Oscar was diagnosed with HD at about 8 months of age. He's on Synoquin supplements and we have controlled his exercise and diet and he seems to have been doing well. We were told that by 18months to 2 years Oscar would be as fit as any dog and could be exercised as normal but things seem to have taken a turn for the worse (he's 22 months). He's back at the vets tomorrow for Xrays as they've told me he is now in alot of pain. :( He's going to be starting hydrotherapy and injections (can't remember the name) once a week for 4 weeks, repeated every 6 months. They also think he may have to have surgery although he's too old for one op that's available. I feel terrible, I hate to see Oscar hobble around, and the vet just kept saying "he's in alot of pain"
:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(
Has anybody's dog had an op for HD? What was it and was it successful? Help...... :(
Rachel

sorry to hear about Oscar hope all goes well at the vets ..what breed is he ?

Thanks Inca
He's a liver&white English Springer Spaniel.

sounds like you want to do all you can for him .. I don't know much about the ops they can do but i expect you will do all you can for him ...

The operations for hip replacement is as successful in dogs as it is in people perhaps even more so. Depending of the size of the dog the hip joint is replaces or removed altogether to relieve the pain.

That sounds encouraging, thanks Jackie. I've just been looking up the ops available and it seems that all is not lost. I'm just so glad he's insured so he can have whatever treatment he needs. He's in his bed at the moment looking thoroughly fed up. The kids are playing in the graden and he's desperate to join them but he's not allowed!

Hi, (sorry its long)

I had a Newfoundland years ago that was the 1st dog to have the Triplepelvic osteotomy  and 1st for this country it was devloped at Cambridge Univirsity (CAMVET) and was performed by Mr Jonn
Houlton the video was sent to surgeons in other countries to learn by it, I believe he is now the chief Scrutineer for elbow scoring.Cambridge remains the best for this kind of specialist Ortopaedic surgery in Europe along with their cancer treatments.
Ben our Newfie was operated on at 8 months old nursing after care was hard work,
but the operations were sucessful both hips needing to be done.
This was a dog that had virtually no hipsockets and could hardly walk,it was his only option or we put him to sleep he was that bad.
He recovered well and to see him run was truly amazing,however its not an operation option for every dog and I don't whether I would put another dog through this kind of op again it would need serious thought Ben was in alot of pain following the op despite massive doses of painkillers prescribed by Cambridge we questioned what we had done to him.
Thre is more than type of surgery there is another that just involves cutting off the head of the femur and reattached to hipsockest by clever moulding I know he has done this with older dogs and another is just to cut the ligaments and tightened then to hold the head of femur in place more securely.Obviously despite any surgery these dogs still go on to have some degree of arthitis but it does provide the dogs some pain relief and many cases to go and lead reasonbly active lives.
I think at that time it cost £1100-£1500 per hip and luckily he was insured.

Its so important to get HD properly diagnosed,I had a Goldie that went lame following trauma of left hip the local vet at the time told me she had chronic HD.
I disagreed told him she received trauma and I was expecting a higher hipscore on that side he was all for operating on her there and then and when I firmly said no
and wanted to wait and have her scored.I rested her for 13 weeks  gave her anti inflammories thia dog came back sound she was eventually hipscored and produced a score 7:36 and has been sound ever since done well in the showring and certainly flows around the ring.
Some dogs can go slightly lame from 4 months due to rapid growth and the owner take down to the vets and some will say your dogs probably got a degree of HD which is not necessarily true.Myoldest dog when lame back end 5 months despite restricted exercise careful diet came back sound at 6 months and has good hipscore,but I did worry like most owners but ir just his growth plates and
everything settled.Always get a second opinion my Newfie had 3 opinions all contradicting advice the 3rd told us to seek specialist in the field which was CAMVET.

Good luck and I hope all goes well for your dog:-)

Briony :-)

Hi,

You can also self refer yourself to Camvet, although it helps if you have your own vets letter as well.
I persuaded my vet to write aletter for the latest treatments for cancer with as it happens it was the bitch that hip trauma ,they gave her 6-9 month to live but with CAMVETS  help with radiation Camvet have completely cured her of a grade 2 Mast Cell Tumour.

Briony:-)

Thank you Briony for your reply. :)
I'm glad that your dogs have responded so well to their treatments. Oscar was Xrayed as a pup and the results sent to an expert (in Bristol I think - don't have a name) and that's where they're being sent again this time. I'll have to look into it a bit more. I'll let you know how he gets on tomorrow.

