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10 Month Old Gsd With Severe Hip Dysplasia


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Oh and this is the reply from the first specialist about exercise restrictions:

Hi Bianca, I would recommend exercise be REGULAR and LOW IMPACT. This to me means walking on a lead, walking in the shallows, swimming, under water treadmill. You should avoid all off lead activity, playing Frisbee, chasing ball etc.

This approach to exercise will help develop muscle mass on the pelvic limbs. I would only use the Previcox if you believe it is helping make the hips more comfortable. Otherwise stop.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

We visited both Dr Ray Ferguson and Dr Peter Laverty on monday and they both agree he has to have a THR on his right hip. Fingers crossed that he will not need the left done.

I have to try and build more muscle before the surgery so at this stage there is no date set but it won't be before Christmas.

Updated xrays

post-36665-0-95451800-1352836994_thumb.jpgpost-36665-0-82312600-1352837016_thumb.jpg

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All the best to you and Cooper bianca.a, really hope it goes well. It is such a stressful time for you,

I'll try and list some of the post op stuff we did with Issy to try and stop her going stir crazy just in case it helps. Some of it was to help us as well!

Ams gave me a really good book with some trick training for immobile dogs, we did them with Issy whilst she was crated to take the edge off the boredom and occupy her mind a bit more. I will ask her if she remembers the title.

We got her to earn all her food with simple target touching etc. It stretched out her meal times as she was on a reduced amount due to inactivity.

We put frozen water bottles in the crate so she could lick off the condensation to cool her down ( as well as her water bowl).

We found a very soft human wrist sling with two loops for handles to help with the first few walks, it was more secure than a towel and softer on her stomach,it helped steady her a little and gave us peace of mind that she wouldn't stumble.

We don't use a harness to walk her but found it great for assisting with lifting - she flatly refused to toilet in the kitty litter end of her crate so we were constantly taking her out to the toilet - we used one with a lot of "coverage" so no straps were digging in to her.

We covered the areas of the polished floors she frequently walked on with rubber matting to give her traction for the first few weeks.

We found she was more settled during the day if she could be out of the crate if we were home - but kept her on leash so she couldn't make any sudden moves - despite the surgery she seemed to have no sense of self preservation and would try to do too much.

We got her in a pool with one of us in the water with her as soon as the wound was healed over, she barely used the leg for the first two weeks but I really think it helped prevent muscle wastage any where else and so stood her in good stead when she could/did use the injured leg

We did a lot of massage (physio showed us how) to help the muscles in the opposing leg and her spine whilst they took more of the strain.

Don't know if any of this will be of any use and I'm sure the specialists will give you detailed instructions for your specific circumstances but these were things we came across. The other thing I found really helped was if a friend you trust will come over for an hour or so in the first week to give you a break. It's amazing how tiring sitting doing nothing but watching a dog can be!

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  • 3 months later...

I just wanted to update, Coop had a marathon 5 plus hour surgery today and it went well! He is on a morphine drip and the specialist expects him to start weight bearing a little on the leg tomorrow!

He is going to call me in the morning so I should know more then. Miss my goofy black lump.

Post op xrays

post-36665-0-14585500-1361965350_thumb.jpgpost-36665-0-17268500-1361965357_thumb.jpg

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I just wanted to update, Coop had a marathon 5 plus hour surgery today and it went well! He is on a morphine drip and the specialist expects him to start weight bearing a little on the leg tomorrow!

He is going to call me in the morning so I should know more then. Miss my goofy black lump.

Post op xrays

post-36665-0-14585500-1361965350_thumb.jpgpost-36665-0-17268500-1361965357_thumb.jpg

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That's great! Im sure he'll do wonderfully well with his brand new hip. A lifetime of full function and no pain.

Sounds like you are in good hands with your vet team. Is the hip replacement they used one of the ones without glue, where the bone grows into the porous surface of the implant? Will Cooper have the other hip done at some stage, or is it 'wait and see' how he goes with just one side done?

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Thank you all so much :)

Today he went for a little walk and is using the leg! He also has a great appetite! (No surprise there :laugh: )

It will be a wait and see approach as to the other hip :( I guess it really depends on how well he copes with this one. To be honest I'm not sure about the process (blushes) They did use bone cement?

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