Hip Dysplasia and German Shepherd Dogs

Tasha was diagnosed with mild HD and arthritis in August 1998. Until this time she had been very active in agility, flyball and schutzhund. She never limped and showed no signs of having pain or discomfort. In fact had it not been for a radical change in behaviour at agility trials, we would not have had xrays taken and discovered her health problem.

We were at an agility trial in Grand Rapids Michigan in August 1998. The equipment and ground were wet as it was raining steadily. We went into the ring to run the Gamblers round..I use this to warm her up and let her practice the obstacles and contacts. Tasha was really "up" so much so she rushed all the equipment. I spent most of the time slowing her down. On one of her rushes on the dogwalk, she tripped on the upper joint (where the up ramp meets the flat board) and fell off. She landed on the ground and got up..she was pretty shook and I let her go to her crate.

She seemed fine after that hwoever and continued to run courses all weekend..in fact she took a Second Place the next day. But the following weekend at a local trial, she kept leaving the ring..ignored my recalls and ran to her crate..this was very unusual behaviour..but still no sign of stress or pain.

I followed the advice of my trainer and pulled her from future trials and let her rest. We went to the vet and when she extended her rear leg, Tasha whimpered...not a good sign and the first physical indication we had that something was wrong. Xrays showed arthritis in her hip bones. Regarding the joint, her hip balls were seated well into the sockets but they were starting to wear flat rather than their original round shape.

Following 4 injections of a new drug Cartophen, Tasha rested for 4 months. She also went on a completely raw diet with supplements of Glucosomine and shark cartilige capsules. I considered pulling her from all activity but she loved to work and that woudlnt be fair to her. So we returned to flyball and she kept racing..she has never had any pain or discomfort in flyball since January 1999. We also did asome agility demos and she was fine. returned to mild work in schutzhund but I watch her carefully.

In June 1999, I entered her in an agility trial..junmpers and gamblers , to see how she reacted. She was wonderful...soared over the jumps, did the obstacles carefully and most of all...she had fun!!! I wont work her much in agility again but may enter the odd trial from time to time just to keep her active. She is doing great but I know that she does have HD and arthritis and wont be 100% ever again.

I did a lot of reading about the problem and invite you to visit some of the following websites for more information about this orthopedic problem.

Canine Hip Dysplasia Resources..Working Dogs Cyberzine
Maya's Hip X-ray experience
Summary of Pennhip Research -Sirius Dog website
Seven Part Series on HD
Serius Dogs article on Hip Dysplasia
Orthopedic Foundation for Animals Website
Arthritis and Its Treatment in Dogs
Acme Pet Canine Genetic Articles
Influence of Nutrition in Canine HD

Hip Dysplasia article

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