Buster has HD(longish story and cple questions after)

[kingkong]

My just turned 10month old male rott has been wimpering a little when he rises up off the floor the past month or so finally the vet trip and xrays we went for today.

The Vet trip............

First off we arrive at the one and only vets on the island with an xray machine installed .

On arrival Buster is given a shot to sedate him while xrays are done.He is muzzled incase of biting. The shot kicks in and me and vet carry him from the examination table to the vet xray table. (this is where the fun starts). The vets assisant takes my end (head of dog) and removes muzzle from Buster (dog looks really stoned and out of it). Then while vet and assistant twist Buster into postion for xray he (Buster) rears his head up and bites the hand of assisant.

The assisant rolls about on floor in agony moaning and whining like he hand has been bit off(doesnt look that bad to me,bone cruncher though ). I am like SH*T this is going all wrong. He (assistant sits in a corner moaning away while vet frowns and starts strapping a lead jacket on me(I am the new assistant now)

I remuzzle my pooch and help flip him into position while xray is done.


Bottom line is he has HD in both hips .

Very mild in one hip and inbetween mild and terrible in the other.

Vet gives me 15 day pain killer course and 6 month course of some other pills that helps do somthing elsewith the hips them self.

I was told that he was very young and he may not need surgery,we have to go back in 3months for another check.

The vet had to dash off but assistant (recovered from pain now)said that after 5 days no exercise we should build him up and then do LOTS of exercise as that would benefit him more than no exercise.

Is this true about the exercise? Id have thought of dodgy hips then min exercise ?

Also the operation, i book him in for 10am op and then get him back late afternoon 5pm to take home. Each hip costs about 300 dollars. How does this compare to US? (price and procedure)?

Finally the vet book he showed me had an A B C D chart. (A) was perfect hip. (B) was mild HD. (C) was not good HD. and (D) was deffo needs operation.

My pooch has 1 hip B and 1 hip C . The vet reckons as his back legs look really strong and full of muscle then he may not need an op only time will tell.

Anyone agree on any that?

Thx the end.

[MOKASMOM]

This is true. He may not need surgery if you build up those back muscles. Hydrotherapy is a good start. Moka had a TPO surgery in July 2004 and costed me $2,400.00 for one hip. She had mild HD in the right leg. She has severe HD in the left leg and was required to have a Total Hip Replacement which would have costed me $4,500.00. I opted out of the Total Hip Replacement and started doing Hydrotherapy. Moka has gained muscle just after 4 visits at 20 minutes each time. It was also recommended in the summer to swim her and to go up and down hills. If you choose to go up and down hills it must be done very slow at first with very little minutes and in time to increase that. I have avoided the 2nd surgery so it can be done.

Good luck.

P.S. what kind of supplements where you given? You should be starting you pup with a glucosomine supplement now and will continue to give that to you pup for as long as he will live.

[kingkong]

The tablets i have are called .......

CONDROvet

contains........

Chondroitin sulphate ( this the box says is ....is a member of the glycosaminoglycan family. (mucopolysaccharides) 500mg

Vitamin E 18mg

Manganese sulphate 30mg

To be taken twice a day 2 in the moring and 1 1/2 in evening with food.

Its a joint ,cartilage booster.

No idea if its any good . Anyone know?


He just ate his first 2 pills hidden in a bit of cheese . Good lad

[asuecho]

My Rottweiler was diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia at the age of 6 months. We were given Rimadyl and some other tablet that smells like fish. We were told to limit the amount of excercise and that she would need complete hip replacements. Should we ignore vets advice and excercise her? She is now 1 yr and it doesn't seem too bad, but we are reluctant to walk her or run her too much, as we don't want to hurt her. We would love to be able to avoid surgery if possible.

Katrina

[Carol Burke]

First of all, to acurately diagnose hip dysplasia your vet needs to be pretty familiar with positioning and what a perfect hip looks like. Just slightly wrong in the position will give a false reading. I would get him on Glycoflex(you can order over the internet), and allow him normal exercise that he initiates. I would not force exercise on a dog that young. And swimming is great. I would not even consider surgery until you have at least one more opinion and a set of x-rays that you can have evaluated by OFA or an orthopedic vet. I see you are in the Canary Islands so maybe an orthopedic vet would not be available, but you could always send x-rays to the states.

