Has anyone reading this had their pup with bad hips at 5/6 months? If so, what did you do?

Is the dog actually lame/in pain, as of course it's too young to be BVA scored, or is this a GP vets opinion, as so often they are wrong, and the reasons for lameness/pain is Pano, which resolves as the dog grows.

The dog isn't lame or in pain generally.   I took her to the vets with an infected ear.   My vet was on holiday and I had a locum.  I said that my vet thought she had one bad hip at 7 weeks so the locum checked her out by 'doing' the same test as my vet did. My pup winced and whined at both legs.  She said to do the BVA test at a year old.  I've got to go back in a weeks time and she said get my vet to manipulate her legs then.  I don't know what Pano is but I'll 'google' it now. Thank you for replying.

> Has anyone reading this had their pup with bad hips at 5/6 months? If so, what did you do?

My nephew and family, before I managed to get back to him with names of 'good breeders', managed to commit to a Choc.Lab who by the time he was around this age, was 'diagnosed' with bad hips and elbows.    He was operated on, both hips and one elbow by 8 months.   And yes, he was INSURED which was from a financial point of view, just as well.   But it left me thinking whether the vet would have rushed to do this surgery had he not been insured!!    And further, not only was this so distressing for his young family, the dog was never sound even after the surgery and didn't live as long as he should have, for the breed.

Bad choice of 'breeder' (at the time choc.Labs were being produced by BYBs because they were all the rage) and equally to me, bad choice of vet.

A puppy of 5 /6 months is very far from fully finished, and anything could happen between now and when he is more mature, with muscles to protect his bone and joints.   Unless of course, the puppy is in loads of pain (if this is Pano he will be for sure) when he will have to be treated differently in terms on maintenance right now.

I have to ask whether you have talked this through with whoever bred this puppy?   You should.

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_multi_panosteitis

This pup came from a byb/pf.  I too was already committed, though not really, but hoped for the best.  Thank you MamaBas for your answer.   I won't have her operated on.  You say the dog did not live as long as expected which makes what the breeder said on the day I collected her more suspicious.   I really was taken for a mug.

> I don't know what Pano is

http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/musculoskeletal/c_multi_panosteitis

"Panosteitis refers to a short-lived (self-limiting) and painful condition characterized by limping and lameness. It is a condition that affects the long bones in the legs of young dogs, usually between the ages of 5 to 18 months. It can occur with any breed, but it is more common in medium- to large-sized dog breeds."

It's often referred in layman's terms as 'Growing Pains'

Unless your vet is a specialist in orthopaedics I would ask for a referral to someone who is before you decide anything.

Has anyone reading this had their pup with bad hips at 5/6 months?

I havent but i know someone who had a lab which was assesed as having bad hips at around 8 months, for some unknown reason (my opinion was money.) its hips were xrayed at appx 9 months & owner was told it had no real hip formation then IMO thats far, far to young to draw such dramatic conclusions on a breed with which HD is endemic anyway.....anyway by the time it was around 20 months it was just a 'normal' lab with HD, which they all have to some degree or other......I have no idea what 'they' (vets?) mean by 'bad hips', hips on labs are no where near full formed at that age I would defy any vet to predict the futor growth integrety at that age, probably not on humans for that matter.....
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Unless your vet is a specialist in orthopaedics I would ask for a referral to someone who is before you decide anything

I agree with Cava, you are open to exploitation at the moment where you are.......I am not a lover of vets who deal 'mainly' in the small domestic pet market.
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If you buy a puppy from a BYB, so sorry but you have only yourself to blame.

> If you buy a puppy from a BYB, so sorry but you have only yourself to blame.

I think the majority of blame goes to the breeder itself. Yes it wasn't a good idea to buy from a BYB but the breeder itself has to take full responsibility for the bad decision to breed in the first place especially if no health tests were done at all. Buyer should have walked away but if the BYB hadn't bred in the first place there wouldn't be a problem.

Here is where the problem is.  The breeder specialises in only one breed.  If she had at least 5 different breeds the council would investigate.  She is Kennel Club registered and the dogs are pedigrees.  Whether she is an assured breeder would not necessarily be known either way as she can withhold her information on the Kennel Club website.  Her attitude to not doing health checks is that there are no guarantee that a pup would not develop a condition anyway.  Also she thinks some tests can harm dogs in the way they are pulled around while sedated.  My problem with her is that what she says in her advertisement is not true but it cannot be proved.
As regards vets I would not trust any of them. I had no need to use vets until I moved to this town and was shocked by their premises and attitudes.

