Explain what hip displasure is..I have a German Shepherd ll month old and was told he can have hip displasure?

Question

My German Shephard drags his right hind leg. I was told that this could be hip displasure. Just what is hip displasure and what cause it...He is not overweight and ll months old. When he runs he drags his leg and he seems to walk only short distances and sits down. He is playful, barks, and runs with his sister dog that is somewhat smaller in size. He is about 90% shepherd and yet looks 100%. His sister is probably 70% shepherd and30% retriever or whatever...

Answer 1

Hip Dysplaysia is common in GSD. This can only be diagnosed by having an X-ray done. They will usually sedate the dog to take the X-ray. The ball of the upper leg doesn't fit snuggly into the socket of the hip. There is surgery to fix this, but it is expensive. Usually both hips are affected. It can be very painful for a dog, but there are varying degrees of dysplaysia and some dogs can do fine without the surgery. Good luck, I hope this isn't what is wrong with your dog, if it shows up with this type of symptom in a young dog, it's not a good thing.

Answer 2

It may be hip dysplasia, but it could also just be 'growing pains' Sometimes large breeds grow so fast that the bones and ligaments do not grow at the same rate. Pretty common in Shepherds. This can cause pain in the legs. Usually the pain will move around from leg to leg, instead of staying in the same one. One week it could be the back right, next week could be the back left,,,or a front leg. If it moves around like this, it isn't hip dysplasia.

Hip dysplasia can be in only one hip, but it is more common for it to affect both hips at the same time. A vet can xray and give you a better idea of whats going on with him.

Answer 3

Hip dysplasia. It's quite common in the larger breeds, especially GSDs. Basically, what it means is that your dog's right hip joint has trouble moving smoothly because the ball doesn't fit tightly in the socket, and this is causing him some pain. It's usually caused by genetics in his bloodline.

As for treatment - hip dysplasia cannot be cured. The only thing you can do is try to alleviate your dog's pain so that he has a better quality of life. In mild cases, you can do this through supplement pills like glucosamine or chondroitin. Basically, these help lubricate the joint so that it can move more smoothly. However, in extreme cases, surgery like hip replacement or hip modification is needed. You need to ask your vet to X-ray his hips, spine and legs to see whether it really is hip dysplasia and if so, how extreme a case it is.

Answer 4

Hip dysplasia is caused by one of two conditions, sometimes both. The socket can be too shallow therefore allowing the ball to slip out. On the other hand, the ball can become flat (rather like an apple with the top cut off) which again allows the ball to slip out of the socket. It is extremely painful for the dog, rather like the pain you would feel if your hip dislocated. Depending on the degree of dysplasia, there are two options. One is pain medication, the second is hip replacement . X-rays are the only way to decide which option is best for your dog. Good luck, I hope it works out for you both.

Answer 5

Hip DYSPLASIA. It is when the ball and socket of the hip joint are not tight enough, or there are areas where it does not more smoothly and the joint has bony changes making movement painful.
Mixed breeds can have it also. Get him x-rayed and talk to the vet about way to keep it from getting worse and way to keep him comfortable. There are many things that can help.

Answer 6

Hip Displasia is when a dog's hip bone pops out of the joint now and again. This is particularly prone in Retrievers (especially Labs) and German Shepherds, and most large dogs are prone to getting it. The hip bone is a ball and socket joint, and occasionally the socket part of the joint is not quite fitted to the ball part of the joint. Generally, dogs with HD develop arthritis later in life and other complications stem from it. Your veterinarian will prescribe anti-inflammatory drugs, and if worst comes to worst then your dog will have to be euthanized at an earlier age. This "disease" of sorts is usually inherited.

Answer 7

GSDs are notorious for hips problems. You however should take your dog to the vet and see if he can be helped. You shouldn't let him be in pain if he doesn't need to be.

Answer 8

If you're having trouble finding info on the internet, the actual spelling is "hip dysplasia".....