Good luck with your guy.

[Tank's Grandma]

Is an orthopedic surgeon available to evaluate him? As others have said, proper x-rays are crucial. And with some of the surgeries, age and damage are critical. Supplements and teh right kind of exercise can do wonders if the HD is not severe.
Just wondering if he bit due to pain? Another indication his hips are hurting. Just a thought.

[kingkong]

The vet is the only qualified orthopedic surgeon on the island and i saw the xrays my self which he compared to many others from other dogs to show me.

The vet when taking the xray had the dog lying on his back balanced on his spine with me supporting his head and front while he pulled his back legs back and apart a bit . Kinda like if you was on a rack being stretched in medievil times if you get my meaning.

The xray was then initialised by a timer or by a foot pedal i cant quite remember remember .

The vet said for 1 milisecond the dog should yelp in pain and not to worry about that but he didnt make a sound. Then before he gave the dog another shot to bring him round he said we had to wait to see if the xray was good enough.

It was ok according to the vet and Buster then had he wakeup shot.

I hope i am not giving 2 much detail here. But that was that really.

The operation if worse came to worse would be done 1 hip at a time not both at same time.

The part of hip that slots into hip joint is cut down or trimmed to fit properly is the jist i got.

But this is worse case scenario of course.

One last thing ...does the breeder have a responsibility towards the medical bills or return of some of the purchase price of the puppy in the states if you find your dog has HD? The vet overhere is going to tell me my legal standing on this tommorrow with regards to coming to some sort if any sort of compromise with the breeder i got my dog from because i believe paying full price on a pedigree pooch then finding he has HD several months down the line is a bit of a crummy deal.

Not that the handsome devil wont get the best treatment i can give him mind.

[LavenderRott]

Having not had a dog with HD, I can't comment on that. I would just be repeating what I have learned over the years, mostly from this forum. LOL!

Laws in the States vary from State to State and I imagine that they are a bit different in the Canary Islands. I did want to say that a dog having a pedigree is not a guarantee for health. All a pedigree tells you is that all of the dogs in your pup's background are rottweilers. It will tell you if they are Champions and should, if I am not mistaken, have OFA certification numbers on it. But that is not a requirement, if memory serves.

[Tank's Grandma]

[quote=kingkong]The vet is the only qualified orthopedic surgeon on the island and i saw the xrays my self which he compared to many others from other dogs to show me.

The operation if worse came to worse would be done 1 hip at a time not both at same time. The part of hip that slots into hip joint is cut down or trimmed to fit properly is the jist i got.[quote]

Haven't heard of that particular type of surgery. My dog had a TPO, where they cut the pelvis in 3 places and reposition it so that the head of the femur sits properly. It was $2100 for one side.

His other side wasn't done, but he's doing quite well with supplements and exercise. And we keep him from doing things he shouldn't. Well, we try.
Good luck with your boy.

[Patty1231]

Originally Posted by kingkong

One last thing ...does the breeder have a responsibility towards the medical bills or return of some of the purchase price of the puppy in the states if you find your dog has HD? .

I believe this is stated in the breeder's contract, if offered. There is no guarantee that a dog will be free of HD. Most contracts, I think, leave the breeder a bit of a loop hole. If you buy a breed/show quality dog, they will replace the dog with another puppy (you have to return the one you have - like that's going to happen in 99% of the cases ), or they will sell you another dog at a reduced price, or they will refund to the price of a pet quality dog. Does your contract specify anything?

[kingkong]

Thanks for al the replys its been a bit of a hectic day and i am off to bed soon.

I should feel big time depressed and on a downer but my wife and i actually feel a kinda relief that we know whats going on and can try and take what steps are needed to give the dog best quality of life.

Sometimes its easy to bury your head in the sand and ignore the wimpers from your dog until the problems get to worse to treat.

The contract i had with the dog breeder was a 60day guarantee that i would get a replacment pup or refund if the dog was diognosed with a fatal illness or death from some disease.

Being a salesman myself i expect him (the breeder, salesman of puppys) to offer some sort of EVEN mild compromising compensation deal or ill be mildly annoyed to say the least.

Maybe i am being ignorant? Does the breeding world take it is a gamble when EVER anyone buys their dogs?