Just looked at breeders advertisement for her new puppies and what she says now appears to be true.  She must have taken on board everything that was mentioned.

She is Kennel Club registered and the dogs are pedigrees.  Whether she is an assured breeder would not necessarily be known either way as she can withhold her information on the Kennel Club website.  Her attitude to not doing health checks is that there are no guarantee that a pup would not develop a condition anyway. 

She cannot be an AB if she does not hip score Labradors -the puppies could not be registered.

As regards vets I would not trust any of them. I had no need to use vets until I moved to this town and was shocked by their premises and attitudes.

Change vets. There are bad ones and there are wonderful ones -I'd trust mine with absolutely anything, but the one I had before was awful.

I would get a second opinion from a specialist. Mu lab has HD, not diagnosed until he was hip scored at 2.5 years old. He wasnt showing problems until he reached 4-5 years. Our vet wouldn't consider a replacement as he was then 'too old'. We didn't push for a second opinion. He has been on long term medication since then (he is now 10) during summer months he isn't too bad but in winter he struggles loads. Given the chance at a younger age we would have had him operated on as seeing then struggle is awful.

Lynneb
If you buy a puppy from a BYB, so sorry but you have only yourself to blame.

HP
So if no one buys from BYB what do you think would happen to unsold pups?
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> HP<br />So if no one buys from BYB what do you think would happen to unsold pups?

They would have to go into rescue (or be put to sleep), but you can bet the breeder would stop breeding if pups don't sell.

If no-one bought poorly bred and reared puppies, then the quality of dogs would vastly improve, not only from the exiting good breeders, but the others would have to up their game or stop breeding.

HP
So if no one buys from BYB what do you think would happen to unsold pups?

Unfortunately this is the big problem and people will always feel sorry for the pups and continue to fill the pockets of the BYB's.  We can but hope that they would end up being sold for less than they cost to produce or that they ended up being given to rescues to re-home. Either way it would impact on the BYB's pocket and with luck they would give it up as not profitable. I expect many would be left to die in horrible conditions as well, not a nice thought but then how many  breeding bitches end up this way now ? More to the point how many poor bitches have a life of misery churning out litter after litter to fund the next holiday or new car ? They eventually are of no more use and are cast aside without a care.
Have you a better option ?

Have you a better option ?

No, if the pups did not sell I think something's gruesome would happen, maybe bait or food for fighting dogs.
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> something's gruesome would happen, maybe bait or food for fighting dog

Perhaps, but it would end there, where at present the poor bitches go through hell litter after litter until something gruesome happens to them, or at best they end in rescue.

In the meantime a large proportion of the offspring end up in unsuitable homes (after all the greeder cares not who they sell to, or the future of the pups,  as long as they hand over the cash) and often eventually in rescue anyway.

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Sandra Gibbs says: We were told by the Vet that one of our dogs had hip dysplasia she was 10 months. We still exercised her but kept a good watch over to make sure she was not in agony.

Well,
For I got  my first lab I did a awful lot of research, breeders etc, traveled over 300 miles to meet the breeder in her home , trophies and rosettes everywhere as she was a well known shower in the dog show circuit(which I really am not a fan of dog shows) but she was well regarded in said circles, i saw mum with pups healthy clean lively etc, I made my choice, went back and picked her up at 8 weeks, 300 miles back home,  we took her strait to our vets to have her basic health check,... We'll she won't win any beauty prizes the vet informed me, well I have not brought her for the show ring, but what is the matter...... My little bundle of love had a massive undershot jaw,, I was concerned about if it would stop her eating normally... But the vet just said somedogs it may cause a problem, but she was a lab

pamper99, the breeder was obviously told this at her vets health check and also if she knew so much she would have noticed yet still found a mug.   Sorry to sound harsh but we are all taken for a ride.  If we had bought goods in a shop we would have gone to trading standards and also got a refund.

> had a massive undershot jaw

As many breeds have an undershot jaw as standard, then it's not a huge issue (unless your going to show and/or breed in breeds where a scissor bite is required) unless teeth are badly placed.

If it was really bad surely you would have noticed yourself when visiting and picking pup up, though the breeder should have mentioned it, or better put it in writing as in all the excitement with several visits you may well have missed her telling you, or they may have thought it was already mentioned, or not an issue in a purely pet pup.

Did the dog go on to have any issues?