just said some bitches are just built like that

Once a bitch has a season, her teats will be more pronounced than when she was just a puppy.   She's now all grown up!   It's up to you but I'd concentrate on getting any pain she's in re her hips under control before you do anything.   The trouble with bad hips is the risk of arthritis developing.   Metacam would be the medication of choice, but although my lad is on it, and probably for the rest of his days it does have side effects when used long-term.   Can't help you with the vet in Liverpool I'm afraid.    And for sure, it's worth investigating the possibility of a hydrotherapy pool which would provide gentle exercise - also maybe acupuncture.

Hi thanks for that, all my other bitches were very strait forward lol, but this Gracie has issues a plenty,as well as her hips, nips, anal glands too, poor girl,
I have had fgood results with acupuncture with my old girl who had spondylosis,, but alas my vet who did that has retired ,so I will have to look around to see if there any other who offer it as a option, my old girls kidneys could not Handel the standard meds ,but got some relief from the weekly sessions,, and some herbal remedys which helped her too,
Current vet just said she didn't want to do a spay whilst still producing some milk, another month or two and she ll be comin into season again possibly, but as you say the main issue is to get a expert to  give me abit more to go on other than keep her lean and don't let the insurerance lapse,
Metacam she is on just once a day for now, but i know that long term  that might always not be the case in regard to side effects,

> Never any thort of breeding from her

My reasons for saying get her actually scored is so you can tell the breeder, so they change their breeding policies (one would hope) as you really don't want them to breed more dysplastic pups.

I certainly didn't think you were contemplating from breeding from a clinical dysplastic.

As for not 100% lab, my friend has a KC registered working bred girl who has an illustrious field pedigree full of winners, and everyone asks her if she is a cross, usually with Whippet/greyhound.

I would dearly love to tell the crook(breeder) but she disappeared from the rented farm house they were wen we viewed the pups, they saw a soft touch when they saw it,I was so heartbroken after losing my bestest girl, but so much more importantly her lifelong partner in crime had gone downhill so fast we hoped Grace would pep him up  abit, but still more of that problem later.

I was told by our vets that high percentage of pups from this part of the world had giardia and that took a while for her to get over, so I tried contacting (seller) after the first week,as Grace wasn't doing so well, (was never in any doubt that we wanted our money back500 pounds, more over to let them know the litter mates probably had it too, and if she wanted to pay for the first lot of bills, a little over £50 as a good will guesture on her part.... but as I said she had up sticks and moved on , mobile dead etc.

I think Grace has a bit of border collie in her bloodline, her head is very slight compared to my other girls, and the hair on her tummy leg area is far longer than a purebred lab,   Plus the fact she is a wuss with swimming or even muddy puddles, surely that confirms it lol

> Has anyone on here have any experience of the vet hsp in Liverpool?  for orthopaedics?

I don't have experience of that area but I have been to Liverpool several times with different problems and they are excellent.

Thank you Nikita, good to know

A friends rescue GSP had dreadful hip and I recommended Rutland referrals in St. Helens The dog had Total Hip Replacement, all went well and dog has whole new lease of life. Happy to recommend http://www.rutlandreferrals.com/orthopaedic_referrals.html

Our lab has had problems with his elbows and then his knee since he was a puppy. I would definitely second what others have said and have a referral to an orthopaedic specialist, it was the best thing we did ! From one of his many sets of xrays the vets diagnosed him with severe hip dysplasia (to match his elbow dysplasia) so referred us to a specialist ....... following a consultation with the specialist, who was baffled, there was nothing wrong with his hips but he noticed something with his knee and our boy was diagnosed with cruciate ligament disease. He even added out of all the dogs he sees if he were to buy a dog based on just hip xrays he would of brought our lab !