Legge Perthes

[Rom]

Just wanting to know more ;)

If you've had a dog with it, what treatment options were given to you?

One that I've read of involves removing either the hip socket or the head of the femur...how would a dog adapt/cope with this?

Do you know of any dogs with this condition and what was their quality of life like after the op?

Were there any special considerations that you had to give to the dog?

How would a dog cope if the surgical option wasn't taken?

Any shared experiences will be gratefully recieved ;)

[montall]

I have a dog who the vet suspected was suffering from this (the middle one in my signature). I say suspected because the circumstances were a bit muddied. I will explain. She slipped from the lounge chair and fell awkwardly. I thought she had broken her leg but when the vet x-rayed her he found a crumbled hip socket. His educated guess was legges perthes although because I had only had her for three weeks we didn't have any early history (lameness etc.) so couldn't be 100% sure. In his opinion the hip was too damaged to have been the result of the fall. Previous owner was less than helpful, going on the defensive and denying all knowledge of there ever having been a pre-existing problem. As the vet also found a luxating patella and in his opinion occasional lameness would have been evident just from that, we felt that any information coming from that source was probably not going to be much help.

At any rate the hip was completely shattered and I only had the one option .. to have her operated on, because she was in terrible pain. Well I had another I suppose to have her PTS but that wasn't really an option. He removed the hip socket and ball and at the same time did a repair to the luxating patella on the knee of that same leg, poor little girl. He said that small dogs coped quite well without the joint. I think a bigger dog would need a hip replacement.

She has recovered really well and now uses that leg to run around and jump quite normally although it took quite a while for her to get to this stage. She hopped around on three legs for quite a while. That caused some muscle loss in the affected leg but now that she is using it all the time it seems to be pretty much back to normal. I believe swimming is good to prevent this happening, but she hated that.

She does have a slight limp. I suspect that may be because one leg is now a bit shorter than the other but I don't know if that is true or not. I have to give her supplements daily, but they are just osteoeze active from the supermarket (at the recommendation of the vet) so that's not a huge problem and that's more for the repaired patella than the hip anyway. She has shown no sign of it appearing in the other hip, and the vet seemed to think that was unlikely. In his experience this nasty thing usually only occurs in the one hip.

I have noticed that she is a little unsteady on her feet if she is not the one in control. Like if I am bathing her and giving her a good rub down she is a bit more wobbly than the other two, but when she is in total control herself you wouldn't know anything was wrong with her.

She was 10 or 11 months old when this happened and is just over two now. I don't know what her long term prognosis will be, no doubt there will be arthritis somewhere down the track, although there isn't actually a joint now, so maybe not. Anyhow we will cross that bridge when we come to it. At the moment she seems to be happy enough and from the way she runs around like an idiot I would say it is unlikely she is in any pain.

Hope this helps somehow, and if you are facing this awful disease, I hope it all works out for you as well as it has for Tallulah.

[redkidsmum]

Just wanting to know more ;)

If you've had a dog with it, what treatment options were given to you?

One that I've read of involves removing either the hip socket or the head of the femur...how would a dog adapt/cope with this?

Do you know of any dogs with this condition and what was their quality of life like after the op?

Were there any special considerations that you had to give to the dog?

How would a dog cope if the surgical option wasn't taken?

Any shared experiences will be gratefully recieved ;)

Hi,My toy poodle was diagnosed with Legge Perthes at 10 mths.She had been in pain since 6mths and using her leg less and less .had taken her to the vets several times and even though she showed all signs and was at the age and breed to suspect this disease it was not found .A different practice found it in two minutes ;) Anyway she had the full removal of top of her femur.I Was taught to do physio on her after the op and swam her in the pool till she was weight bearing well. .Kept her on glucosomine for several years At three now you would not know she had ever had it done.Just never got full size muscle back in her leg as it had withered away in the time the vet did not find disease.I know small dogs addapt to the surgery very well I beleive bigger breeds need the Femur ball replaced. Good luck ,it's awfull to see our beloved pets in pain

[Dogsfevr]

our dog didnt have the condition but had the same surgery & there was absolutely no ill effects at all.The very occasional slight limp .

Google the condition & alot of info will come up.

[Rom]

Thanks for the replies

I'm not personally facing this problem with my dog, but just wanted to know more about the condition.

My best wishes to those who are dealing with the condition in their dogs and to the continued well being of all