My Dog has Hip Dysplasia - What are the signs and how do we manage it

Meg was diagnosed with mild Hip Dysplasia about 3 years ago, she has always been an active dog due to the nature of her breed and it is a common condition for Collies due to this.

I touched on the subject on a few of my previous posts about Meg and how it has affected her since as, some of the experiences she had leading up to the diagnosis affected her personality for some time.

We started to pick up on the symptoms when we took her for runs or just after, after half an hour or so we would notice slight lameness in her rear leg and that when running the two legs would move in unison almost like she was hopping. We also noticed that when she spun in a circle for one of her tricks, her turn was much wider than before and she couldn't reach very far down when stretching out. She was only about 5 at this point and so we thought it somewhat concerning that she would displaying this kind of restricted mobility. I have since learned that Hip Dysplasia can make itself known even when the dog is a puppy.

We usually drive to where we walk them and she has always been quite eager to get into the car jumping into the back seat. Around this time we also started to see that she could jump the first part of her body in but she would not always have the power or the spring in her back legs to fully make the seat and she would miss and scramble up, in the end we started lifting her into the seat ourselves, she's so used to it that after a run she doesn't even try to get in herself she just stands at the open door and waits for us to put her in.

We took her to the Vet who checked each joint by bending and lifting them to check her mobility function and if this caused any pain, she has never really liked the vet but back then she would just cuddle into us if she was feeling a little vulnerable and would always get rewarded for being such a good girl afterwards. The vet referred us to a specialist vet about an hour and a half away who could carry out further tests, this visit was the beginning of the personality change that i previously mentioned.

When we first arrived the specialist Meg knew that we were at another Vets, must be the smell, she was very sheepish and you could tell she was anxious, we were called in and were greeted by a lovely women who again check Megs legs by moving them in various positions, this was the first time Meg snapped and we were quite taken aback by it. Prior to this if we did touched something that was uncomfortable Meg would lick you hand as it to say stop, she has never been one to show her discomfort so it is sometimes difficult to decipher the pain she is in. The vet deduced that to see if they could get more information they would take Meg in for the day anaesthetise her and takes fluid samples from each joint. When they put the collar on her and lead her away so was so scared it broke my heart, i wonder if she thought we were leaving her for good? Apparently she was still snapping at the staff and growling right up until she went under.

We picked her up a while later and that is when we were told that she had mild Hip Dysplasia s and they couldn't find anything else wrong with her. We were prescribed Metacam and Onsior to ease any joint inflammation and stiffness and told to monitor her and get in touch if her condition worsens.

She was dazed for days afterwards and when she did finally come round she was so mistrusting of us and this is when whenever we came in to stroke her she would get afraid and growl or snap at us, we couldn't go anywhere near her legs especially the joints and she became closed off, she was definitely very upset with us. The snapping eventually eased off and it is now extremely rare for her to do so. She isn't fond of new people so is a little wary, she rarely snaps at them either though it has happened once or twice in the past. Fortunately they were very understanding and it had already been explained that she does this out of fear and that she doesn't like to be approached off guard.

On a quick side note in respect of her change in behaviour after her tests, on quite a few occasions people have come up to us in town when we are with the girls, most people ask if they are friendly and if they can be stroked, we always encourage them to stroke Bella but never Meg because she is afraid however, some people ignore us and try and stroke her anyway, to credit Meg she usually just puts up with it or she growls a bit and that's when i call her back to me. It frustrates me that people do this, most of the time they do it because they have experience with the breed and therefore think that she's the same as any other Collie they have come across. Every dog is different and have different reasons for being the way they are, Meg is perfectly safe to take to busy environments and she enjoys the visual stimulation however it is the people i don't trust to leave her be and so we just can't do it anymore. It is so irresponsible for people to just walk over to a dog and stroke it without asking permission from the owner, even if the dog approaches you it's the same. I always let the dog sniff my hand first and wait for it to signal it is happy to have a little scratch behind the ears. Ok.. rant over!

We kept Meg on the Metacam for a while before taking her off out of worry of using it too much and the side affects it can cause, we just didn't want to rely on it for the rest of her life. it became apparent that Meg needed some kind of supplement as an alternative, she was finding it difficult to get on the couch and up and down the stairs as well as the lameness after exercise we switched to a supplement called Yumove which has helped tremendously with her movement.

As well as the medication we also discovered that swimming was easing the symptoms too, we did check with the vet if Megs insurance would cover hydrotherapy which they said it would however it was a bit of a drive and so difficult to be able to take her on a regular basis.
We have a lake in our town where Meg first leaned to swim and her love for the water, we started taking her back there as a change of scenery, there a little opening where we would through the ball in and she would swim to retrieve it. She absolutely loves swimming and it really helped loosen her up so we try to do this as much as we can as well as take her to the beach.

We can usually determine now if Meg is in any pain by her level of interaction with us, she doesn't cry or whimper she just wants to be left alone, when we feel she needs an extra hand along with the Yumove and swimming we incorporate Fish and Eggs into her diet a couple of times a week to support their muscles and bones, plus it gives her a nice healthy coat.

While their isn't a cure for Hip Dysplasia we of course want to keep it at a managed and the above are the things we have done to ensure this is the case for Meg, knowing your dog and picking up on slight behavioural changes is a good indicator for when something may be causing them distress and discomfort, especially if they do not show pain. To recap, here is a list of the main physical changes we noticed early on.

• Limping on rear leg during or just after exercise
• "Hopping" on rear legs, legs moving at the same time
• Difficulty jumping onto couch/car seat etc
• Unable to stretch fully (think downward dog in Yoga)
• Stiffness after staying in one position for too long
• When spinning on the spot much wider turn as opposed to before
• Did not like us touching hip area (would often lick our hand until we stopped)

As i mentioned above, we started to carry her into the car and also up the stairs, we got a comfortable little dog rug and a fluffy bed so she wouldn't need to jump onto the sofa, she has a tendency to lie on the cold wooden floor though so maybe this provides some kind of relief.

Simple little changes or additions to their lifestyle could make a big difference to their quality of life if your dog is diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia, i hope some of this information comes in useful, or even prompts you to make a vet appointment based on the symptoms I've listed above. If anyone has suggestions for me to incorporate into Meg's lifestyle i will gladly take them on board.

Thanks for reading as always, comments and upvotes are much appreciated!