I'm gonna talk to my vet about this but was curious about what you all thought on this... I had wished I had found out about Dakota's hips earlier in his life so that I could have done the surgery for him. Since Willow is a product of a BYB I want to make sure this doesn't happen again. From what I read, hip dysplasia should show up by the age of 18 months. So wouldn't you think I could have her hips Xray'd at 2 years to find out if she has this and then could plan for surgery if necessary?

I would say that 2 years is probably the right time to do it. I'm planning on doing the same, since Ghost is of questionable breeding as well. Most of the stuff that I was reading recommended doing it at 2 years.

That sounds about right. I have a lab with Hip Dysplacia and I think we found out about her hips at around 2 years of age.

Yeah, you can get them x-rayed whenever, but it's recommended to do it at 2yrs. You can send them into OFA to see what they say in addition to what your vet says.

Yup it's best at 2 years, just remember that she will need to be sedated so that the doctor can get her in the right position without her moving.

Dumb questions but is surgery necessary for hip dysplagia? My vet (the one I am trying to dump) and I talked about it. We suspect that Frankie has some issues with his hips. I have no idea about his background. He has a little swagger in his walk, sits in a funny position, and at one point was having difficulty climbing in my car. The vet discouraged xrays, saying that it would only confirm it if he had it and the best thing to do was keep his weight down and keep him active. I also added supplements like nupro joint support and fish oils. He mentioned it is quite costly so I am not sure if he was saying that for my benefit since I really don't have the money. However, if it is to better my pups life I would save up or come up with a payment plan or something.

There are NEVER dumb questions! there are a few surgeries that can be done, the most common is where they cut the femoral head (ball) off the femur, it makes the leg sit in the socket more comfortably. There are several others as well. Here's a great link on hip dysplasia and the treatments
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2084&aid=444

That vet sounds like a quack! They HAVE to have a x-ray so that they know what they are dealing with and the severity; whether or not there are any spurs or boney growths (tells them whether or not the cartilage is in good shape or not). Geez, would they just figure it out when the started the surgery? Yea I'd dump him too lol

Thanks. That's good info.

This vet and I have had many disagreements. I've been to few other vets and I have not been any happier. So since he knows Frankie since the day I got him and he is like 2 minutes away, I will continue to use him for emergency visits. He was kind of against surgery which is why he didn't want to push for xrays. But like I sadi i didn't protest because of money issues. At the time I had just spent a few hundred dollars on treatments for massive skin infections.

My sister is a vet tech in philly. One of the holistic vets in her clinic had actually given me a referral for a holistic vet close by me. So I plan to check her out in the next few weeks. Hopefully she will be my new vet. Like searching for a pediatrician, I want a dr. who will listen to what I am saying the way I listen to them. I know my dog like I know my child and I could tell you when something ain't right. This vet is a bit of a quack so hope fully the next one will be "the one".
Thanks again for the info

Quote :

Dumb questions but is surgery necessary for hip dysplagia?

There's no such thing as a dumb question!

An no, surgery is not necessarily required. It depends on the dog and the owner though. My lab never had surgery (even though her hips were really bad according to the vet. It was actually suggested that we put her down if we couldn't do the surgery.) as we didn't have the money for it either. We just kept up on her exercise, made sure she was a healthy weight (minimum weight is best), and we made sure she had a comfy bed she could relax on.

Maggie goes with me hiking and snowshoeing (we sometimes go for 2 hours) and she shows no sign of pain afterward. If she does act like shes in pain then I'll give her some aspirin. She basically acts and looks like a normal dog...except when she runs her back end is a little wonky.

You can also start adding a glucosamine supplement to her diet as well. It should help his joints out They make some especially for dogs called Dasuquin, but the kind from Costco for humans works just as well.

hypers987 wrote:

You can also start adding a glucosamine supplement to her diet as well. It should help his joints out They make some especially for dogs called Dasuquin, but the kind from Costco for humans works just as well.

Mya started showing some signs about a year ago and the vet suggested glucosamine as well. Within a few days of her taking it she was totally back to normal. Totally godsent!

The Nupro joint support (silver) has glucosamine in it as well. I have noticed a positive difference in him since we started it too.

Dee&Frankie wrote:

The Nupro joint support (silver) has glucosamine in it as well. I have noticed a positive difference in him since we started it too.

Dee, I've been thinking about switching to Nupro also just because of the added nutrients (other than glucosamine). I was looking at the Nupro Silver 5lb tub. Which do you get and how long does it last you?

MelissaI wrote:

Dee&Frankie wrote:

The Nupro joint support (silver) has glucosamine in it as well. I have noticed a positive difference in him since we started it too.

Dee, I've been thinking about switching to Nupro also just because of the added nutrients (other than glucosamine). I was looking at the Nupro Silver 5lb tub. Which do you get and how long does it last you?

I get the 5lb tub. I started with the real small tub just to make sure they liked it. Both of them loved it so I now get the 5lb. I give frankie about 1/2 a scoop and only give Bruiser some sprinkled on so he doesn't feel left out. I bought this last tub at the end of Sept. and I still have about a half of tub left. I give it to them daily with their dinner.

