I am new to posting but, have enjoyed the advice here for awhile. My question is I have a 3 year old that was x rayed a few weeks back because of a limp. Her left hip is dysplasic and the right looks great. My vet has got her on a pain/anti inflam and on glyco flex 3 supplement. He told me to not run the dog. I stopped the pain meds and have been swimming the dog and running her. She runs as hard as ever and only limps a little later in the day and after a few hours the limp is gone. My question is should I let her run as long as she wants to or move only to swimming? The vet also reccomended a laser treatment series. Does the treatment have any benefit?
Thanks for any advice.

I suggest that you give Randall Acker a call at Sun Valley Animal Center. You couldn't find anyone beter to ask about sporting dogs and joint problems. Here's the link: http://svanimal.com/

Good Luck

Hi,

I think that there are several different decisions here. One - whether to use the meds a second whether to allow her to exercise, and a third whether to run her on land.

There are significantly different philosophies around exercise for dogs that aren't entirely sound and around the "use" of pain to allow dogs to limit their own behavior. In the old days, a lot of vets didn't want to give pain meds to dogs in the belief that the injured dogs would just run too soon on their injury and make it heal more slowly. Putting aside this debate, here we are talking about a chronic condition (not a typical injury that will heal). Chesapeakes and other sporting dogs are often willing to work in spite of pain because of their drive, but they will pull up lame afterward. I use anti-inflammatories and pain meds on my working and retired dogs if it makes their life easier. An animal that is in significant pain or discomfort isn't going to be using all of its mind to accomplish whatever job it is being given. Also, animals in pain can become unpleasant - both to people and to other animals - especially if they are afraid of being bumped or hurt. The new anti-inflammatories are great, but they are also expensive, which can be an issue.

It is true that swimming is easier on a dog's joints than running is (because it isn't weight-bearing) and that it is possible to keep a dog in good condition by swimming alone. Keeping the dog in good condition will slow the decline in muscle mass on her dysplastic side and will reduce the stresses on her good legs, giving her a longer active lifetime than if she were immediately retired to the couch. I don't know how extreme the dysplasia is, which (if she were my dog) would affect what sorts of activities I would do with her. Even land exercise isn't necessarily a yes or no proposition. For instance, you might not want to run her when the ground is frozen hard, but only when there is some "give" to it.

There's a lot to consider,
Claire

You are correct with saying swimming is easier on the joints than running. I would defently swim the dog as much as possible as like you said to keep up the muscle mass and keeping the dog in shape. The one thing you don't want to do is let the dog get overweight and loose muscle mass. It is much harder to loose the weight than gain it. If the dog is showing signs of pain by limping or having difficut time getting up and down I would give the dog a non steroidal antiinfamatory drug. There are many safe ones out there that can be used for long term use. I would use those to help with pain contol as well as keep inflammation at bay since when the joint is inflammed there is pain associated with it. You can also give a glucoseamine supplement to help out the joints also. I don't know history but if the dysplasia is sever you can do surgerical options. The cheapest and one that works well and elivates the pain is a femoral head and neck removal.
Good luck and sorry to hear about it.

Thanks for the input. I see the point of the pain meds to make her comfortable. I gave her the meds this morning before I ran her on a few retrieves at the park, nice soft grass, and she seemed fine the rest of the day. No limping at all. The dysplasa is pretty bad on one side, so I think I need to limit the running on land.
Any input on the laser treatment? Is it worth the cost and benefit?
Thanks again

Well I guess I'll put in my crazy input. I know this sounds wild but I read an article in the AKC Gazett about Elk Velvet Antler for joints. They say 280 mg twice a day. I'm trying can't hurt. I'm even taking it. Alright stop laughing.

I don't know about lazer treatments, but you could ask your vet about adequan injections. I know of several people that have been able to keep dysplastic dogs sound with those. The only experience I had with it was for horses but it worked really well to keep an older horse I had comfortable enough to be ridden with monthly injections in his hocks. I would think anything you can do to keep the dog fit would be a help. Adequan is not that expensive.

Thanks I'll talk to the vet about the injections.
Trying to work on a new puppy.

There is another solution that no one has mentioned. It's a bit costly, but so is getting a new dog. Dr. Bruce Goerhing at the San Carlos Medical Clinic in San Diego has developed a surgical procedure dor dysplasia called darthoscopy (I think I have the names right). It's been written up in the medical journals, and he's had great success with it--although I can't swear as to how many of the dogs involved were field dogs. Anyway, what he does is take a small piece of bone (from the pelvis, I think) and grafts it onto the lip of the joint so as to make a better "cup" for holding the head of the femur. Most vets, being generalists, don't know anything of such specialized orthopedic procedures, but with the information above you or they ought to be able to check it out.
Dr. Goerhing did some experimental surgery of another sort on a crippled bitch of mine several years ago and was remarkably successful in what he was able to accomplish. That wound up getting printed in the vet literature too.
Someone mentioned Randy Aker in Sun Valley, which is not all that far from you, he is one of the top orthopedic guys (and a former fireld trialer) but I don't know if he is familiar with darthoscopy--you might ask him about it if this seems like a possibility for you to consider.

Oops! I wrote the previous reply off the top of my head. I checked what I said and found that it should be Dr. Dean Gahring at San Carlos Verterinary Hostpital and the procedure is called DARthroplasty. Go to the hospital's website and type in hip dysplasia in the search box, that will lead you to a discussion of a dog named Amber and the DARthroplasty technique used on her (it's pretty technical in spots, as it is written for other vets more than laymen, but it will answer many of your questions and compare when this procedure should be done instead of some alternatives.