Severe Hip Dysplasia, 7 month old pup

[Flipperswims]

I have a seven month old female rottie. She was diagnosed yesterday by a orthopedic vet who says she has severe hip dysplasia. He wants to operate on her next Tuesday....this is what he says he is going to do: trim the ball part of "ball and socket". He will do one side first, wait for it to heal then do the other side. He also said we could do a hip replacement but she is too young for that. (still growing) And it was going to cost over 5000 dollars.

Does anyone out there know about this kind of surgery...removing bone from the ball. What is the recovery time.... does this kind of surgery work???

I live in Italy and my vet is Italian so its sometime difficult to get a clear answer.

[HUGGYBEAR]

Your vet wants to do a BILATERAL TPO

1. NORMAL HIP JOINT: The founded femoral head fits snugly into the acetabulum 2. MODERATE DYSPLASIA: The femoral head flattens, the femoral neck thickens, and the joint becomes loose and unstable. 3. SEVERE DYSPLASIA: The femoral head and acetabulum are riddled with arthritic degeneration. The femoral head is almost totaly dislocated. Surgical Options

If medical treatment doesn't sufficiently relieve your dog's discomfort, your veterinarian my suggest surgery. Depending on the dogs size, age, and arthritic condition, veterinarians usually recommend one of several surgical procedures, all requiring general anesthesia.

During a "hip-tightening" Triple Pelvic Osteotomy (TPO), the surgeon strategically snaps the dog's pelvis in three places and repositions it with metal plates so the acetabulum covers the femoral head more completely (making a tighter fit ball & socket joint) . Because this joint stabilizing procedure is designed to thwart the development of arthritis, veterinarians usually perform it on arthritis-free dogs aged 6 months to a year. Usually, veterinarians operate separately on each side, about 4 to 6 weeks apart. (Young dogs typically recover quickly.) Two less frequently performed hip-tightening surgeries--intertochanteric varus osteotomy and femoral neck lengthening--modify the femur to improve the ball-and -socket fit, or a total hip replacement, but that is generally on older dogs, with a confimed (adult) hip that makes for a good model for the Hip replacement, versus a puppy hip that is non-confirmed(not fully grown/growth plates) so it is not done on growing puppies

There are some stories such as this:
http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Ginohn/cetera/TPO.html
and this:
http://pero.tv/the_patient.htm
that paint a picture of full recovery for their dogs..........

The Surgery DOES work; and is VERY successful...I however, personally do not believe that a highly active dog can go back to 100% activity, Yes in the case of a simple house dog,that just participates in basic obedience, and advanced obedience.
I do not believe that an agility or schutzhund participating dog fully comes back with the ability to perform the same tasks (hitting the sleeve hard, making those jumps) without a risk or destabilizing the plates, or loosening/removing screws. You know; you can get a replacement hip, but you just cant re-create the synovial fluid, and bone made by nature.
They reccomended that I have a bilateral TPO for mild HD is sashas Right hip and i declined, prefering to keep her active, fit, and on a supplement.....This is simply because :
-upon talking to 3 different agility, and schutzhund trainers they said they have never had a dog to yet come back at 100% w/o being compramised by the surgery.
-I went and got a second and third opinion from a certified radiologist, and orthopedic surgeon who also reccomended that I : 1.) keep her fit 2.) Keep her active 3.) Keep her on a supplement for her joints.
HOWEVER sasha only had mild, and in her right hip and since then I have had no problems, she is active, she lost a couple of pounds, and she is on a good supplement (VETBALANCE), and so far, no pain, no stiffness after waking up, etc........
Since you have SEVERE I would reccomend this surgery since it cannot be counteracted by physical activity and supplemetation. You do need to prepare for her Post-Op care with things such as:
-a Kennel with the top taken off for her to be confined in, yet you can pick her up by her rear end to walk her.
-either a beach towel to towel walk her (towel placed under lower abdomen against rear legs for support as she walks outside. You MUST towel walk her when going outside or walking....
-Or a special contraption that you can keep/place around her rear end for walking: http://www.bottomsupleash.com/
It does take a couple of months for her to completely heal, and it is much harder on a puppy because they want to be very active.
-You will have daily meds, such as an antibiotic, a steroid, and pain meds....and there is a slight possiblity of a sytematic infection
-It is very time consuming if anything, walking every 4-6 hours, you have to bring everything to her and she will not like being confined........
-It is also expensive, about $1,000-$1,300 per hip
-You still need to put her on a supplement for her hips, and arthiritis may still develop down the road.
With all that being said You DO need the surgery, but get a second opinion still........be prepared for the time and money you need to put into this....and follow discharge instructions to a T...and know that you need to monitor her activity to make sure it doesnt get too strenuous and if you pursue agility and/or schutzhund you NEED to let your trainers know........Good Luck and I hope she recovers well!

