Canine Hip Dysplasia - urgent advice needed

Wellyboots6

I thought Tyson ate his tablets too, until his latest lot of antibiotics.

Thought he was taking them and was going to book him another appointment at the vets as his skin condition wasn't clearing.

Thought I would wash his bedding just to check it wasn't something in that making him itch. Found a nice pile of sucked tablets hidden under his bed!!

He is too clever for his own good!

Can't put them straight down his throat either as I would lose an arm!

krlyr

Antibiotics tend to have a bitter taste, I've been on some where even the smell of them has made me too nauseaus to swallow them! My GSD never had any problems taking her pills or supplements for her HD fortunately

wornoutmumoftwo

Maybe crushing them up with gravy and some biscuits?

Wellyboots6

Tablets are going down nicely hidden in cheese.

This is going to cost me a fortune!!

Going to get him some hydrotherapy sessions to see if that will help. Apparently my insurance company would pay for 12, so need to get on to them and check.

wornoutmumoftwo

A woman on my facebook page does hydrotherapy for her dog and swears by it, it builds up muscles so deff go for it.

Woody76

Hi

thought I would post and see if I could help. I am a qualified veterinary nurse so feel free to ask me any questions and pm me if you want.

Firstly always question the vets and do your research. Not all vets know everything and if you can afford it or pet is insured ask for a referral to specialist as that re what they are there for. Also you know your pet and if what the vet says feels wrong it prob is so ask for referral or second opinion.

HD is a condition that can be very mild or very pregressive and can depend on age of onset of symptoms. Can be controlled well with medication in mild cases but surgery is usually done on young dogs to resolve the issue of life long meds.

Alot of tablets esp long term meds such as analgesics (pain killers) now come in palatable form such as meaty flavours. May cost a little bit more but defo worth it as most dogs view them as sweets and beg for them so makes tablet giving very easy lol. Ask your vets. Also meds can be given in different forms such as liquid or paste so worth asking if you are struggling.

Please let me know if I can help further. Just stumbled on this thread but will be posting more now I know theses threads are here.

Woody xx

Wellyboots6

Thanks Woody

You wouldn't think anything was wrong with him this evening, he is being such a swine!!

Currently battling to put my living room back to how it was after he has gone on a rampage and re-arranged all my furniture, cushions, rugs etc!

I am also getting in trouble for not playing tug for hours on end. I must be such a bad mum, the amount of shouting at I am getting!

Its nice to see him back to his usual self after a few days of pain, but I really don't want him to overdo it and start the cycle off all over again. Trying to keep 37kg of dog quiet though is not an easy job!

gettingready

YOu now what? I just open Zara's mouth wide, chock 3 big tablets (Easter C) deep into her throat, keep her mouth shut till she swallows and sticks her tongue out (a sign that she did swallow) as nothing else works with my girl...

NO, it is not cruel.. it helps her..

But as I put on bio flow collar on her at the same time when I started her on Ester C - no idea which one is helping... still - something works and that is what matters

Wellyboots6

I tried that GR and nearly lost an arm!

He is the most lovable pup going, but you never ever try to force him to do anything! I think he was mistreated by his previous owner so he panics quite badly if he feels trapped or restrained.

Cheese seems to do the trick at the moment. Going to try some bread and peanut butter too, see if that works. He is pretty good at nibbling around the tablets and spitting them out though!

Laconic

Hip dysplasia is unfortunately a part of the canine gene pool: it's even known in wild wolves. Only racing-bred greyhounds are known to be HD free.

The cause of HD is a poor fit between femoral head and cup and this is 'set' by four months of age -- the PennHIP programme (alas, not available in the UK) has shown this to be stable and not changing with age, weight or use. It is this aspect that is highly hereditary and unfortunately, this is NOT measured when hips are tested conventionally.

What *is* measured, and what can be changed is the arthritic changes and remodelling that is caused by HD -- this is what you see in x-rays of hips in the legs extended position. It's a snapshot in time, an important snapshot, but one needs to understand its limitations. Not every dog with poorly-fitting hip joints will develop arthritic changes and the extent to which it does is variable. Naturally, it gets worse with age: a dog that gets its hips done at two years (which is typical) and looks okay then may be crippled by six, but produce puppies billed as 'health checked'. Breeders just don't have good tools to make much progress at the moment.

You can't do much about how well the hip joint is conformed, but you can do a lot for how arthritic your dog becomes. The single best thing you can do is FEED YOUR DOG LESS. High quality dog food for a puppy, particularly a large breed puppy is just needless joint stress. Unless you're running your pup around all day, then a super-nutritious, calorie-dense food is unnecessary and difficult to portion correctly. Your dog will grow just as big and much healthier if you keep it skinny until it's full grown. If you can't see the last three ribs, you need to feed it less. Ignorant people will stare, but your dog will thank you all its life.


More information on PennHIP and hip dysplasia generally: http://research.vet.upenn.edu/Default.aspx?alias=research.vet.upenn.edu/pennhip

Jemima Harrison (yes of Pedigree Dogs Exposed fame) has written a good non-technical article on the matter: http://research.vet.upenn.edu/Portals/29/PDFdocs/Jemima%20Harrison%20Feb%202010.pdf