Hip dysplasia in dogs..options?

J

jc100

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Ok so a while back I adopted 2 rescue dogs, puppies actually. Brother and sister and they are 7 months old. The little guy has had a bit of a limp and we always thought it was a play injury from his sister but xrays we just had done seem to show hip dysplasia. Bit of a shock for me as we thought the most it might be was pano or even HOD. Anyhow....he's perfectly normal right save for a strange gait and a bit of stiffness in his leg, apparently he has some inflammation in one knee too, we have metacam for that. I am getting vet advice and we're going to go for a consult with a surgeon too but I was wondering if anyone here had been in the same situation and wondered what you had done?

He's a golden retriever/bouvier cross, 50lbs right now and growing fast, absolutely beautiful dog. His sister seems fine, no hip problems but she has more bouvier than lab in her, she's stocky, he's kind of tall and gangly.

What about food? I can't get a concensus as to whether I should feed puppy food or adult food to him for this. Anyone know?

What ever he needs I'll find the cash to make it right but if it's surgery I would be willing to drive him to the states and stay a week there to get hm fixed. I've heard differences of $2500 for hip surgery in the US vs up to $10000 for Canada. Hard to get an idea of the actual cost I might be looking at, that's if he even needs surgery. His X rays show the femoral head is not fully in the hip socket on each side.

He plays normally, he's a bit lazy with walks sometimes but I guess we know why now, he's happy, he doesnt whine or anything when we touch his legs and hips.

Cheers.
 
I have 3 big boys, bullmastiffs. They were on adult food at 2 months so they grow slowly. Www.holisticblend.com is the best food you can give. Don't use metacam regularly it destroys their kidneys. Only use it for bad pain. Give him a glucosamine supplement like next level ( I use it for our horses too)
Watch him and keep him as lean as possible, more weight is bad for his hips, other than that he should be fine just adjust as you go and take it easy if he wants to rest. I wouldn't do surgery unless he is completely unable to function
 
sonnythebull said:
I have 3 big boys, bullmastiffs. They were on adult food at 2 months so they grow slowly. Www.holisticblend.com is the best food you can give. Don't use metacam regularly it destroys their kidneys. Only use it for bad pain. Give him a glucosamine supplement like next level ( I use it for our horses too)
Watch him and keep him as lean as possible, more weight is bad for his hips, other than that he should be fine just adjust as you go and take it easy if he wants to rest. I wouldn't do surgery unless he is completely unable to function
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Thank you. This is the kind of advice I was looking to get. He is a lean dog naturally, apart from the stiff legs problem he's in fantastic shape. He's not a food motivated dog. I have him on large breed puppy food right now and was worried about that so I'll switch him to something like the one you suggested. We had him on Fromm which is a good brand and he likes it but the gas.....holy crap he has bad gas on it....room clearing at times. I digress.

"Next level" is the name of the supplement? Is this from specialty stores?
 
jc100 said:
Thank you. This is the kind of advice I was looking to get. He is a lean dog naturally, apart from the stiff legs problem he's in fantastic shape. He's not a food motivated dog. I have him on large breed puppy food right now and was worried about that so I'll switch him to something like the one you suggested. We had him on Fromm which is a good brand and he likes it but the gas.....holy crap he has bad gas on it....room clearing at times. I digress.

"Next level" is the name of the supplement? Is this from specialty stores?
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You can solve the gas with beano, but holisticblend is not too bad for gas and 3 ,130 pound bullmastiffs are the worst farters usually. The slower you can get a dog to grow the better for their joints and don't run him too much until he is 12 to 18 months .

This is next level

http://greenhawk.com/wdItemDesc.asp?strilhID=Web&strmdNumber=SUV7697&stricSKU=SUV7697


You can buy it at www.greenhawk.com

they have locations everywhere
 
I have a co-worker that recently dealt with this with his growing Rottweiler puppy. He was pretty certain that surgery was their inevitable option, but after getting a second opinion it ended up not requiring surgery, and seems to have worked itself out.

I'll ask him for more specifics next time I see him.
 
infernobuster said:
Ignorant comment.

Look into pet insurance now for the dog.
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Well the way he was talking was the dog wouldn't be able to function so I said the best advice.

I really can't see pet insurance covering pre-existing conditions. I think that advice is pretty ignorant.

OP, if you really cared for this dog, or any other one, you would only feed him raw food or homemade. Commercial dog food is barely food.
 
imnothng said:
Well the way he was talking was the dog wouldn't be able to function so I said the best advice.

I really can't see pet insurance covering pre-existing conditions. I think that advice is pretty ignorant.

OP, if you really cared for this dog, or any other one, you would only feed him raw food or homemade. Commercial dog food is barely food.
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Wrong. Holisticblend is a great food, it's mostly sold in the organic section at supermarkets not even the pet food section..........99.9 percent of dog foods are crap but not all
 
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We looked into pet insurance for our two and what we decided to so was just put the money that the premium would have cost into a savings account and use that instead of insurance.
 
Bufferin also works well for pain and inflammation in dogs!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk
 
short stop said:
I have a co-worker that recently dealt with this with his growing Rottweiler puppy. He was pretty certain that surgery was their inevitable option, but after getting a second opinion it ended up not requiring surgery, and seems to have worked itself out.

I'll ask him for more specifics next time I see him.
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Yes please do...we're still a bit shocked that the little guy is only 7 months old with this potential diagnosis.
 
LiNK666 said:
I prefer you being put down rather than the dog. The dog is more useful to society.
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Lol, sorry I don't see the point I spending 10000$ on surgery for a dog that may or may not actually help. I hope that if I can't lead a quality life that my loved ones will be allowed to put me down legally.

Btw, I spent 1400$ on removing my dogs eye because she had a cataract in it that started swelling up. She is 10 years old and we are very attached to her. If she was 7 months old we would have done the same thing, but if it would have cost 10000$ it would not be a hard decision to put her down.
 
infernobuster said:
+100. Agreed.

Trying to get pet insurance so the dog can recover, is ignorant in what manner?
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It's ignorant because you're giving the op false hope. And it's ignorant because I like to be.

Quote from http://www.insuranceproviders.com/does-pet-insurance-cover-hip-dysplasia/

The pet insurance company may flatly refuse to cover any genetic conditions, like hip dysplasia. Other ones will provide coverage, but you must to add a rider to your policy for this condition. Before the insurance company will agree to cover the pet for hip dysplasia, it will need to know whether the pet is exhibiting signs of this condition or it has already been diagnosed with it.

You will also need to serve a waiting period after the policy has been issued before your pet is covered for dysplasia, so be sure to find out how long it will be before buying the policy. If your pet is diagnosed before this period expires, the company will consider it a pre-existing condition, and your pet will not be covered.
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