[Flipperswims]

Thanks for the update. The dog does not have any arthritic degeneration at this time. She isn't very active because she is in pain. I do not plan to show her or do any agility training with her. She is simply a family pet....one of 4 Rottweilers. The breeder gave her to me because the first dog I bought from him was missing teeth...found that out during a show. Now I have another one of his pups and its still a bum dog. But perhaps I was meant to have her as dogs in her condition here in southern Italy don't fair too well. The surgery will cost about 500 Euros...about 600 dollars.

So if I understand you correctly the dog will be vertually unable to walk until she heals.
Is that correct. She has a kennel...and was trained in it.

[Sharon Marples]

Originally Posted by Flipperswims

The breeder gave her to me because the first dog I bought from him was missing teeth...found that out during a show. Now I have another one of his pups and its still a bum dog.

This person should never even be called a breeder! Missing teeth, dysplasia in such a young dog..........did he have any health testing done on the sire and dam to see how their hips were before breeding them? Do you know if any of the siblings of your puppy have dysplasia as well?

Good luck with your surgery, I hope that it can relieve her pain and give her good quality of life for as long as she is with you.

[jazzie23]

I am so sorry about your dog, I hope all goes well for you and she heals fast.

What kind of symptoms did your dog display before you found out she had hip dysplasia? Just wondering, I got a pup from not so good of a breeder as well.

[MOKASMOM]

Originally Posted by jazzie23

What kind of symptoms did your dog display before you found out she had hip dysplasia? Just wondering, I got a pup from not so good of a breeder as well.

Some of the signs Moka had was the bunny hop. Then she would whine everytime she would get up. It became harder and harder for her to get up. She was very slow. Wouldn't walk on slippery looking surface.

What area did your pup come from?

[jazzie23]

My brother flew her in from Laramie, Wyoming. Breeder bred a 8-9 year old deaf and blind female.

[Berner1]

Good Luck. Hope your friend recovers quickly. I wish these people that called themselves breeders would just realize how much pain they cause people, and how much the animals go through. They are not looking to better the breed, they are out for the money. Makes me angry. I always check out the OFA on the dogs and check the OFA sight to make sure nothing has been falsified. My thoughts are with you and your family, good luck.

[Tank's Grandma]

Huggybear,
he said his surgeon said he was going to

trim the ball part of "ball and socket".

which sound more to me like removing the ball of the femur and is not TPO surgery, it is Femoral Head Osteotomy. They are two completely different surgeries as you know. In TPO surgery, it is the pelvis which is cut and repositioned.
The OP should clarify with his ortho surgeon exactly what is being proposed.

[HUGGYBEAR]

Originally Posted by Tank's Grandma

Huggybear,
he said his surgeon said he was going to

which sound more to me like removing the ball of the femur and is not TPO surgery, it is Femoral Head Osteotomy. They are two completely different surgeries as you know. In TPO surgery, it is the pelvis which is cut and repositioned.
The OP should clarify with his ortho surgeon exactly what is being proposed.

