Our gorgeous 8mth old IRWS has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia in both hips :(

[emma bell]

After noticing a couple of weeks ago that Poppy was holding her right leg and having periods of lameness, we took her to the vets. The first vet we saw - our usual vet was on holiday - said to have her on Metacam for a week as she thought it was muscle strain. At the time, I said that I would prefer to have her x-rayed as her hips weren't symmetrical and I suspected she was suffering from CDH - I explained that my eldest daughter suffers from the same thing and the symptoms were similar. She rotated the hips, not to a great degree and thought I was been over cautious.

A week later and she was still the same so I booked an appointment to have her seen by my usual vet today. As soon as he rotated her left hip, you heard it 'clunking' in and out of joint. The other hip couldn't even be rotated to that extexnt because it was too painful for her. When I saw the x-rays, it was like looking at my daughter's hips!

He memtioned about building up the muscle with hydro but I said I want her to have a triple pelvic osteotomy, as this is the best way of making sure she has as normal a doggy life as the other dogs.

She's booked in for next Friday for the op but I don't know whether to get her referred to Noel Fitzpatrick - the 'bionic vet'. I did mention it to him and he says the orthpaedic specialist they have have a great success rate with this procedure. It's just I know from past experience with my daughter, you need to get it right first time!

Also, he recommended changing her diet to Hill j/d, as this greatly slows down the arthritic process but I really don't like that stuff. We feed her on the BARF diet and give her salmon oil and glucasomine. This diet would be a lifetime thing, not just until she's recovered.

Any advice on the vet referral/food would be greatly received.

[Margaret Sierakowski]

You wuld have a problem with hip scoring, apart from the cost. You cant hip score before 12 months, but the pelvic osteotomy has to be done earlier, so what you would see on the X ray would be the repaired hip, which wouldnt give you a real hip score. You have my sympathy over the size of the bill you are facing for surgery, so I can understand that hip scoring isnt a high priority right now

[Rhonda Fisher]

Hello Margaret (just in case this get placed some where else).

Read your reply to poor Poppy and Emma's post.

Why can you not hip score before twelve months? Do you get a score that can be used if you do?

[Susan Stone]

I know how heartbreaking it is to see your dog suffering and the first priority is to ensure Poppy gets the best treatment required.

You may find that for the operation a full set of xrays will be made anyhow and maybe one of these could be sent to the AHT/KC panel for scoring inofficially. You would then only have the cost of scoring to pay which is 50 pounds. Even if you and the breeder end up with an 'inofficial' score at least a record will have been made and you can send the result to your breed club. I know that doing so wont help Poppy but it would help the breed as a whole in that the breed club really can gather ALL health related information.

I am really sorry for you and for Poppy's breeder. I know how upsetting this kind of problem is for all concerned. All the more if you had dreams of breeding from Poppy yourself one day. Good luck to Poppy! 

 

 

[eva ciechonska]

I have known Poppy's breeder for a long time as she breeds IS as well.  She is a very careful and conscientious lady.  All her bitches are hip scored and she uses only hip scored dogs.  In this instance both Poppy's parents and grandparents are hip scored with very low scores, and I mean under 6 total points.  You can imagine how devastated she must be about Poppy.  Ann has said she assumes it must be hereditary as the puppy is so young so where has this come from?  It just illustrates how difficult the condition is to eradicate and how, despite all our best endeavours over many generations of careful breeding, something like this can still occur. 

With respect to the direction the discussion has taken would you not feel that, as vital and important as this topic is it's place would be better served on a separate debate.  Maybe it is not appropriate to this thread.  Emma herself has said that Poppy's breeder has already asked her to have her scored and to submit the results and in fairness she is looking to the membership for help and advice on procedure and aftercare.  Could we not concentrate our comments on that subject and give both Emma and her breeder our support.   There but for the grace of god go any one of us. 

[eva ciechonska]

My apologies, the above should have been placed under Ann's last comment.

[Ann Millington]

My last post was in answer to a question on the IRWS breed system posed here.  We are all shocked, surprised and devastated for Emma and Poppy - I don't think she is lacking sympathy from the listers, nor help and advice on procedure and aftercare. I only add that there is a wealth of sympathy and support from the breed if asked for, as I hope the breeder has indicated.

[eva ciechonska]

I totally agree with you Ann and I hope there is a wealth of sympathy and support from the breed for the breeder as well.  We all live on a powder keg and hope it doesn't blow up in our faces.  It seems to be the nature of this condition that you can be so careful, ensure that you only breed from dogs with low hip scores and yet something like this happens. 

[Carol Gill]

wow thats a lot of money for hip scoring my Vet doesnt charge that

[Carol Gill]

if the dog has been xrayed then there is no conclusion to come to but one that shows the problem Ann

[Corinne Wakefield]

Emma, so sorry to hear of Poppy's news (((hugs))) to you all.

[martina mckeag]

Emma I'm so sorry to read about your wee girl and hope it can be sorted soon

[emma bell]

Thank you for all of your kind words and suggestions.

I'm so glad that most of you seem to agree with me about the food. The vet said that the benefit of it is that the omega 3 in the food outways the omega 6. I did point out that I give salmon oil which has a high omega 3 content but I think unless you get a vet who is really switched on with the benefits of the BARF diet, you may as well not waste you breath!