Here's one site explaining more about it:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1569&articleid=444

Answer 9

it is hip dysplasia and the following link is for the orthopedic animal foundation and will answer all of your questions. it also means you should neuter your dog and his sister.


http://www.offa.org/hipgeninfo.html

Answer 10

Any dog that weighed more than about 15 lbs at 3 months old can get HD (=hip dysplasia).
It is a polygenic additive condition - meaning that there is more than one gene involved and the more of them are present the worse the dysplasia will be. At present Dr Mark Neff is attempting to use DNA mapping to locate the actual genes involved - people with dysplastic GSDs or Labs please see
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Av5x98tB.rZgOrrHhYsVUTMjzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20071127204153AATiIxR
but unless & until he is successful no-one should breed from any medium or large pooch unless it and its planned partner have been certified as minimal risk.

Unfortunately OFA has the worst (= most unhelpful, lacking in detail) HD reports of any HD scheme in the world. Because the genes are recessive, carriers don't show up on xray. The two excellent schemes (the BIF-scoring used in Australia, Britain & New Zealand; the ZW scheme used by the German SV) recognise this by certificating individual pooches but then factoring in relatives. The BIF schemes produce Progeny Analyses - if a progeny is affected by HD then, because the genes are recessives, you know that BOTH parents carried them. The ZW scheme factors in the scores of parents & siblings & progeny and every 4 months produces a calculated "hip risk" quotient; and the SV refuses to register litters if the average of their parents' ZWs is higher than 100 (which = average for the breed).

OFA doesn't even tell you WHY this pooch was rated Excellent, this pooch was rated Good, this pooch rated Fair; only for fails do you get any information - but by then it is too late!

HD is also multifactorial, meaning that environmental factors can accelerate or slow what the genes are producing, but I'll go into that later.


What HD is is "damage".
Think of the hip joint as being the big-end of a petrol engine. If the shape of the bottom of the con-rod isn't perfect, or the cup of the main-shaft isn't perfect, or they are of slightly different sizes, or the lead shell between them is too hard or soft, or the lubricating oil is too thin to keep them all separated or too thick to even get in, you are going to have accelerated wear then lots of NOISE and eventually a highly expensive failure.
Okay, the femur matches the con rod, the pelvis matches the main-shaft cup, the ligaments of the relevant muscles are what keep the 2 sets of bones correctly lined up (like the clamps on the car's bearings) , the synovial fluid matches the oil.

To make it worse, the bones themselves can be too chalky, so that impacts that a proper joint would absorb smoothly will result in atoms of bone being knocked off the bones. And it is natural for damaged bones to attempt to heal themselves, but with HD this results in ridges or condyles growing in wrong places, producing arthritic pains.
In severe cases of HD the shape of the cup and the shape of the half-ball are such poor matches, and the strength of the ligaments is so weak, that the ball can actually dislocate from the cup. BAD news for the dog!

Obviously an unfit pooch or an overweight pooch puts more load on its joints & ligaments and so accelerates the wear. Pet dogs are almost always overweight. Looking at a correctly-coated GSD you should see the outline of every rib while the body-muscles are working, but no more than the very last rib when the dog is rested.
And obviously a dog that is exercised hard is rubbing the surfaces of its cup-&-saucer together more often, probably with extra impacts at each landing from a strenuous jump.
Anyone who wants a dog suited for hard work should ensure that all 4 of its grandparents were still fit and active when at least 10 years old.


So you now know THREE of the multifactors - genetics, weight, exercise (which can be good or bad for the joint, depending on whether it strengthens ligaments or overtaxes the joint's ability to absorb impacts).


