Hip x-ray

2657 Views 10 Replies 4 Participants Last post by sassafras, Jul 19, 2012

Targhee

Discussion Starter · Jul 19, 2012

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?

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Targhee

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jul 19, 2012

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.

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Targhee

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jul 19, 2012

sassafras said:
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.

Keechak said:
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?

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Targhee

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jul 19, 2012

Pawzk9 said:
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.

sassafras said:
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.

sassafras said:
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.

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