I suspected Baxter Q. Pitbull had developed dysplasia and the vet diagnosed it yesterday. He’s just a year old and it’s already pretty serious 
My dearly departed lab had hip dysplasia managed by meds and swimming every day. Since Bax is so young and I didn’t bring my SoCal pool with me when I migrated to Jersey, looks like surgery will be needed
Apparently pitties are predisposed to hip issues.
I’m sorry, Jennshark. I know surgery is expensive, but since your dog is so young, I hope the prognosis is good and his surgery will be successful.
Our neighbors recently traveled to a university (the Ohio State) to have their dog’s hip joint replaced. The dog is doing very well.
They told me that the cost for the surgery has come way down over the years due to the volume being performed. Their dog’s hip replacement totaled around 5 grand.
I’m very sorrry, I hope he is ok.
I’m sorry to hear that, also.
Sadly, if it’s not one thing it’s another. My preferred dogs (racing greyhounds) have no health issues from adhering to breed standards, because the only breeding standards important to racers is speed and competitive natures.
But they are prone to bone cancer. You just can’t win. Someone needs to work out a breed standard that includes immortality.
Well, not immortality, unless I can become immortal, too. I’d rather outlive my dog than to pass before she does and make her go through losing a beloved master. That said, I wish we could double or triple our dogs’ lifespans.
My dog has really severe hip dysplasia - severe enough that the bones don’t actually touch - which is great, he’s gotten to be eleven without arthritis or anything - since there is no grinding. - we did have the nerves cut in his hip so it doesn’t bother him
Hip dysplasia is a bastard, especially in breeds that don’t have a good standard or a history of careful breeding to weed out the faults. I’ve been lucky in avoiding it so far.
But then, big dogs are so prone to nasties that it’s hard to breed a long-lived one. Some damn thing always comes whistling out of the dark.
I picked my newest Dane from a very good line of champions with excellent health records, and got the only “clone” his sire had yet produced (blue male with thin white chest splash, only one out of 15 in three litters). I admired his sire as one of the most handsome of the breed I’d seen, and his quick championship status last year and near-GC status this season proved I had a darned good eye, and could look forward to this boy being just as big, broad and handsome, if not as well-behaved.
Then came the news: Dad went from another show win to stumbling to rear paralysis to incontinence in six days… spinal tumor. Over and out, just before Xmas. Four years and one month. As I’ve said so often in these threads… damn dogs.
My last Jack Russell Terrier had that, and I believe that it is pretty common with JRTs. He had no pain and the only time we noticed it was when he layed on his stomach with his hips at right angles to his body. It might have began hurting, then, though because he didn’t do it for very long. The vet diagnosed the problem after I adopted him at 10yo, but didn’t indicate that it was anything that was dangerous or needed to be taken care of.
Bob