I visited Eo today at noon. The good news is that she’ll get to come home tomorrow in all likelihood. I took some pictures of her in the kennel, and then got Dr. Glade to put an X-ray up and let me take a picture of it.
First off on our little tour — here’s the Boonville Animal Hospital in College Station, Texas:
Inside the recovery area, — Hey, it’s an Eowyn! In a kennel! She was sitting up when I came in and pressed her nose right up against the kennel.
Eo’s going to be staying at least until Friday evening at the Boonville Animal Hospital. I visited her today and she was just coming out from the anesthesia, and the little bit of pain before the sedatives and pain meds kicked in was just starting to hit, so she cried a lot.
After visiting her briefly and hearing her cry, I dashed home and brought her a blanket (Eo won’t sleep anywhere that doesn’t smell like her — if we go somewhere and she doesn’t have one of ‘her’ blankets to lay down in, she’ll wander all night trying to find just the right place to sleep — usually either ON me, or in my suitcase.) and some of her Innova for tomorrow when she can have solid food. I’ll go see her at lunch tomorrow and may take some pictures.
Eo’s surgery is, according to Dr. Glade, a success — he said it got a little complex and they had to do more work than they thought due to the amount of deformation in her hips, but he’s very happy with the way things looked in the post-operative x-rays.
He said that they’re going to keep her until at least Friday, maybe Saturday, and possibly even over the weekend depending on how she does. He’s going to be giving her medicine to keep her knocked out and immobile until things start to heal up.
Thanks for all the good wishes so far! I’ll post some pictures if they let me take them this afternoon.
Eowyn’s surgery is scheduled for today. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, etc. I posted a few more pictures to her flickr page… I’ll update again after the surgery.
Let’s say that your dog has hip dysplasia and you can’t afford surgery, or it’s not the right time in the dog’s life to treat things surgically. Your responsibility as a dog owner is to keep the dog comfortable and provide as full a life as possible. After all, the dog doesn’t know why it’s in pain, it’s not the dog’s fault it’s in pain, and it’s really not fair to your companion to let them live in constant pain without knowing why. Since dogs can’t be responsible for taking medicine and limiting their movement themselves, it’s up to you as a dog owner. These are all things that I’ve done with Eowyn to help keep her very advanced case of dysplasia from getting worse. (more…)
Hip Dysplasia is a degenerative joint disorder that is common in older dogs, but sometimes becomes obvious while the dog is still a puppy. Classifying hip dysplasia as “degenerative” means that it will only get worse as time goes on, and will never heal on it’s own. Most veterinarians consider hip dysplasia to be a genetic condition, but there’s some evidence that dogs without the genes for hip dysplasia can acquire it via inadequate care or nutrition in the first few weeks of life.
To officially diagnose hip dysplasia, a veterinarian will sedate the dog and take X-rays of the dogs hips. X-Rays / Radiographs are the only way to definitively diagnose hip dysplasia. There are some things you can look at in the dog’s movements, the way they sit, or the way they act to determine if your dog needs to be examined for hip dysplasia.
Motion Studies: A dog with hip dysplasia has a very particular ’sway’ to their movement. This tutorial video uses motion capture to demonstrate the difference between a dog with good hips, a dog with hip dysplasia, and a dog with a Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture. Eowyn in particular has a ‘hunched’ back and a strange, waddling and bouncing gait to her walk and run.
Sit Test: When your dog sits do they sit straight, with weight on the rear limbs? When they lay down, do they lay in sphinx position? If your dog sits with it’s hips tossed to one side, only putting weight on one rear limb, or if they sit with all of their weight on their front paws using the rear only for balance, then you may need to get your dog checked for hip dysplsia. In addition, dogs with hip dysplasia rarely lay in sphinx position, and typically take some time laying down by first tilting their hips sideways and then slowly using their front paws to let themselves down to the ground.
I’ll make a post about pre-operative treatment tomorrow. Hopefully this helps others decide whether or not to see a vet about their dogs hips.
Eowyn and I traveled to the Texas A&M Small Animal Hospital on Tuesday the 23rd to get her hips evaluated for surgery.
I told them that Eo doesn’t like being around other dogs when she’s on leash, so the shuffled us off into the back to wait for her to be evaluated. A very nice 4th year student came in, sat down with us for a while and talked about what we needed to do, and said it would take about a half hour.
I spent that half hour admiring the very nice Bull Mastiff and a ridgeback/amstaff mix that were hanging out in the lobby with me.
After the thirty minutes was up, the 4th year student came and got me. They had done a stride evaluation on Eo both while she was running and walking, and had come to the same conclusion that I had — Eo needs surgery, and needs it bad.
