What should I do if my pet is diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia?

There are multiple ways to deal with hip dysplasia if your pet does have it, depending on the age you have it diagnosed and whether or not the pet is showing any discomfort.

If your pet is diagnosed early in life, and is having minimal or no symptoms, there are a few things you can do. First, consult your veterinarian to see if your pet is a candidate for a surgical procedure called a Triple Pelvic Osteotomy (TPO). With this procedure we re-shape the pelvic bones of the young dog so the ball and socket joint lines up better, hopefully preventing arthritic changes later in life.

There are a couple of issues that need to be considered when talking about this procedure:

- You need to do this while the dog is young, usually before they are 8 or 9 months of age.
- You need to have a very co-operative dog, because the recuperation period for this procedure can, in some cases, be as long as 12 weeks.
- You need to be a dedicated owner to see the pet through the recovery.
- This procedure was very popular in the mid 80's and the 90's. Some surgeons believe, looking back over the last ten years, that the results of these procedures have not been all that they had hoped for.

The TPO procedure, done by the right surgeon on the right patient, can be a very useful way to prevent arthritis in the dog. My suggestion to you is to be sure you see a veterinary orthopedic specialist, and I often recommend that you seek multiple opinions before you decide on the TPO surgery. If multiple surgeons agree, great. If they disagree, continue the exploratory process until you are convinced you are doing the correct thing either way.

For the young patient diagnosed with hip dysplasia, we will often recommend what are called "nutraceuticals", or nutritional supplements that help increase the fluid in the joints and help repair damaged cartilage. The one used most often is the same used in people, glucosamine and chondroitin capsules. These products are very safe, so using them certainly cannot hurt. Some veterinarians have seen dramatic results with nutraceuticals and some have not. I definitely fall on the side of the "haves". I can honestly say I have seen marked improvement in my arthritic patients, young and old, who take glucosamine/chondroitin on a daily basis. I will talk more about these in the products section of the web site.

If your pet is diagnosed later in life, it usually means that some arthritis has formed and some pain is being exhibited. We try to minimize the pain with the nutraceuticals and with the stronger non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, also known as NSAIDs. Between these two types of pain remedies, we are usually able to control a very large degree of pain in our older patients. In my experience, I can make over 90% of the patients fell less pain, with some feeling like a young dog once more. Again, please see the product section for more info.

If medications do not resolve the pain enough for the patient to be comfortable, we have two very good surgical options for our arthritic dogs. One procedure is called the "Femoral Head Ostectomy (FHO)" where we actually remove the ball portion of the hip joint, thus taking away the bone-on-bone rubbing that creates pain and inflammation. The scar tissue that forms in its place provides enough strength to support the dog and the pain level is markedly reduced. This procedure works very well in dogs less than 60 pounds and the smaller the dog the better chance for success.

The most popular procedure these days is the "Total Hip Replacement". Just as is done with people, we can remove the damaged joint and replace it with an artificial one. This procedure is absolutely terrific. The only potential downside is the cost (usually between $2,000 and $3,000 per hip). But if you can afford to do it, the dogs recover from surgery nearly pain-free and after a six week recovery time are able to use the hip like new. They can run, jump, swim and tumble to their heart's content. For those who can afford it, it is really a life-saving procedure for their older arthritic pet. Some of the young dogs have had such severe arthritic changes as early as 18 months that they have had total hip replacements done at that young age, and they have gone on to live happy, healthy, completely normal lives.

As always, I'm happy to help your pets...and their people, too.

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