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.

[emma bell]

We have had a phone call tonight, from the vet that we were originally referred too - not Malcolm Ness - amd he has said that her dysplasia is far too severe to a candidate for a TPO! He seems to think that we're going to have to go down the hydrotheray route, until such a time that the hips become too painful, then she will require a hip replacement. Apparently a lot of dogs require no further intervention.

Obviously I'm still going to have the appointment with Malcolm  but I'm not sure whether this is a good or bad outcome. I thimk we may have a difficult journey ahead!

I have also got a copy of Poppy's x-ray for you all to see.

[eva ciechonska]

Wait and see what Malcom Ness says and good luck.

[Ann Millington]

Hi Emma

Thank you for the sight of Poppy's x-ray.

I compared it with the of IRWS hip x-ray plates that I have in the archive (you could obtain them from the vet in the old days, if you asked - though now, I think they are computerised rather than the actual plates)

Funnily enough (maybe!!) Poppy's are not as bad as a set of an overseas dog for whom both femoral heads were like sliced off vertically and both acetabulems were - non-existant!  (I'd guess his total score would be around 100!  This dog was x-rayed at 5 years and only because he was required for a stud and his owner thought it would be a good idea to be able to put his score on his paperwork.  This is the dog that 'runs like a fool' and spends time leaping onto his kennel roof!

Incidentally, folks, this dog had been BARF-reared before he left his breeder, but the new owner immediately changed his diet to some complete dry.... don't know what... and enthusiastically added extra calcium.  This, according to those who know in his country, contributed to his bad hips.

As you have a few weeks before the window of opportunity for TPO closes, Emma, I hope you can find some swimming for Poppy to build up her muscles ;o])))  The best of luck for a satisfactory outcome!  Let's hope that Poppy's youth will be very helpful.

[Carol Gill]

Ann nobody can get down to the bottom of why bolts out of the blue happen with hips, it has been said bad rearing (although i know the breeder of this puppy and i know thats not a concern) accident in the whelping box ie: pup been stud on by mum, but im a firm believer that it is in fact an inherited condition that skips generations and then pops out at certain times, so hip x-raying while i agree with is still a ticking bomb!

[Rhonda Fisher]

Hmm funnily enough I don't think Poppy is jumping off her kennel roof and running like a fool. Are you suggesting that Poppys hips are not a concern as there is a worse example overseas?

Nice to know about the diet and the calcium in reference to the hips. However the following would be interesting to know Ann.

 Were the dogs sire and dam hip scored?

 What were the scores?

Were they done before 12 months of age?

I hope you can add this information too.

[Rosie Dudley]

I was interested when I read these questions and so looked it up. Dogs have to be a year old before they can be scored. Both the sire and dam of Poppy are hip scored, sire 5/3 total 8, dam 2/2 total 4.

[Margaret Sierakowski]

Rhonda , one can look at a pedigree of a puppy or dog found to have HD, and find that all the dogs in it for three or four generations back appear to have good hip scores. What it doesnt show is whether any of the dogs in the pedigree produced other dogs/puppies who have HD. Some of these will be on record with hip scores from the BVA scheme. There could be others who were diagnosed like Emma's puppy at an early age, and these tend to be very severe cases, but they are not recorded by the BVA scheme and with the KC. The club's health data base may or may not record them, but this information is not available to new puppy buyers. Stud dogs producing puppies with unrecorded HD can be used again and again, and still appear to have a clear record on producing progeny with good hips. Really worrying when these dogs are on both sides of a pedigree. Then there are the adult dogs who are hip x rayed , the vet says the X ray doesnt look good, so the owner decides not to submit it for scoring, so another case of HD that isnt on public record, and usally not reported to the club data base either. So the unsuspecting puppy buyer may think they are buying a puppy where there is no risk of HD, and its almost impossible for them to find out if there is. Even people who have been in the breed for years may not know there is a risk of HD in a particular pedigree.

[Margaret Sierakowski]

And I should have said the above comments are general, and should not be interpreted as referring to any particular pedigree

[Rhonda Fisher]

Sorry Rosie the questions were refering to the over seas dog.

This is from the AVA site in Australia and it does not seem to be as tight an indication as the KC statement. Reason for concern is that on FB a breeder here was talking about just having the puppies hip scored. I went back to check and now the FB site is not there.

 

Other important points to consider:

 The dog needs to be at least twelve months of age when the radiographs are taken

This is behind my interest in the minimum age for hip scoring.

[Ann Millington]

Rhonda, the HD case I described was to illustrate that HD has many manifestations!  It was believed that the dog's muscles had developed along with the dysplasia to hold the 'joints' in place.  He was 5 years old, I think, when he was diagnosed....

Sorry I do not have the information you ask for.

[yvonne]

I have had a Gordon Setter with severe Hip Dysplasia , we noticed it when he was 6 months old,went to a orthopedic specialist and he advised us replacement of the hips or exercise him near the bike to build up the muscles,we began at the age of 7 months just in a straigth line for a few minutes and build it up slowly,we watched his diet and gave him Primeval Gelatinaat into the food,he never has had the hip replacement , the muscles kept his hips into place,he died at the age of 12 ,just passed away in his sleep.

 

Wish you all the luck of the world with your Poppy and hope for a good outcome

[emma bell]

Hi Mel,

We actually use the kennels there when we go away! We have an appointment on Wednesday so we'll see how she goes. She's not swimmings biggest fan but she's going to have to get used to it!

She seems to have had quite a bad day today but to be honest, she's her own worst enemy! Darcey, our IS, is so gracefull and light on her feet but Poppy is like a bull in a china shop! :D