We spent a bunch of time talking about the X-rays I brought in. The X-rays are from when Eo was six months old and Courtney was practicing on her. The other X-rays I had taken last year at the Booneville Animal Hospital, who is Eo’s normal vet. They indicate that Eo’s femur has no socket to fit into (a congenital defect), and as a result, her femur is making bone-to-bone contact on her hips. It’s causing the head of the femur to spread into a ‘mushroom’ shape. Despite all the care I’ve taken to keep her weight low and to exercise her enough that she has enough muscle mass back there to compensate, Eo’s health is deteriorating rapidly. She’s developing arthritis in her hips and knees that is patently visible from the X-rays shown. I’m told that the X-rays they just took last month were worse.
There are two surgeries they can do on dogs with hip problems like Eo’s. The first is a hip replacement, just like would be done in a human. This involves sawing off the top of the femur, implanting a new femur head prosthetic into the sawed off zone, and then grafting a new socket for that new femur head in the pelvis/hip area. It’s expensive, and carries a lot of risk in the form of infection or of the prostheses breaking at some point. As a result, it’s not typically recommended for younger dogs.
What is recommended for younger dogs is a Femoral Head Ostectomy, or FHO. During this procedure, they lop off the top of the femur and depend on the animal’s muscular structure to support it’s weight. Rehabilitation after the surgery is critical if the dog’s going to regain mobility.
We planned out an FHO () and planned for it to happen in late May, which would be the soonest I could afford for it to happen. The procedure itself is $2,500; the after-care, including medication, will be about another $1,000.
Here’s where y’all come in. Up in the top right of the screen, there’s a button that says “Canine Hip Dysplasia” — inside there is an Amazon store. If you could order your puppy treats (and maybe even food — they have Innova for $15 off of what I pay for it at the grocery store!) through there for the next few months, it’ll go a long ways towards defraying the costs of the surgery. If you’d like to make a direct contribution, there’s also a paypal button.
Thanks so much for being with us through all of this.
Eowyn was on Previcox from last Wednesday to last Saturday. Previcox is a newer anti-inflammatory drug for dogs. On Friday and Saturday, she was listless and had no appetite. I convinced her to eat anyway by putting water in her food. She was drinking an excessive amount of water and other than drinking and peeing, wasn’t interested in doing much. I had googled Previcox when it was prescribed by my veterinarian, because they otherwise didn’t give me any warnings about reactions… they said they never had anyone have a problem.
On saturday, after eating, she threw up a little bit of undigested food. At this point, I stopped giving her the Previcox.
Beware of these warning signs if your dog has been given Previcox:
If you have ANY doubts at all, especially with a dog that’s smaller than my hardy beast, just stop giving the dog the drug and call your veterinarian.
Dr. Lipsey at the Boonville Animal Hospital said that it’s the worst case of juvenile dysplasia she’s seen. We’re going to try to do everything we can to get her right hip replaced this year without costing me (heh, heh) an arm and a leg. In the meantime, I’ve got an appointment on the 23rd for her to see a specialist at the Texas A&M Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
I really appreciate the support that everyone across the different communities I’m in is giving me. (more…)
Most people who know me know how much I love my dog, Eowyn. She’s been my constant companion for the past two years. She got me out of a bad relationship, taught me how to love another unconditionally, and gave me the confidence, support, and company I needed to mature from a twentysomething brat into a mature adult.
She has juvenile-onset hip dysplasia. For all intents and purposes, she has no hip socket for her femur to fit into. Which means it rides right there on the pelvis, and basically just grinds itself in. She’s got it so bad that there’s no socket at all for that femur to fit into. It just jostles and clanks as she walks.
We’ve known about this since her one year old checkup. I had a slight suspicion before that, but it wasn’t anything that I could confirm. She’s a rescue mutt, so there’s no genetic history or breeding records that I can walk back through to find hints as to where it entered her genetic makeup. It could also be because she was torn away from her family at 4 weeks of age and wasn’t properly weaned, and likely wasn’t fed well. She was a wormy, flea and ant-bitten, undernourished mess when we got her.
Last night, she cuddled really closely to me in bed. That’s a sure sign to me that she’s not feeling good — normally she’s as independent and strong as they come. This morning, she was unwilling to put any weight at all on the right rear leg. When I touched it, she cried. Off to the vet we go.
A couple hundred dollars later (And thank you, Courtney, for all your sins — you did send me to a GOOD vet here in College Station, Booneville Animal Hospital), the vet sent her home with a referral to see an orthopedic surgeon.
This evening, I’m icing it. We’ll see what happens when we can get in to see the surgeon. She’s on bed-rest and kennel-rest (if I’m in the house, she wants to be curled up with me) and some serious anti-inflammatory drugs until then. I’ll have to make a decision on how much it costs and see what kind of help I can get through Eo’s pet insurance and other sources. If you don’t have insurance for your pet, it’s a good idea. It’s mostly if something catastrophic happens, but it can mean the difference between a chance or a painful decision to put an animal that is in a lot of pain and can’t do anything about it … down. I don’t want to do that, but I won’t keep her alive and in pain just because *I* love her and don’t want to let go.
Cross your fingers, everyone. Here’s to another great couple years at the very least with the love of my life.
