July 09, 2002
Tuesday

Hazzard Enjoying the sun & the 2002 King Salmon Derby... Digital photo by Kari Butler ---

Hip dysplasia, you say. What's that?

Unfortunately hip dysplasia is a disease that has been bred into almost all large breeds of dogs, embarrassingly enough, with the aid of veterinary medicine.
But that's a different story. I only have 350 words today. So I'm going to spend them telling owners of large breed puppies about the disease, and how diet makes a difference.

Take your right hand, make a fist, and then cover that fist with your left hand. Wrap your fingers all the way around, but don't tighten them down. That approximates a normal hip joint. The thigh bone (femur=right hand) can rotate smoothly, but it doesn't move back and forth within the joint.

Now release the loose grip of your left hand, and straighten your fingers slightly. That's a dysplastic joint. The socket into which the femur fits is shallower. The femur can still rotate, but now it can move back and forth within the joint, causing laxity that varies in degree from unnoticeable to crippling.

Lesson Number One in bone education. We tend to think of bones as being solid, static objects, kind of like tables or rocks. Not so. Bones are very dynamic objects, with new bone molecules being laid down and resorbed in your body, and mine, as we speak.

Lesson Number Two. The body's response to laxity in a joint, is to lay down new bone, in an attempt to stabilize the joint. In extreme cases, it can freeze a joint, fixing the laxity, but at the cost of mobility.

This is what we call arthritis.

In some affected dogs, it can strike before the age of 2, resulting in a young, otherwise healthy dog, who either has to have expensive reconstructive surgery, or will be euthanized because he can't get up and walk across the room.

In the vast majority of dogs, it will result in a long progressive process in older dogs, starting with stiffness getting up in the morning, or after a nap, difficulty going up stairs. He'll be really stiff the day after heavy duty exercise. You thought they were normal signs of aging, but old age is not a disease. As the disease progresses, he'll start losing muscle mass in his thighs, and his pain level will start interfering with his ability to get around.

There are medications that can help mitigate these symptoms, which I'll address in a later column, but next week's topic will be how to help prevent their onset with early diet.

E-mail Dr. Good your comments & pet questions.

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