Thanks all! :)

Just wanted to let you know that Oscar is back from the vets and it's good news - kind of! :)
His hip joints are much the same as they were at 8 months so he's just having a bad flare up. He's got to carry on with the Synoquin, and have Metacam daily for 3 months, and he's started weekly injections (cortisan or something like that) to be repeated in 6 months (he cried like a baby when he had that :( ) and he's been referred for hydrotherapy too. No walks at all for a week, then 5 minutes a day and slowly build him up again like we did before. He wont be able to come camping with us this month though as the vet feels this would put him back. :( At least we can get him fit and strong again. :)

Rachel

Hi,

Thats great news and at least hopefully he won't need surgery:-)

Briony:-)

My GSD was diagnosed HD 3months ago, her hip ball was small for the socket and kept slipping out of place, she has been on pain killers up untill last week, she is having Hydrotherapy once a week and swimming in the deep river a couple of times a week, she is having gloucosamine condroiton extra strength twice daily and is back to her usual self, no pain enjoying her walks and my hubby said how much stronger she is, her coat is superb and she is very happy, no lameness and doing very well.

My last GSD had two total hip replacements. Each op a year apart. Rarely do both hips have to be done, more often one is enough. Surgery was fantastic, in in the morning, home by teatime. Recovery period was 10 weeks, but she could do things after that surgery she could never ever do in her life before. It was the best money we ever spent. It seems an overwhelming op, but truly isn't. Needs to be done by a specialist, I can't stress that enough. Ours was done by Gary Clayton-Jones, (chief scrutineer for BVA scheme).

Let me know if you want any more info on our experience with it, you can also e-mail me direct if you like.

Katrina

Hi Woodsford,
I'm glad to hear your GSD has responded so well to treatment. How old is she?
Katrina, I'm really interested in this option, I'll email you, thanks :)

HI,

CAMVET (Cambridge Univirsity Vetinary Trust)have a website and are the leaders in Orthopaedic sugery in Europe for dogs and horses  you can't get more qualified than these specialist vets surgeons .Nearly all latest surgical techniques within Europe were developed here.They achieve excellent results and offer the very latest of treatments sometimes not available else where in the Uk or indeed Europe.

Briony:-)

Hi,

Sorry ignore the above post I thought you were still after surgery as an option.
I'm very passionate in what Cambridge is able offer in terms of orhopaedic dog surgery and animal cancers.It may be able to help someone else:-)

HI my gsd is four and a half yrs and I did agility with her, so it came as a bit of a shock to be told of her HD, I do a 90mile round trip to take her to the hydrotherapy pool but I think it has been well worth it, I do know that a new pool will soon be opening 15miles from me so she may be able to go a bit more often. I am sure she will do agility again but only any size jumping where the jumps are low, shame really as she was just showing how good she was at agility. I have a year old westie who started training last week and seems to have enjoyed it.

Hi
My bullmastiff pup went lame yesturday. Her back left leg seeemed to be hurting her and she was limping very bad. She is still limping today and finds it hard to stand up using that, after she is up she is very stiff few about 10 steps and then can bend again but still limps. she has spent a lot of today laying down only getting up to go to the toilet, she did try and play with our other dog earlier but decided against it and went back to bed. She is 14 weeks old.
I took her to the vet today and he fely her leg, he said that all seemed ok and that her hip joint didn't feel overly worring but if she is no better by Thursday he wants her back for Xrays and if she worsens before then to take her back. He thinks that maybe she has soft tissue damage but cannot rule out something more worring.

Although she seems to be in pain she hasn't cryed or wimpered at all. I am worried about HD, as a lot of you have had experience of HD would you say that it sounds like HD or do you think that she has just hurt herself?

Thanks Debbie

PS. I hope that Oscar is feeling better soon XXX

Sorry to hear about your pup Debbie :(
I really wouldn't like to say either way. I think I would ask for Xrays to be done - then you'll know what you're dealing with and will hopefully have your mind put at rest.
Good luck Debbie :)
Oscar is much much better but driving us all potty as he is so desperate for a run. He can't start swimming until after next week as the lady that runs the pool is away so I really don't know what to do with all his Springer energy! We'll be back at the vets on Friday and I'm going to ask about hip replacement for him (thanks Katrina :) ).