My 7 month old St Bernard has hip dysplacia. A hip replacement is one route. Has anybody had success/fail?

Question

And what costs did you incur?

Answer 1

We had both hip replaced on our first Newf years ago. It was more expensive then....all told it was $5000 for both. The dog did great and lived a long and healthy life after that. It really helped him a lot and I would do it again if I had to. Just make sure the vet is good and has done many of there procedures.

Answer 2

I do hope that the puppy came from a REPUTABLE breeder - someone who is a member of the Naional Breed CLub. If you did the breeder would have given you a health guarantee with respect to the hereditary health problems. Contact me - they will want to know.

The reason that even breeders who do everything right - xraying and testing their dogs, not breeding dogs whose tests are poor or questionable - give that guarantee is because the genes for the defects are rescessive meaning a dog has to get a recessive gene for the bad trait from both parents for the condition to show up. Every trait has 2 genes - one from mom and one for dad. If they are not the same, the recessive bad gene is dominated by the good gene.. A dog can have the bad gene and never show signs, and pass the bad gene to its progeny but they never show signs because they get a good gene for ,say the hips, from the other parent. Then one day a dog whose family tree shows that all the generations passed the health tests is bred to another whose family tree shows the same thing, and then there puppies born who have the hereditary health problems.

alanac certainly has some real problems and hatred towards breeders who show and not much knowledge about when HD can be detected.

Even the best breeders can have puppies with HD turn up in the litter - and, yes they are going to be horrified and want to know and do everything to avoid that again. But no, they are not "snobs" - just very very concsentious with zero tolerance for backyard breeders who don't care and don't screen their dogs to even try. The odds of having it happen with a responsible show breeder are far far far less than with a backyard breeder or pet store but it can happen sooner or later. That is why RESPONSIBLE breeders give health guarantees.

HD can not be diagnosed with 100% accuracy until the dog is 2 - unless the dog exhibits symptoms such as limping, pain etc. One can do the xrays before 2 but those will only show if the hips have currently developed so as to be dypslatic - not whether they will not be dysplastic in the future when the dog finishes growing. Seen 6 month old puppies xrayed for a preliminary check at 6 months - look great. At 2 years when the final xrays are done - mild dysplasia on one hip.

Now depending upon how much pain the dog is in, the hip transplant may be the way to go. He is soo-o-o-o young and will be growing so much yet (and the artificial hip won't). which means replacing it down the road if down now, I would hesitate to do it at this time.

It is an expensive procedure - $1000 to 1500 per hip as I recall.

Now, back in the pre-transplant days, I had a Golden turn out to be SEVERELY dysplastic and the symptoms showed up at 8 months of age. He couldn't get up, could't walk without pain..

The procedure done was called a pectinotomy. It involves cutting the mucles near the socket which allows the head of the femur to drop and form a false socket. It is very successful in alleviating the pain and allowing the dog to move normally. Most walk out of the clinic after the surgery and move fine. Some may need exercise and "doggy" physical therapy to help the muscles and tendons create the false joint. Nothing fancy - take them to a body of water and make them swim - A LOT .

Now, the older vets all know this procedure - but many of the younger ones aren't that familar with it having trained primarily in the more high-tech and intricate procedures.

Its cost is a lot lower - $300-500.

By the way, the Golden I mentioned had the severest possible case of dysplasia - xrays were horrendous - and if the attending vet had been anyone but my childhood vets who were the first to use anesthetic gas in small animals and the first to do opthamalic surgery on small animals and were willing to do whatever it took to save him (even recommending a hip tranpslant if the pectinotomy didn't work at a time when they were experimental and cost $20000) - the vet medical community would have recommeded he be destroyed. The pectinotomy worked and he went on to run miles and go backpacking with me and reguarly leap 3-4 foot straight up in the air playing.

Answer 3

Depending on the severity of the condition, your best bet may be to do nothing at all. I have a German Shepard mix that has hip dysplacia. He is almost 3 and was diagnosed at about 8 months. At that time we were told that he would probably not make it much past 2 for comfort reasons. Surgery was an option given, but it was going to start at $1200. We opted to make him a comfortable as possible for as long as possible and, like I said, that was 2 1/2 years ago. He gets around fine and plays with the our younger pup all day long. We have seen no significant changes in his physical abilities and he is actually the most active of the 3 dogs we have. In order to make an educated decision, find out the severity and prognosis of the condition. First things first. Good luck!

Answer 4

This operation will cost a few thousand. If you got this puppy from a breeder, you got ripped off. This condition should have been revealed to you before you purchased the puppy. No matter how attached you are to this puppy, you need to bring him back and get you cash back, and go to a RESONSIBLE breeder...not some backyard hack, or worse yet, a pet store. I have a Newfoundland Dog, (another of the gentle giants) and before I could take him home he was examined by an orthopedic vet and a doggy cardiologist.

Answer 5

Yes. I have two white German Shepherds - brothers. They both have severe allergies and hip dysplacia and 1 has elbow dysplacia. My one (Cloud) was so severe at 11 months old he couldn't walk. We took him to a fantastic surgeon in Tustin, California - Veterinary Surgical Specialist and they put a new hip in him. It was a long road for recovery by amazingly, he is running and jumping and has no problems whatsoever! He had to be crated for 10 weeks and it was hard on my other dogs who had to watch him and try to play through the crate, but it was more than worth it. Cloud is pain free and agile. Good luck and please consider going through with the surgery before you consider putting your puppy down.

Answer 6

surgical operation is often around $1500-$2000 a hip, definite it could and could be performed as youthful as achievable. Take him in for some hip xrays to make certain how undesirable the hips are and the vet will inform you if surgical operation will artwork or no longer. if to procure him from a breeder call them too and see in the event that they assure the hips or had the mum and father OFA qualified. in case you went to a puppy shop then it sucks to be you. puppy shop canines come from domestic dog generators and it is what occurs. If the vet says he desires surgical operation the commencing up saving and characteristic it performed. he's going to be a great canines and could have difficulty strolling in any respect if he's quite undesirable. commence on the vet and go from there.

Answer 7

We got our saint Bernard with this surgery already done.

This is very common in bigger dogs, I would have thought before you bought your puppy you would have had this all ready to go?

Mr. remembers everything the vet had said (accident left me with very poor memory) I think vet said around $1000. You should be able to call a vet in your area and make payments to that vet. Our vet lets us make payments with the dogs as well as the horses. I might be off like I said my memory is real bad.....

This is one reason big dogs are found in dog pounds. People do not read or know what they are getting into with the bigger breeds of dogs. Breeders should educate people but of course they just want the money......