A fourth factor is diet. The strength & smoothness of the bone, the elasticity of the ligaments, the thickness & acidity of the synovial fluid, are all controlled by what is in the dog's food, and how well its digestive system USES those nutrients (the digestive system is controlled by the genes, so it's a case of "everything affects everything else"). A variety of trace elements are also involved, but at the simplest level bones require the proper balance between calcium, phosphorous, and vitamin D. Milk & cheese are pretty good sources, digestible mammal-bones (eg, rabbits, or the ribs & briskets of sheep) are almost perfect. The canids evolved for a diet of animal flesh (fresh kills of mammal or reptile or insect, or carrion of those) and do poorly on plant materials - their digestive system lacks the enzymes to break through cellulose cell-walls, and lacks the length of intestine to give those enzymes time to work. And animal flesh usually includes small & digestible bones as a prime source of the bone-minerals

There is a commercial supplement fed by many people with dysplastic dogs but I've never used it - since the BIF scheme replaced our old OFA-like scheme about 20 years ago I've not produced any clinically-affected dysplastic - so can't remember its name, but any vet will know what the stuff is called.

Okay, possibilities to eliminate:
● Panosteitis (sometimes misnamed "growing pains"): This is an infection in the actual "long" bones. It is characterised by actual pain, and tends to change from leg to leg, have a period of remission, then flare up again. Normally occurs just before the dog reaches full height. Certain antibiotics will suppress the inflammation, but nothing cures the genes that made the dog susceptible to it. Lots of "breeders" claim that since the dog grows out of it, they can breed from sufferers and their parents. I disagree - if you want always-healthy progeny then you must use only always-healthy ancestors. Diagnosis is firstly by the changeability of the source of the pain and is confirmed by striations that show up when the sore leg is xrayed. Sounds unlikely for your boy, unless he has a very mild case.
● MS and other nerve-sheath problems: These attack the sheath around each nerve fibre, or compress a nerve fibre between two of the spinal bones they are protected by. The effect can be likened to a short-circuit or a broken wire, depending on which problem it is. I have an old b_itch who no longer has full control of her hind-quarters, so the nails of one hind paw often drag on the carpet, and she lurches when making the tight 120° turn to get between me and the partially-open door. It is normally painless, but usually the afflicted must eventually be either euthanased or fitted into a cart that keeps their hind-legs off the ground so that their front legs can move them around. Your description doesn't give a lot of detail, but that is my first guess, although he is unusually young for this complaint. Observe his co-ordination and whether he is happy to jump, so that you can be informative if the vet suspects this problem.
● Hip dysplasia: Dogs are stoic and will carry on if at all possible. If he shows pain when getting in or out of a car, or when getting up after a long sleep, this is the #1 suspect. Diagnosis is by xray, and if HD is diagnosed the plates will show the vet which operation (if any) offers the best prospects. Again, the operation does NOT cure the genes that caused the problem. Both parents are carriers, and therefore at least one of them - probably both - should never be used again.
● Heart disease: A pup's heart has to change configuration very rapidly after the birth. Sometimes a partition doesn't close off properly, and as a result some of the blood flows from one side of the heart to the other instead of doing the proper circuit of "side-A to the lungs to take up oxygen then go to side-B, then from side-B through the body and back to side-A". The effect is that the dog is constantly short of oxygen, as you would be on top of a high mountain. This would not produce the dragged leg, but could be a secondary condition explaining the lack of energy. First diagnosis is via a stethoscope. Most sufferers die suddenly in their first year or two, but a happy 5-year old in my e-group has beaten the odds.

Whatever it turns out to be, you should politely inform the breeder once the diagnosis is made. Although your pooches are not from real kennels, the breeder should nevertheless be made fully aware of the "bad" genes that his b_itch carries, and have it explained to him that anything she has produced once she can produce again.

It is truly said that "You don't always get what you pay for, but you always pay for what you get."

The initial cost for a puppy from a reputable breeder who KNOWS what is bad in his breed and conducts all the useful tests is usually higher than if you buy from a puppy mill or a pet shop, but a reputable breeder firstly offers a very low risk of you ending up with an unhealthy pup, secondly will be willing to offer advice by phone or e-mail, and thirdly will have some sort of guarantee to help if things nevertheless go wrong.
You can get some great temperaments from a Mom-&-Pop one-b_itch set-up, but those folk rarely know about the necessary health checks. Although cross-breeds enjoy some of the benefits of hybrid vigour, they can also inherit the defects carried along in TWO or more breeds.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967