My dog Derby (about 9 months old) was just diagnosed as having hip dysplasia... I think we are going to get hip replacement surgery for his back legs. Anybody else ever had this done before?

http://homepage.mac.com/mschrag/.Pictures/Photo%20Album%20Pictures/2002-09-24%2016.54.02%20-0700/ImageIMG_965.jpg (he's about 7 months in this picture)

9 months? Wow. That is young for this kind of thing. It is VERY common, especially for larger dogs (labs & up) as they get older.

I have no info on the hip replacement, but my only concern would be his rate of growth. Would the replacement need replacing? Is he about full-size now?

Small breeds of dogs should be full-grown by 9 months. Very large breeds will take longer, up to about 15 months.

-Biscuits

He has grown about 15-20 lbs per month for the past several months, actually (he's like 70+ lbs now). They don't allow you to have the surgery until he's 15 months old, so I'm assuming his growth would be close to finished by then.

I think his growth rate is part of the reason it has been so rough for him.

Poor pup. What breed is he?

Poor you.
Remember that shere are more and less serious cases of HD. IF your dog only has a mild version, there may not be necessary with any surgery to have him live a normal life.
Theree are of course a lot of suggestions for what one should do to minimize pain and minimise the bad development of a hip. -for instance
- training should not be over-done, and you should train him very regularly, the same amount of training every day.
- Overweight is particulary bad for a HD dog.

But I guess you get a lot of tips these days... There was a good article in a Norwegian dog magazine a couple of months ago, with a lot of information to owners of HD dogs.
If you like, I might write a translated summary for you.

Good luck!

Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II + Portuguese Water Dog)
Ps. URL for my puppy: http://www.evang.net/neptun.html

He's pretty much a mutt ... The pound knew he was at least a Chow/Rott mix but there's definitely other breeds in there.

I'm truly sorry to hear your dog has hip dysplasia (fine looking animal BTW). You haven't said what hip score rating he has but it's obviously serious if you are contemplating femoral replacement surgery.

One of our dogs has slight dysplasia and he was prescribed a 6-month course of calcium tablets. Touching wood, he's not shown any signs of dysplasia to date - this merely showed up on a cautionary hip x-ray for unrelated lameness. So far, he's not experienced any directly related problems but to be brutally honest I expect they might catch up with him later in life.

Personally, I would seek a second vetinary opinion just to get a (possibly) broader set of options in all respects. I'm mindful of the faith you have to place in a vet' when you trust them with your animal and I'm in no position to doubt them but considering this is a lifelong ailment it's what I would do.
In our situation, because ours was a youngster (like yours is now) we were in-time for the calcium to be a worthwhile treatment. I'm not suggesting all you need for Derby is a simple course of tablets (it sounds worse than that) but while you have a growing dog make doubly sure you don't miss an opportunity.

Seeing this doggy thread encourages me to share with you that we lost our best, unique character Boxer to cancer on Christmas eve - it's been a miserable week or two - he was only seven.

Just friday, we took in one from Boxer-Rescue, he's 2 1/2 - has spent his life being shut in, so he paces endlessly round the house like a caged lion, and has obviously never had a country walk, a dog chew or a toy in his life - predictably he flinches if you make any sudden arm movement. On the upside, he fits in with the gang, which we thought would be the big problem - on the downside, our cats are perched on top of all the highest places in the house!

Why do people take this responsibility on, if they are not going to love the dog?

There are few things in this world that are able to make me violent, but mistreating women and animals are two of 'em. MAN that really chaps my ass.

Sorry to hear about your dog ... My wife and I don't have kids yet, so Derby's pretty much our pseudo-child, so I know how much a part of the family they become.

Interestingly it's been about 50/50 when I tell people how much hip replacement costs as to whether they would do it themselves or not. It just wasn't an option for us to consider the alternative if we didn't get him the surgery.

The thing that I think is really great is the fact that total hip replacement would, from all I can tell, make him 100% (assuming there aren't complications). Considering how he's obviously not comfortable now, he would be "better than new". Another interesting thing is that apparently they developed human hip replacement techniques on dogs, so they've actually been doing it longer for dogs than for humans.

ms

"I know how much a part of the family they become"

"it's been about 50/50 when I tell people how much hip replacement costs as to whether they would do it themselves or not"

I think that your two comments answer each other, it comes to be that the cost is not an issue for an animal that comes to be an equal part of your family.

We have pet insurance, but it wouldn't cover all - the only canine cancer centre in Britain is, as it happens, in Cambridge - unfortunately by the time he was diagnosed it was too late: But the whole family was keen to sacrifice something to come up with the cost of a course of treatment.

I used to laugh when I heard about pet insurance ... Now I'm kicking myself

I used to laugh when I heard about pet insurance

Well I used to curse when I saw the monthly bill, but one of ours had to have a 1400 Pound UK operation and it all seemed to make sense after that!

I should get a quote, once the operation is out of the way.

Interestingly it's been about 50/50 when I tell people how much hip replacement costs as to whether they would do it themselves or not.

Do you mind if I ask how much that is going to cost? I totally understand the strong attachment to a pet, but it seems like that would be really expensive. Just wondering which side of that 50/50 fence I would fall on.

-Mike

It's pretty expensive -- $3000 per hip. The reason I decided to do it is that I have a projector on order, and I just couldn't live with myself if I put my dog to sleep and then sat back to enjoy a nice big projected video.