You might get lucky and have a 100% fit puppy or tough luck and you have all the heart and head aches of not picking the right pooch ? condemned to medication for all the dogs life or horrid operations

I have read since that upto 30 40% of ALL rottys get HD is this true?

If this is true then this is very poor odds in my book when considering buying an expensive pedigree puppy.

[poohbearsmom]

KK,

I have a dysplastic boy. We found out when he was around 7mos of age.

He is mild on the left - the ball joint is slightly flattened, and considered moderate HD on the right side - this is the side that in addition to a flattened ball, the socket is very shallow - about 1/2 the depth of the left hip socket. Sounds similar to your description.

My boy is supplemented with a glucosomine/chondroiten/msm pill, and he also gets ground flax seed and ester C. Occasionally, on really bad days, I'll slip him a coated baby aspirin to relieve his discomfort, but not often.

We allow him to exercise as much as he cares to. We do lot's of tug play, so he's not running around, but still getting a work out. We allow him to frolic with his mother, and, if there were a place we could swim him regularly without fear of water snakes and alligators, we'd do that too. Since you live on an island, I would think there would be beaches you could take him to swim.

It's important to keep the muscle mass as much as possible, as it helps hold the joint together.

You can find a lot of information on the 'net about CHD. It's definitely a bummer, I know. There are surgical options, there are options of supplementing as I do, there are adequan injections, and simply living with it as best you can.

I choose to allow my dog to be a dog and enjoy his life as much as possible.

Buying a puppy is ALWAYS a gamble... we can't see into the future. By buying pups from reputable breeders who screen their breeding stock for hereditary problems is always a plus, and pushes the odds in your favor, as a puppy buyer. Unfortunately, even good odds don't help sometimes.

If your breeder only gave you a 60 day guarantee, that's hardly long enough of a guarantee, as most orthopaedic problems don't show up until later in development. However, you agreed to it as the puppy buyer. In addition, CHD is a rampant problem in our breed, as with many large breeds.

Why don't you contact your breeder, as he/she will likely want to know the condition of your pup, as it is helpful to know these things for future breeding plans. In addition, I presume your breeder is in your general locale, and would know of facilities/vets that could be of more help to you.

Good luck with this.

[StmprKB]

Unfortunatly, I have three rotties that are either HD or ED. They were all diagnosed fairly early like your boy. You can "try" and get some money back, although, I wouldn't go to the bank with it! A few very important things I have learned in my road of dysplasia.

#1 My dogs are my dogs, I LOVE them just the same, and I would have NEVER given them back. (My opinion.)

#2 Weight control. Keep your dog very slim, less weight on the joints is better.

#3 Feed the best food you can feed, or feed RAW diet.

#4 Supplement NOW, with glucosamine/Chondroiton. My favorite/best mix is Glycoflex. It can be found on the internet very cheap. You can also look into giving him Vit C.

#5 Swimming, like Carol said, is awesome....be careful of exercise that will cause the joints to pound on each other, "running", "Jogging", are not easy on the joints, use the same principals of exercise for a human with bad joints.

My dogs are all currently living pain free lives.... they are 9, 8, and 8. They do go in for regular weight checks! And are on a stricter diet than their "mom"!

Unfortunatly, I have a male who is 7, with Cancer, who has no dysplasia, and he will pass to the bridge first, before my dysplastic dogs....

HD is not a death sentence, it is just a wake up call to keep your dog healthy and fit, to maintain his joints.

Kim

[kingkong]

Thx again for all the information gang. Excuse my bad spelling yesterday as my head was in a bit of a spin.

"#1 My dogs are my dogs, I LOVE them just the same, and I would have NEVER given them back. (My opinion.)" Posted by previous poster STMPRKB.

Me neither STMPRKB, after a couple of months with yer pooch you get bonded for life. Theres NO WAY i,d give him backEVEN if that was an option.

[LynnS]

I have a 2.5 yr old female with elbow dysplaisa and recently started her on 2000 mgs of Ester C a day after reading about some impressive articles on effectiveness . I have noticed a significant improvement - particularly after really strenous excercise. Prior to starting her on Ester C I would notice stiffness and slight limping the day after heavy excercise but not anymore...