Hip Dysplasia

[chiara]

Hey Chiara not to throw a spanner in the works but I had a friend who's dog had hip dysplasia and they tried a stem cell therapy which worked wonders.

He was a tad older mind, at 10 years old, and instead of an invasive procedure like a hip replacement, he had stem cells from his own body injected into his affected joints. Really made a difference in stabilising the hip and reducing the pain he was suffering from. When my friend went home to visit months after the treatment, his dog bounding down the stairs to meet him which he couldn't even attempt before.

I hope whatever you decide to go for, works well for Hugo.

Interesting you mentioned this because I read an article about stem cell therapy and I was quite interested but didn't find much out there about it. I couldn't even figure out if it's an option for a young dog to have so if you have some info or you could forward contact details of who could help I would really appreciate it.

Thank you

[lovealab]

Hey Chiara not to throw a spanner in the works but I had a friend who's dog had hip dysplasia and they tried a stem cell therapy which worked wonders.

He was a tad older mind, at 10 years old, and instead of an invasive procedure like a hip replacement, he had stem cells from his own body injected into his affected joints. Really made a difference in stabilising the hip and reducing the pain he was suffering from. When my friend went home to visit months after the treatment, his dog bounding down the stairs to meet him which he couldn't even attempt before.

I hope whatever you decide to go for, works well for Hugo.

Interesting you mentioned this because I read an article about stem cell therapy and I was quite interested but didn't find much out there about it. I couldn't even figure out if it's an option for a young dog to have so if you have some info or you could forward contact details of who could help I would really appreciate it.

Thank you

http://www.regeneus.com.au

Have a look here!

[Milomum]

Hi - new to this forum, so not sure whether I should start a new thread for this, or respond here - as our experiences seem to be linked. Milo, our gorgeous 6mth choc lab has severe OCD in both knees, plus pain in her elbows (not showing up as ED yet on Xrays) and significant pain in her hips. She's been on restricted exercise and the best (dry) puppy food - vet supplied - since we got her at 9 weeks. The first problem we noticed at around 12 weeks was her front feet were very splayed.

The vet told us then that she would never be the long-run dog we thought we were getting to match two active young boys. And all that was OK, because she didn't appear to be in pain. My birthday present to myself was one of those kiddie-towalong pods that go on the back of your bike so that Milo could come with us on long bike rides out for picnics. (I'm sure neighbours think I'm nuts) On recommendation, she has only once been outside our yard for a traditional walk - luckily we have almost an acre of lovely gardens with lots to do and see. A couple of local dogs come to visit her each week.

But her movements became even more limited in the past 2 months. She limps constantly. She takes a long time to sit down or get up from sitting position. Even low, shallow steps are a real problem. (She certainly won't step into the low-slung hatchback anymore and will walk away rather than desperately want to come with us - which she used to do)

Initially, the vet thought she must have injured a knee and recommended restricted movement for 2 weeks. It got worse. I took her to the new vet (our first one moved) and the Xrays showed significant damage already. His examination of her, even when sedated, showed just how much pain she is in.

Milo's currently on weekly cartrophin injections and daily Meloxicam anti-inflammatory painkiller - but she is still stiff and sore.

The vet and I had to have the awful conversation last week. He explained that - if there was just the problem in her knee, then surgery might be likely to give an improved quality of life. But given that it is in both knees, and likely both elbows, and early signs of HD, she would be in for extensive surgeries over many months of recuperation. And no guarantees for a completely pain-free life.

I've decided to give it one last try: am taking her to see a Melb ortho specialist to hear just what the potential outcomes of each of the procedures can be.

I'd be very interested to find out if anyone here has had a pup with all of the above, what surgery decisions they took and how the quality of life was afterwards...

My boys are only 4 and 6 and - awful as it is to type this - if, even after all the surgeries available she is in increasing pain in another year or so, I would rather they didn't have another year or so of getting even more attached to her. For both hers and their sakes. This is so tough. And I am not taking this decision lightly - which is why I am doing an 8hr round-trip with her on Monday to hear what my options are from one of the best in the state.