The reason I concluded that he meant a Bilateral TPO is because usually a FHO (Femoral head ostectomy) works pretty well in dogs that weigh less than 35 to 50 lbs. and who are not obese. Most dogs that are less than 30 lbs. in body weight and are not overweight have use of the leg after femoral head ostectomy (FHO) that is nearly the same as normal use. With dogs above this weight (which the dog probably is), there is usually some reduction in function, most commonly seen as an inability to jump in and out of the car, or activities like that. Really big dogs, usually those over100 lbs. in body weight (which she will get to be maybe), sometimes have noticeable disability in the form of limping or weakness of the rear leg that has had the FHO procedure and they can sometimes become weak in their rear legs at an earlier age than one would expect from normal wear and tear arthritis formation. So I concluded that since the OP said that he didn't really understand his vet that he may have misinterpreted what he was describing to him since a FHO wouldnt really be feasible in a dog that is probably already over 35 lbs, and is destined to be betweeen 90-100 lbs. at maturity. So a TPO is the best sx option for him.........he does need to clarify what procedure is being performed with his orthopedic surgeon
-Also Clearly you need to stop purchasing dogs from this 'breeder' all you are doing is supporting him and encouraging him to keep pupming out low quality and faulted dogs.

[Tank's Grandma]

I understand all that, but OP is in Italy, so just wanted to make sure he was aware of the differences himself, since the info relayed from the surgeon was limited at best, and therefore he could ask the doc the right questions. And there are in fact, some surgeons who will do an FHO on larger dogs, feasible or not. I've seen it happen on a HD board I'm on.

[HUGGYBEAR]

Yeah, that's true......but he does need to ask exactly what he will be doing, TPO or FHO, the amount of time between surgeries. It sounds like he just gave him a quick 'i don't want to get too much in depth with this' explanation of what he was going to do. He does need to get a second opinion though from another orthopedic specialist.........and make sure he does have a clear answer and a clear understanding of what is being done.

[Flipperswims]

Good Morning....Buon Giorno, Thank you for all of your replies and suggestions.
First off the breeder was suppose to be a reputible breeder.... He has a website. Can't think of it right now. The first dog...was missing teeth and was disqualified at the int'l dog show in Bologna last year. The breeder was there and offered me another dog from his next litter. In March of this year he gave me the second dog. I saw the parents...etc etc....have the pedigrees but DNA testing was not done. I've written to the breeder to see what he has to say about this situation.

The pup...Karma, is 7 months old. She started limping about one and half months ago. I took her to the orthopedic specialist last week...previously we tried oral medications but she just got worse. Won't get up, lays down all day...doesn't play. Now she is wetting in the house usually on the stairs because it hurts her so much to get outside and can't move very fast. Karma doesn't weigh very much...probably around 50 lbs if that.

The surgeon said he was going to trim the ball. He said he would first do one hip...let the dog recover...about 6 weeks, then do the other one. I am going to the American base today and will talk to the American vet there and see if she will look over the xrays.

That's about all the news I have at this time.

[Tank's Grandma]

You can do searches on the web, for TPO surgery, FHO surgery and see what the differences are.
I don't know if your surgeon offers it, or if your dog's hips are still in condition to be a candidate, but the TPO surgery, if done in time, and you follow the recovery procedures, is really incredible.
My dog Tank, had severe dysplasia, and only one hip was repaired. Ask anyone who has seen this dog in action. You'd never know he had had surgery, let alone that he still had one uncorrected dysplastic hip. We also continue to supplement him with Cosequin, salmon oil and ester C.
Good luck to you and your dog.

[HUGGYBEAR]

Good; I am glad that you are going to get a second opinion! Get a third, a fourth and so on, until YOU are comfortable that your pup is in good hands and you have a good understanding of what is going to happen...........and as tanks' grandma suggested ask if she is a candidate for TPO surgery which is really a better option for Large Breed Dogs.
Good Luck and Good Recovery to you and your dog.