Replacing A Hip Joint

[piperspal]

Took my 2 and a bit year old male rotty into the vets on Friday as I was concerned he had hip dyspasia (yes this is the same dog who had the cyst). He was showing signs of pain, he wasnt stretching that leg out, he still doesnt cock his leg to toilet, muscling was different, etc etc. After x-rays, his right hip is picture perfect, however his left appears to have an issue with the ball in the joint. It appears the growth plate has been affected by something, and in one place hasnt gown correctly. He actually has a flat area on the ball that encompasses about 40% of the ball.

The vet has mentioned a full hip replacement, however I was wondering if it would be better to just replace the ball itself, rather than the whole joint. I would have thought it would be less trauma to the dog, and easier that doing the full area. this of course would depend on the condiution of the socket area, but if that is fine why remove it? Can they replace just the ball joint, does anyone know if this has been done before?

cheers and thanks

[Rappie]

The procedure is a total hip replacement unfortunately. The ball and socket come as a unit. If they were done separately you would have issues with the fit of the ball (as there is a limited selection of sizes) and difference in wear of the metal ball vs bony socket etc as well as function of the joint itself. The only other way of dealing only with the ball is a femoral head ostectomy with is a salvage procedure and not generally recommended as a firs line treatment in large dogs.

[piperspal]

Bugger, thanks Rappie. It makes sense about the fit. This poor dog cant take a trick.....

[Staffyluv]

Rappie can they do femoral head removal for HD?

My last foster girl had an untreated dislocated hip and because of how it healed, the only option was to remove the femoral head (I think I recall the vet saying that it was also an option for dogs with HD)..

Bella did really well with the removal and a knee surgery at the same time and was weight bearing (slightly) by about 3-4 weeks.

I was amazed at her recovery for what seemed to be such a huge surgery.

[Rappie]

It can be done if there is constant and significant subluxation or dislocation of the joint. It really depends on the dog. Some have horrible looking hips on rads with significant degeneration and only mild clinical signs, other will have few changes and be really painful. Because the procedure involves removal of the femoral head there is no going back so it would generally only be considered once all other avenues for management have been exhausted.

Edit to add: the results are often remarkable, conceptually its a huge thing but on a base level it removes the source of pain so dogs and cats tend to bounce back pretty quickly.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Rappie

[piperspal]

At the moment he is being managed through painkilles as he seems to get a lot of trigger points in the leg on that side, hes much happy since he started on those while we work out the best way foreward. The hip doesnt dislocate or anything tho, just has a wonky ball in it. Poor dog, even the vets were shattered he now has this after all his cyst dramas.

Edited February 16, 2015 by piperspal

[bianca.a]

I'm so sorry you are faced with this I just wanted to say that my now 3 year old GSD has had bilateral total hip replacements and he is now finally able to be a dog. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. I wish you both the best.

[Staffyluv]

It can be done if there is constant and significant subluxation or dislocation of the joint. It really depends on the dog. Some have horrible looking hips on rads with significant degeneration and only mild clinical signs, other will have few changes and be really painful. Because the procedure involves removal of the femoral head there is no going back so it would generally only be considered once all other avenues for management have been exhausted.

Edit to add: the results are often remarkable, conceptually its a huge thing but on a base level it removes the source of pain so dogs and cats tend to bounce back pretty quickly.

Thanks for that.

I was just amazed at the little foster girl I had here that had it done and how quickly she recovered.

Our vet actually put it forward as a possibility for Zig if the stem cell therapy failed (as a 'cheaper' option than a full hip replacement).. We will be going for the stem cell therapy.

[persephone]

It can be done if there is constant and significant subluxation or dislocation of the joint. It really depends on the dog. Some have horrible looking hips on rads with significant degeneration and only mild clinical signs, other will have few changes and be really painful. Because the procedure involves removal of the femoral head there is no going back so it would generally only be considered once all other avenues for management have been exhausted.

Edit to add: the results are often remarkable, conceptually its a huge thing but on a base level it removes the source of pain so dogs and cats tend to bounce back pretty quickly.

My vet used to do a few of these ..so much less recovery time/trauma for dogs .