MelissaI wrote:

Dee, I've been thinking about switching to Nupro also just because of the added nutrients (other than glucosamine). I was looking at the Nupro Silver 5lb tub. Which do you get and how long does it last you?

I know this was directed at Dee but just thought I'd share. I buy the 5 lb tub of Nupro Silver and only use 1/4 scoop daily and it lasts about a year for me. I use less because I find that too much Nupro gives my boy the runs, but smaller amounts he does okay with. I also bought the smaller 30 oz container at first to be sure my dogs liked it and that it agreed with them. I like having the small container around too. Since the 5 lb jar is so big I like to just pour out the Nupro into the 30 oz container every few months to keep the 5 lb jar contents fresher and make it easier to feed daily by only having to take out the smaller container every night when I prepare their dinner. My 2 cents.

Oops, just saw Dees response now. Thanks for the input ladies!!! Mya has about a weeks worth of her Glucosamine pills so I'm definitely going to try Nurpro when she runs out. Oh, and it's time to try out Grandma Lucy's also. Yay! lol

Ooo, fingers crossed the Grandma Lucy's agrees with them. Let us know how it goes when you try it! Just a note, when I was transitioning from THK to GL my sibe had soft stool the entire time. But once he was fully on GL his stools returned to normal. Thought that was weird...hopefully that doesn't happen with yours. Okay, back on topic.

hypers987 wrote:

You can also start adding a glucosamine supplement to her diet as well. It should help his joints out They make some especially for dogs called Dasuquin, but the kind from Costco for humans works just as well.

we use the Dasuquin for sierra, we do the large dog one as the dose is higher for her. and our vet had said the costco suff as well to us to use!

Anubis has a light HD aswell, no big signs of it until now and I hope it will stay this way. He gets additional nutrition for his joints from time to time.

It is amazing how many Huskies have HD, when it is always said that Sibes are such an healthy breed. With all the issues we had I cannot agree on that.

Dee&Frankie wrote:

MelissaI wrote:

Dee&Frankie wrote:

The Nupro joint support (silver) has glucosamine in it as well. I have noticed a positive difference in him since we started it too.

Dee, I've been thinking about switching to Nupro also just because of the added nutrients (other than glucosamine). I was looking at the Nupro Silver 5lb tub. Which do you get and how long does it last you?

I get the 5lb tub. I started with the real small tub just to make sure they liked it. Both of them loved it so I now get the 5lb. I give frankie about 1/2 a scoop and only give Bruiser some sprinkled on so he doesn't feel left out. I bought this last tub at the end of Sept. and I still have about a half of tub left. I give it to them daily with their dinner.

I switch between Nupro Silver and Myristin. Once you get through the initial load dose, you lessen the amount you give to about half for maintenance. I was told that if you rotate between 2 that you really like because of formula and what works for your pups, you get more benefit.

I've seen a big difference in my 2 - Ginger used to limp hard after running hard all day at the dog park. It used to take her about 2 days to recover. After Nupro/Glucosamine, she can go all day with no issue. Storm has tentative in his hips when we got him, and I would assume mainly because of all the extra weight he was carrying. He show no signs of being tentative anymore and I would assume that getting 33 lbs off him has a lot to do with it, but he's also older so we maintain him on glucosamine rotation.

MelissaI wrote:

Oops, just saw Dees response now. Thanks for the input ladies!!! Mya has about a weeks worth of her Glucosamine pills so I'm definitely going to try Nurpro when she runs out. Oh, and it's time to try out Grandma Lucy's also. Yay! lol

Natural K9 Supplies has a good price on Nupro!

cmanding wrote:

MelissaI wrote:

Oops, just saw Dees response now. Thanks for the input ladies!!! Mya has about a weeks worth of her Glucosamine pills so I'm definitely going to try Nurpro when she runs out. Oh, and it's time to try out Grandma Lucy's also. Yay! lol

Natural K9 Supplies has a good price on Nupro!

How ironic! I was about to look this thread up to say that I bought Nupro a week ago and Mya's doing great on it. She loves the taste too! Licks the bowl for like 5min after she's done eating

Oh, and yep, got it at Natural K9! I really love that place!

Ours love the Nupro too - I could put it on anything and they'll eat it!

MelissaI wrote:

cmanding wrote:

MelissaI wrote:

Oops, just saw Dees response now. Thanks for the input ladies!!! Mya has about a weeks worth of her Glucosamine pills so I'm definitely going to try Nurpro when she runs out. Oh, and it's time to try out Grandma Lucy's also. Yay! lol

Natural K9 Supplies has a good price on Nupro!

How ironic! I was about to look this thread up to say that I bought Nupro a week ago and Mya's doing great on it. She loves the taste too! Licks the bowl for like 5min after she's done eating

Oh, and yep, got it at Natural K9! I really love that place!

I love that place too! In fact, just placed an order for Z Bones and Himalayan Chews!

Girl, if you walk in there you'll go insane!!! I have to go with like tunnel vision. Grab what I went for and LEAVE! lol!! You introduced me it so thanks!