Living with a Dog Suffering from Canine Hip Dysplasia

Real story by: Christine
Our dog, an English bulldog-Boxer mix, couldn’t have been more than a year-and-a-half old when we first noticed a certain occasional strangeness in her gait.

We’d adopted her at ten months old from a shelter—a built-tough but beautiful brindle pup. She loved to chase other dogs, jump and play, and did so with great zeal. It was a joy to watch. Sometimes, though, she seemed to limp a little—just a very little. We chalked it up to her growing body and her particular way of being.

Two years passed and her “limp” seemed to resolve.

After she was attacked by another dog at the dog park, she began to exhibit more aggressive tendencies herself. For her own safety and that of other dogs, we no longer visited the dog park or let her off-leash except in our own yard or under heavily supervised conditions. We tried to get her together with dogs she liked so her world would not completely close in around her. On one of these occasions, she was joyfully bounding about with a new friend. We were happy, thinking we had finally found a friend she could get together with often. She’s an energetic dog and needs such outlets. But, as we were finishing our walk, she took a spill, her hind legs sliding out from under her. After, she could barely walk. The next morning, she still could barely walk.

Alarmed, we took her to the vet. X-rays revealed that she had significant hip dysplasia—a condition in which the head of the femur bone sits abnormally in the pelvic sockets. Over time, the cartilage can erode, causing pain and dysfunction. Only three at the time of diagnosis, it’s a condition our dog undoubtedly has had since birth and one common in both bulldogs and boxers. The strange gait of her puppy-hood finally made sense. Odd that it took so long to manifest and then did so with such tenacity. Luckily, her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) did not appear to be damaged.

The doctor prescribed pain medication (Rimadyl) for her and we were advised to severely restrict her activities for a period of six weeks to monitor her. So much for getting her together with friends. Any increased level of activity brought what appeared to be painful consequences. We were devastated she could no longer chase sticks—one of her favorite activities—or see her new pal again.

We were referred to an orthopedic surgeon for his evaluation and recommendations. It appears there are three options for dogs with hip dysplasia, in order of cost:

(1) manage the condition with pain medication, weight control, and activity management (i.e. allowing only activities that will not exacerbate the problem, such as non-impact exercise like swimming) for as long as the dog is able to be comfortable;

(2) conduct a type of surgery known as “femoral head ostectomy,” which consists of literally cutting off the rounded “heads” of each of the two hind femurs so that flexible scar tissue builds up around them and they don’t painfully rub in the socket (est. $3,000 total cost–$1500 each hip);

(3) surgically replace her hips (full hip replacement; est. $6,000 cost).

Of course, there’s always the ultimate option—putting her down—but we’re not considering that. She’s still young, her condition is not life threatening, and she’s full of vim and vigor. It wouldn’t be right and we simply couldn’t bear it.

We have, however, been struggling with what to do on the other fronts. She’s a young dog, presumably with many good years left (boxers live an average of ten years). We determined initially to go the management route and have been diligent about giving her medications and trying to keep her comfortable.

It’s so difficult, knowing how she loves to run, keeping her from doing so. But she pays if she does, oh how she pays. It’s brought me to tears seeing her struggle to get up or walk. Seeing how weak her hips have become. And the condition seems to be progressing little by little. Though she still has many good days, it’s becoming clearer that surgery may be the only option.

Of the two surgical choices—femoral head ostectomy or full hip replacement—obviously the latter is the best option, the “Cadillac,” once healed. Everyone would want that for a beloved pet, but the cost is extremely prohibitive. It also requires a long convalescence. I suspect, thus, that we will go with the other surgical option, which—though it has to be done one hip at a time—has a shorter convalescence. Indeed, the doctors want the dog to be active as soon as possible after surgery in order to build up the necessary scar tissue to replace the femoral heads. Apparently, dogs do very well with this type of surgery, though humans (because we stand upright, weigh more, and distribute weight differently) could not.

Unfortunately, an emergency expenditure has required us to put off the surgery a bit longer—one of life’s curve balls, which makes things so difficult sometimes. Hopefully the pain meds will stave off the worst for our dog until we can undertake the surgery.

We’re looking forward to seeing her outrun her new pal without painful consequences!

Comments
Wed, Sep 12 2007
Thanks, Our dog is exhibiting those exact symptoms. Thanks for your post. it was very helpful! I’ll keep this site posted on Hannas progress. She a Rhodesian Ridgeback and is 1 year and 10 months old.

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This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 9:13 pm and is filed under hip dysplasia info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.