Causes and Affects of Dog Hip Dysplasia
By: Beth Guide
Commonly found among the larger breeds of dogs, Hip Dysplasia is an ailment affecting the hip joints. It is most prominent in pure breed dogs, such as Great Dane, Labrador, German Shepherds and Golden Retrievers. There are other breeds that suffer with hip dysplasia not mentioned here of course.
Until recently, not much was known about Hip Dysplasia. The most important thing to look at is the hip joint. In dogs, it is caused by the malformation of the hip. This ailment usually occurs when the dog is at a young age, while they are still growing and bones are forming. The hip, a ball and socket joint, ends up growing crooked, causing the back legs to be affected. The ligaments, muscles and connective tissues of the hip become lax, thus causing the hip to grow unnaturally.
When a dog is born, they usually have normal hips, but over time develop this lax muscle. Genetics plays a large role in this defect. As the bones grow apart, the capsule holding the bones together become strained and stretched, as opposed to growing towards each other as they should. This adds more problems to the joint as the two bones, pelvis and femur, get separated from each other. Therefore, the bones are no longer in alignment and put pressure on the nerves, which cause many of the symptoms of Hip Dysplasia.
Here are some of the signs of Hip Dysplasia.
Dogs feel pain after exercise and during a usual day's activity. They find it hard to stand on their hind feet in the early morning from stiffness. They tend to stop walking and sit down often. Very stiff hind legs. You can tell as they run, how they try not to put pressure on their back legs. Over time, dogs find it hard to stand up without assistance.
Things that can help Hip Dysplasia.
Try to keep your dog at a slim weight. An overweight dog will find it much more difficult to get around with added pounds. Most genetic cases can't be helped, but you can make it easier on your pet. There are some products on the market that are specifically for hip issues. There are even wheelchairs for dogs with this ailment. Another option is the "Helping Hands" from Mikki which enables the handler to take weight off of their dogs hind legs while still allowing the front legs to operate normally. This allows exercising and increased circulation.
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dr on video explaining who gets hip dysplasia,what is hip dysplasia,symptoms of hip dysplasia and the diagnosis of hip dysplasia
I'm not sure how your dog is doing right now, but I want to let you know that if he is clumsy,has a wobbly gait which means that he has a swish to his walk, walks with his head down alot (because he is walking on his front half)which my Dakota did. He had great muscle mass in the front half of him because of this,but very little in the back.
Won't even attempt to jump up on your furniture, which is good but at the same time can show you that he doesn't want to use them back limbs.Goes to move your hand with his nose if you are trying to rub those back limbs in the hip joint area (because he is sore,so he is protecting them).sometimes they will literally stumble going up stairs etc..
Now I am not saying that this is definately hip dysplasia in your animal because i am no doctor but those are the things that went on with him and he had severe hip dysplasia.Just ideas,things to watch for and ask your vet about if you are noticing any of this in your animal...
These are things that I noticed when we had Dakota. Now, it was a little different with him because he had just been neutered so we weren't sure if things were going on with that at first or something else was going on until a few weeks had passed by and he just wasn't healing like we thought he should be so we made him a vet appointment thank goodness.
This is a short clip of him at the dog park, you will notice that he is happy playing but does not yet run all over like the other dogs. He will at first arrival but tires out pretty quickly still.
Did you happen to notice how well his fur is growing back?The stages are so weird, first it looks like he has a diaper on when he is sitting as in the picture above. Then it feels like razor stubble when it starts to grow back. Now it feels like a thick short wool.
If you are here, I am assuming that the reason has to do with a possible surgery coming up and you want to learn more and make the right decision.
I am so glad that you are doing this!!
First of all make sure that you read on the choices of surgeries if you haven't talked to your vet on that yet.
I am still worried that maybe the complete hip surgery may have been the way to go for him instead of the fho surgery.
He is out of pain which was my goal of course and it will never come back so I am told. But, he has such a swish still when he walks and pretty clumsy still.
I know it is early yet and hopefullly these things will still take care of themselves with time and muscle growth.
Just something to think about if you have a larger dog like I do.
Research,Research,Research you have one chance.
Make sure that you make the right one for you and your loved pet.
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