Canine hip dysplasia
Difficult to prevent and treat, canine hip dysplasia is among the most studied and the most frustrating diseases in veterinary medicine. Canine hip dysplasia is a developmental orthopedic disease in which an abnormal formation of the hip leads to looseness in the hip joints, causing cartilage damage. Progressive arthritis can result, and when it does, it can be crippling. Hip dysplasia is not the same thing as arthritis in the hips rather, it is the most common cause of arthritis in the hips.
Clinical Signs:
Decreased activity; difficulty rising; rear limb lameness; reluctance to use stairs, particularly to go up; reluctance to jump or stand on hind limbs; swaggering gait; bunny-hopping gait; pain from manipulation of the hip(s); decreased range-of-motion in the hips; crepitus in the hip joint; positive Ortolani sign; positive Barden’s maneuver; subluxation or complete luxation.
Symptoms:
Less energy and movement; difficulty rising; lameness in the back legs; reluctance to use stairs (particularly to go up); reluctance to jump or stand on hind limbs; swaggering gait, bunny-hopping gait; soreness after lying down; soreness after heavy exercise.
Description:
Canine hip dysplasia is a developmental orthopedic disease. When a dog has dysplasia, it has an abnormal development of the ball-in-socket joint that makes up the hip. In a dysplastic hip, the ball (the head of the femur, or thighbone) and the socket (the acetabulum, a portion of the pelvis), do not fit together snugly. The result is a painful and damaging friction. When a dog bears its weight on the joint, the friction strains the joint capsule, which is a fibrous tissue that surrounds the joint and produces joint fluid. The straining then damages the cartilage and leads to the release of inflammatory proteins within the joint. Thus begins the cycle of cartilage destruction, inflammation, and pain the symptoms we associate with arthritis.
Treatment of hip dysplasia:
Treatment of hip dysplasia can be conservative or surgical. The objectives of conservative therapy are to relieve pain and maintain limb function, as well as to continue the dog in as normal a level of activity as possible. Conservative therapy consists of weight control, moderate exercise, and analgesics (pain relief medication). The most important element will always be the maintenance of muscular support. Muscle is built by walking, jogging, and swimming. Acrobatics (playing frisbee, jumping, etc.) should be avoided as they place unnecessary pressure on the joint.
