[Targhee]

I wanted to post this x-ray to get a few different perspectives. I've posted a few other threads about my year old pup who has been diagnosed with hip dysplasia. The vet had mentioned she is too young to show signs of HD.

How do these x-rays look to you?

 

[sassafras]

Actually I don't think those hips look too bad. Generally you want about 50% of the femoral head (ball) covered by the acetabulum ("socket") and it looks to be pretty close to that. There is a slight gap between the femoral head and acetabulum at around the 9-10 o'clock position on the hip on our right that isn't ideal, but isn't excessive, either. Generally you want to see those surfaces nice and uniformly tight, and smooth - but again, I'm looking for faults so I might be overinterpreting. And she looks to be reasonably muscled in her thighs on the radiograph - does she have muscly thighs?

I didn't see your other posts, is she actually limping or is this something that was found incidentally? You should be able to have these radiographs reviewed by a radiologist and/or orthopedist if you're not sure of the diagnosis.

 

[Targhee]

Thanks for the reply that's helpful. We use our dogs to work sheep and always have their health and hips tested before they start working full time at 18 months. The vet sedated her and did a palpation exam which was positive for joint laxity. We live in a small town and only have one vet. We did go and see an orthopedic specialist and he was really pushing surgery and other than that was not very helpful. Surgery is out of the question. She does have good muscle in her thighs which I'm really trying to build up. She loves to run, jump and play with the other dogs. Watching her I do notice she seems to take more rests than any of the other dogs. I'm hoping if her hips look good now at 1 year than hoping she can love life and be pain free as long as possible.

 

[sassafras]

An orthopedist was pushing for surgery on THOSE hips?

It's possible that all of her good muscling is helping stabilize and squeeze what might otherwise be iffy hips. If you keep her at a good weight and very athletic her whole life, I bet she'll have few if any problems as she ages.

As an aside, this is part of why I am so maniacal about young dogs getting good exercise as youngsters to help build up those thigh muscles. Happy thighs help make happy hips.

 

[Keechak]

Has she been in heat recently? I have heard of joint laxity around the time of a heat cycle. Otherwise I see very little wrong with those radiographs. If you want to be more certain I would go for a PENHIP rating but it will cost more. I CERTAINLY wouldn't get those hips replaced! There is nothing terribly wrong with the ball and socket. But your pups ligaments may be an issue we here can not see.

 

[sassafras]

I CERTAINLY wouldn't get those hips replaced!

Yea those are not surgical hips IMO.

 

[Targhee]

An orthopedist was pushing for surgery on THOSE hips?

That's why I thought I'd post the x-ray. Compared to x-rays I've seen of dogs with dysplasia her's didn't look all that bad, but I don't know much about grading hips.

Has she been in heat recently?

Nope. She was spayed at 7 months.

The vet mentioned because she is so young (1 year) her hips still look good on x-ray. I guess it was the joint laxity he was basing it off of?

 

[Pawzk9]

Not a vet, but have had my vets go over some xrays with me. I would think if she was dysplastic, you'd be seeing some physical signs of it on the xray. Maybe fair-to-good? Did the vet go over the xrays with you? Was it the orthopod?

 

[sassafras]

The vet mentioned because she is so young (1 year) her hips still look good on x-ray. I guess it was the joint laxity he was basing it off of?

Probably. There are two ways hips can "look good" on an x-ray. One is structurally/the appearance of the joint - which, I think your dogs' hips look pretty good. Now, an x-ray is just a moment in time, so there can be factors that might affect precisely how good/bad hips look on any specific x-ray, but in general the joint itself is not going to transform completely from fantastic to horrible from x-ray to x-ray. Keep in mind a couple of things, too - one, correct positioning of hip x-rays is designed to make the hips look as "bad" as possible to look for subtle dysplasia, and two, that a dog under sedation is incredibly relaxed and often you can get some joint laxity in a dog who is simply very flexible even if there isn't HD present.

The other way hips can look good is whether there is degenerative joint disease (DJD) or arthritic changes visible in the hips (the terms are often used interchangeably). That is something that will change over time and I'm guessing that's what your vet was talking about because there is no hint of it in your dog's x-rays.

 

[Targhee]

Not a vet, but have had my vets go over some xrays with me. I would think if she was dysplastic, you'd be seeing some physical signs of it on the xray. Maybe fair-to-good? Did the vet go over the xrays with you? Was it the orthopod?

The vet did not. He did show me the x-ray and then mentioned about her age and her x-rays looking fine. The Ortho didn't really go over the x-ray with me either. He did manipulate her hips a bit but then started talking surgery. He talked about doing a TPO (Triple Pelvic Osteotomy) surgery. He also wanted to sedate her to feel the laxity in her hips. Since surgery is out I really didn't want to put her through that again as last time it seemed that popping her hips out several times while sedated didn't feel the best for her. So I opted out of having that done. He mentioned keeping her active and watch for signs of pain. That was about it.

two, that a dog under sedation is incredibly relaxed and often you can get some joint laxity in a dog who is simply very flexible even if there isn't HD present.

I've always thought her to be quite flexible, ha. I wonder if you could get a false positive result for something like that in the palpation/Ortolani test since she was sedated? Hmm probably not, but interesting to think about.

The other way hips can look good is whether there is degenerative joint disease (DJD) or arthritic changes visible in the hips (the terms are often used interchangeably). That is something that will change over time and I'm guessing that's what your vet was talking about because there is no hint of it in your dog's x-rays.

Ya, I think this is also what he was referring to.

 

[sassafras]

I've always thought her to be quite flexible, ha. I wonder if you could get a false positive result for something like that in the palpation/Ortolani test since she was sedated? Hmm probably not, but interesting to think about.

No you're right - it's completely possible for that to happen.