Hip Dysplasia in ten week old puppy?

[Libby]

Is it unheard of for puppies as young as Zora to have hip dysplasia? I know, I know...I keep finding new things to worry and freak over and its driving me as crazy as it is everyone else.

Its just, she has a severe bunny hop when she runs, her hocks are almost pressed together, and when she trots, her right rear leg swings out a little. When she runs to keep up with the other dogs, she will make frustrated whine noises and then sit down and just watch.

I'm going to ask my vet to look at her tomorrow, maybe we can take some x-rays if for no other reason than to calm me down.

[Boss*sMom]

I would have it checked out, I mean... Boss keeps his tail tucked most of the time, if we had not gotten the vet to take a look at it we would have never known that he has some skeletal deformities with his spine, causing him to walk with his hind in a bit more to the left than the right, and he always lays down the same way.

Sometimes it is good to worry about things, praying that she is just fine, but I agree with speaking with the vet just to be sure.

[I<3mypit]

I suppose it is possible since I have read that hip dysplasia is hereditary. Hope you get it checked and everything is ok!

[Scarsmommy]

When we got Tito (our american bully) he was 10 months old and already had horrendous hips.. he had already has dysplasia on both sides. For him though its genetics and poor breeding. Its the price he paid for someone trying to breed super lowrider bullys.

I was told when Scar was about 6 months that Scar walked a little weird and took him to the vet to check it out. She wanted to wait till he was about a year and thankfully it seems he was just going through a weird phase and grew out of it. Hopefully this is the same for Zora and its just a puppy thing.

[Mortis]

one of my friends has a gsd that when he was a pup was really whiny and didn't like much exercise his hips etc were checked all over and no problems, he was on a small dose of painkillers throughout his whole puppyhood and constant vet checks, when he was about a year (i think) the problem seemed to sort itself out and he is a happy healthy adult though they never could figure it out, the vet put it down to growing pains.

i would defintely get her checked at the vets though just in case

[suzanne]

On our puppy exams where I work our vet always checks the hips and he always tells the owners that if the dog is born with pronounced hip dysplasia you can feel the laxity.

I took penn-hip rads on my dog at 18 weeks or so of age. I didn't send them in because my vet thought they looked great. She always moved funny, paced at times, and had just a weird gait in general. I took x-rays at maybe 2 years of age and she has hip dysplasia. She has no necks at all on her femurs. She's 6 years old now and only weighs about 43lbs, she's on the lighter end of her weight range, she has little muscling on her hind end and she's now on adequan injections because she gets painful with too much exercise if she doesn't get her shot.

The thing is it could also be her knees but I would definitely have her checked out and keep and eye on it as she ages. I didn't notice it initially but even when she was young LiLo never laid square with her rear legs tucked up next to her, she would always lay with her legs out to the side - same thing if she would sit - she would kick her legs out sideways. She also never would do frog legs when laying down.

[Leslie H]

Puppies go through some really grotesque growth stages. I would certainly keep an eye on her, but I would not panic, and if I recall correctly, there's so much undone development, that it's not really a good predictor. There is typically a lot of laxity, you can see it in their front structure sometimes as well. And while Pennhip x-rays as early as 16 weeks, they say that there's about 70% correlation between hips done that early, and adult structure. Correlation goes up into the 90%'s when x-rayed at a year. If you feel you must x-ray, I'd be inclined to wait a couple months. I've had decent luck w/x-rays at 5-6 months old.

As to lying down like a frog. I've had dysplastic dogs do it, and OFA excellent dogs do it.

[Odnarb]

Has she gotten looked at yet?

[Libby]

Not yet. I'm hoping Friday morning we will have a little spare time so the doc can look at her. We've been pretty busy, and then we have parvo puppies come in and I'm too paranoid to let the doctor handle Zora after he's handled sick puppies.

[Boss*sMom]

Any update? Been keeping her in my thoughts.

[Libby]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner! I thought I did

Zora is going to get radiographs today. My vet examined her on Saturday and he thinks there is something going on in her back end. He doesn't know if its hip dysplasia, but hopefully we can find out something this afternoon.

[starrlamia]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner! I thought I did

Zora is going to get radiographs today. My vet examined her on Saturday and he thinks there is something going on in her back end. He doesn't know if its hip dysplasia, but hopefully we can find out something this afternoon.

how did the radiographs come out?

[Keira&Phoenix]

Yes sadly my now 4 yo dog had hip displaxia from birth She always walked funny (back end swinging, twisting legs inwards as she walked, bunny hopping) but being a novice owner I didn't realise. She had surgery for luxatting patella at 10 months but the vet didn't pull her hips up. It wasn't until I saw a physio when she started limping again at 18 months that the bad hips were bought to my attention, they are what caused the LP. She has bilateral hip displaxia and I was told she would be lucky to make 5 years, she seems to be going strong though so I don't think her time is anywhere near up, she is a tuff little bugger. I actually think dogs who are born with HD do better because they live with the pain their whole life they adjust to it better, dogs who develop it later in life probably find it harder to adjust to the constant pain.

There is so much you can do for a HD dog now without even considering surgery. Ie: lots of supplements, physio, chiro, hydrotherapy they can still live a long and happy life. My girl certainly doesn't act like she has bad hips, even on bad days.
Even better for young dogs they have early surgery that can actually reduce the severity of HD. Hopefully Zora doesn't have HD but if she does at least you know nice and early.

How did the radiographs go??

[Libby]

Here are Zora's hip rads. Our vet was out and probably wont be back until tomorrow or wednesday, the tech and I took these. I don't know anything about how they should look, so any opinions are welcome.

[starrlamia]

found that, im no help though :S