My mum has a 7 month old puppy who has just been diagnosed with hip dysplasia.  He is going for an xray tomorrow to confirm this.  The vet said that when his muscles strengthen and arithritis sets in then he will be in less pain.  What do you all think - anyone got any experience of this in a young dog?  We have also been told by someone that their dog had this as a pup, and is perfectly fine now! (I didn't think you could recover from it but I am no expert).

The problem is that he is in a lot of pain at the moment and even though he is on painkillers he is still snapping if anyone knocks his legs.  Will this get better does anyone know.  We are on tenterhooks the whole time if any of the children are at my Mums house and we have discussed having him PTS.  He is a lovely dog apart from this and it would break all our hearts to have to do this, but to have him suffer a lot of pain that will not get better (besides risk of him actually biting anyone) is as bad. Mum did use to take him up the school because he loves the children, but obviously can't now and he is restricted to on lead exercise at the moment.  It is such a shame.  Does anyone have any advise on whether there could be a good outcome or not.

Thanks, Fiona

hi HD is not a death sentance, swimming can help alot or in bad cases there are ops that really help. it depends on each indiviual case. best do a search on it,its been disscussed extensivley on here

Hi Fiona,

I can only relate to my old GSD that I used to have. We got him when he was 18 months and I didn't like the look of his gait, or the way he used to squeal after too much excercise. He was diagnosed with HD and put on pain killers. We were also told to keep him lean and trim because too much weight obviously exacerbates the condition.

He was in quite a lot of pain when he was younger despite all of the usual precautions, BUT, he did seem to improve on the pain front as he got older. We used to give vitamin C when he was particularly bad as I was told by the vet that this can reduce inflammation in the joints. Also, I seem to remember that we were told not to make his diet too high in calcium and protein as it also exacerbates the condition. It is vital that you control rapid growth, seeing as he is so young as this also doesn't help.

They may offer you a surgical solution if his pain is this bad, but you must weigh up all the pros and cons before going ahead and arm yourself with as much information about this debilitating desease as possible. My old boy ended up with a cart on wheels for his back legs as he got older as this was our only option for his mobility. But he lived a happy life and died of kidney failure at a good age.

Good Luck, I hope this helps.

Hi, thank you both for your help.  I will do a search and I will pass your comments to my Mum.

Regards

Fiona

Hi Fiona

I have a 14 month old Golden Retriever who was diagnosed with HD when he was 6 months.  He had no socket at all on his right hip he was on pain killers etc then the vet suggested an operation.  I am so glad we decided to go ahead with it to look at him now running around playing with his friends you would never think he had ever had a problem. It was hard at first straight after the op watching him in pain and trying to keep him still and rested (never easy with a pup never mind one as stubborn as Bailey) but well worth the struggle. 

I am no expert either but can tell you about my experiences if that would help, feel free to contact me.

I hope everything works out for you
Thinking of you all

Hi BaileysMum, thanks for your reply.  Mums dog is at the vets being xrayed as we speak.  He does seem a lot better this week, but will have to wait to see what the vet says.  We have been told by (and I have done a search on here) that some dogs just 'grow out of it'.  This is maybe what the vet meant when he said the muscles develop and arthritis sets in!  However, my sister has discovered that hip dysplasia can often be misdiagnosed in puppies of this age, even showing up as grey areas on the xray, but in fact it is a condition called Panosteitis (inflammation of bone marrow), which the dog grows out of by 18 months.

Another thing I was wondering about (but as yours had the op you probably don't know) - the vet said that Mums dog will need to be walked 2 hours each day to build the muscles up, whereas on past posts about this people have said gentle, short walks.  I wonder whether this difference is due to the pain the dog might feel, or some other reason.

thanks again,

Fiona

Fiona

As far as the walking is concerned before the operation I was told as liitle as possible a couple of five min walks a day on the lead only.  The vet sais that the bones in his hip were just pounding together and causing discomfort so to keep him as rested as possible.  Even with his limp it was impossible to keep him still but we tried our best.  But we did know that he was going to have an operation so that may have been a factor in the vet saying as little excersise as possible.  Now that the muscle and tissue has built up after the operation Bailey doesn't seem in any discomfort at all he bounds and jumps around like any other dog. 

I hope your mum's dog does grow out of it, when i saw Baileys X-ray i could clearly see that the hip had hardly developed at all on the right side so the vet said his best chance of a pain free life was an operation. 

Hope it all goes ok at the vets and that I have been of some help, again let me know if you have anymore questions i can only tell you about my experience but it may help.