Sorry to go on....

[Cosmolo]

My boy has ED and HD in all 4 joints. He is now close to 2 years old and the following things have helped him-

- Underwater treadmill and swimming to improve his muscles

- Cartrophen injections

- Bowen massage (this one has been vital)

- Regular exercise- controlled during his sore periods

The pain seems to have settled since he has stopped going through growth spurts which i believe is common. He now only has sore days every now and then which we manage. The only surgery we would consider is hip denervation at some point which would take away the hip pain- both hips can be done at once and the recovery time is only 3-5 days. Other surgery is not an option due to it being all the jpints and the long recovery time etc.

Good luck- its not easy.

[chiara]

Hi all and thanks for keeping the thread alive... I've been busy researching stem cell therapy.

I had a very informative chat with Regeneus (thank you lovealab) staff who promptly referred us to the local vet whom does the procedure (lucky for us it's only 15/20 min ride). The local vet called and we set up a free of charge consult, which I think is great!

We are going on Thursday so I'll have some more information then, however for now we hope stem cell therapy might help Hugo, from my understanding it can help dogs deal with joint pain, it creates cartridge and heals muscles and tendons. It's a relatively new procedure so they are still finding new applications for it, originally it was used on older dogs who suffer osteoarthritis, however they have mentioned it's now being used for repair of tore ligaments and for the relief of pain from HD ED and the like.

I've been told that basically they would harvest a small sample of fat from the patient and then extract stem cell, which would then be injected (in our case) in between the hip joints, the cells would then become cartridge, this would then relieve the pet from the pain of the hip joints grinding against each other. For a young dog the procedure would last 5-6 years then the procedure might have to be redone. This does not cure HD but if it takes away the pain then your pet would be able to lead a normal life.

In the US the cost is less than for a hip replacement, so I'm hoping that's the case here in AU.

The recovery time is 7 days and optimal results can be seen at 7 - 14 days.

Again I'm no expert and I'm looking forward to talking to vet about it.

Milomum I would seriously consider stem cell therapy for your pup, surgery would be very lengthy and very expensive considering it sounds like every joint is affected, but with stem cell once they harvest the fat and extract the cells they can inject all the joints (for the same price from my understanding). I hope this might be the solution you've been looking for.

Edited October 19, 2009 by chiara

[chiara]

Update on Hugo:

Stem cell therapy was a no go because his bones were already too far damaged from HD. But that was a while ago and yesterday Hugo had his first hip replacement surgery.

I am yet to talk to the vet myself but husband did, he said Hugo is ok and in recovery. However there were complications apparently his bones are not as hard as they should be I think brittle was mentioned and therefore in the middle of the operation his pelvis apparently collapsed, his operation went on for an extra 3 hours as they tried to fix the problem.

I don't know what consequences this will have on Hugo's recovery... I will be talking to the vet today.

However I will be posting about a vet who left my baby boy on the operating table and went god knows where and about the other vet who might have saved Hugo's leg by caring enough to go back in and operating alone on my baby! yap you read right apparently one of the two vets left and went.... I will be posting about this as soon as I find out just why... but unless he was having a heart attack I cannot figure out why a doctor would leave the operating table...

In the mean time does anyone know about brittle bones and how this condition might be helped??

[poodlefan]

I think you need specialist orthopedic advice on your boy Chiara. Charles Wentworth has just been through the wringer over bone issues with her boy.

First and most obvious question is what diet was/is your boy on?

[chiara]

I think you need specialist orthopedic advice on your boy Chiara. Charles Wentworth has just been through the wringer over bone issues with her boy.

First and most obvious question is what diet was/is your boy on?

Thanks for the post, Hugo's eats a mix of dry food raw meat and bones, cooked veggies with meat and sometimes canned food. We were going to change to full raw but with his operation looming we thought it best to leave it to later. however he does like raw meat and seems to have to upsets when he eats it, I do have some concerns about vegetables and other nutrients which I would assume are not found in meat. My thought was to give him raw and cooked meals also...

Do you think his brittle bones might be a result of diet?