Hip Dysplasia

One of the chances that you take when you adopt a dog from a shelter or rescue is that it will develop diseases along the way -- some of them that don't show up until a dog reaches adulthood. My dog, Daisy, was a rescue from the Bill Foundation in Los Angeles. They were thorough in their evaluation of my home as a place for my dog to live, but as my dog was only a year or so old when I got her, her bones and joints would not have been fully formed.

Daisy and I love going to the dog park. She's a runner/chaser and loves to retrieve tennis balls. A short while ago, I started taking her to a different dog park, for a change of pace. This one had hills and inclines, vs. our regular, flat park. I noticed that she was developing a limp and as it worsened, took her to the vet. $500 later, I was poorer, but much better informed. And quite sad. My little Daisy has quite severe hip dysplasia in both hips and a joint problem in her left back knee. For those of you who don't know about hip dysplasia, here's a quick overview. The ball of the hip fits into the socket. The ball is called a ball, because it is supposed to be round. In hip dysplasia, the connective tissue between the ball and the socket grows incorrectly forcing the ball away from the socket. The result can be joint degeneration (such as the ball has straight edges, which causes the hip joint to hit and scrape against the socket as the leg moves) and osteoarthritis.

Eventually, the dog is incapacitated, cannot walk and will suffer pain in the joints. The doctor has started Daisy on Glucosamine/Chontroidtin tablets that will hopefully give her some additional lubrication and encourage new cartilage growth and we are on a doggie diet -- if Daisy can lose 17 pounds (she's solid and a little bit overweight, but not too much) then it will lessen the strain on her much smaller vertebrae over her hips and lower the weight on the joints.

For more info, here is a comprehensive article from Pet Education: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1569&articleid=444