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Advise please

toni845

New Member
Hi would like some advice on my 6 month bordeaux mix Bear. We took him to the vet for xrays because we heard a clicking in his hip. We got the diagnosis that he has hip displaysia and were wondering if his hips will get better due to his young age since I've heard that Mastiffs have more space in hip joints due to the amount of growth that has to be done. So can anyone advise.
 

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marke

Well-Known Member
he's pretty dysplastic , I've seen worse do well , I think he can do better than that ........ walk him a lot , up and down hills , the more muscle you can get on his rear , without banging it up , the better he'll do .......... I don't see a lot of arthritis at this point , discourage running hard , cutting and jumping , i'd let him trot as long as he was moving smooth..... the less impact the better it is for the joint , but you have to exercise a dog like this a lot ....... I would exercise him as much as he could take without aggravating anything , it doesn't look like he will get sore with proper exercise . if he does , figure out why , what he did , and get him some rimadyl to get over it fast as possible ....... i'd get something like phycox , actually i'd get phycox , and keep him on it forever .............. when he's orthopedically fully developed let him do whatever he wants ........ I can't express here how much I believe a dog like this needs a lot of proper exercise , it is extremely time consuming , but it works ............. as far as folks telling you pups are looser in their joints than adults , there is no truth to that ..............
 

toni845

New Member
Thanks, he goes to the beach and swims, so far only once a week due to time constraints with work. Looking to see how that can be increased, he does trot quite beautifully he can for a very long time without tiring. Do you think they are any surgeries that can help him?
 

marke

Well-Known Member
I've never seen a dog of these types have a successful total hip replacement , or any of the surgeries I know of , the removal of the femoral head , or where they break and open up the pelvis to create more surface area , severing the pectineus muscle ........ a dog like yours just need to be walked , a lot , everyday ...... when his rear atrophies , he'll be done , but then they all are at that point ....... in order as an adult to even be a candidate for those hip surgeries he'd have to be a physical specimen to just recover from them ............. walking is underrated , walking hils is even better ..... walking hills and trotting with him would be the best ....... start him on something like phycox now , his left hip is worse than his right , which I find to be common , I think cause most dogs are right handed , so the left rear takes the brunt of the impact ........... properly taken care of , imo , your pup should do fine ....... I assume your vet told you the pup is dysplastic ? dysplastic is not the death sentence it was once advocated to be , it never was ....... a large portion of dogs with "certified" hips are dysplastic ......
 

toni845

New Member
Ok, great, when he's a little older I will start taking him on some hills because all of the hills near me are all paved over, no soft ground and I don't believe that will be best for him. I will increase the swimming and trotting in the surf at the beach. I will try to introduce some glucosamine and chondroitin into his diet and yes the vet said he is dysplastic, she said it's not the worst she's seen but obviously he doesn't have the best hips either.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
paved hills are fine , if that's what's convenient , hills make a huge difference on the distribution of weight ......... it forces weight onto the rear , a dog with a problem in the rear will walk with his neck and head below level , shifting even more weight to the front , putting a small percent of their weight on the rear , I believe a dog normally only puts like 30% of their weight on the rear anyway , allowing them to shift more to the front will allow the rear to atrophy even if you walk them .......
 

maryl

Well-Known Member
The best exercise for the dog is something you're already doing, swimming. It builds muscle without impacting the joints, but you must do it often and gradually build up distance and stamina. Marke is right, walking/trotting uphills builds muscle but I fear it might further damage the joints before your pup builds the muscle he needs. Perhaps start with swimming first then go to hill training once he has put on some muscle.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
i disagree on what is the best exercise for a dog , even dysplastic ones , it's walking and trotting ......... it's what they're built to do .....impact is absolutely healthy for bones , lack of impact is unhealthy , lack of impact leads to bone loss , lower density , softer bones , regular impact leads to more dense (stronger) bones ........ swimming may be good for rehabbing an injured dog , but I've seen world class conditioned dogs , and I've never seen it done by swimming , I've actually never seen one of the dogs i'm thinking of swim for anything other than fun ............ I've had a dog that couldn't go up 4 stairs to get in the house , couldn't get on a couch or in a car , that was cured with 2 scripts of rrimadyl and a year of walking up and down a hill , and that was a dog with a problem ........ i'd walk her 3/4 miles to the hill , one time up the hill 3/8ths of a mile and back down and to the car , after a couple weeks we'd do the hill twice , then 3 times , 4 times , 5 times , 6 times , within a year she had no problem with stairs , this was not a young dog , this was a 5 year old dog falling apart from hd , steadily getting worse for a year , rimadyl and walking hills saved her life ....... drag pulling is a great exercise for a dysplastic dog , if you understand what your doing ...... I still got chains and harnesses , just not any dysplastic dogs ...... your pup is 6 months , probably 70 or less pounds , it's absolutely the best time to exercise him ......... this isn't something i'm guessing at .....



the hips in the middle pic are the guy pictured , he lived to 12yrs ......bottom hips , his sister , she drag pulled because she pulled to much to run with , she lived to 12 ......... top hips lived 8 and died from cardiomyopathy ..... the more I conditioned them the longer they seemed to live ...... I've actually run across people thinking I was abusing my dogs , cause they didn't know any better .........


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marke

Well-Known Member
the difference between the bottom two of my x-rays and your pups , is not laxity , or acetabular depth , the difference is remodeling , my x-rays are all around the age of 20 months , mine are clean of the remodeling you see in your pups x-rays ....... my opinion as to why , would be the difference in exercise , my pups are loose 24/7 in a large yard with littermates , and waked for miles 4-5 days a week from the age of 12 weeks ......... your pup is coming up on an age when hd will have it's worst affects until it's an old dog , 8 months to a year ............
 

toni845

New Member
Well so far he's been doing great, plays and gets into tons of mischief constantly (being a puppy). No trouble with steps and such. We walk on the beach then goes swimming for a bit. I'm going to treat him like any of my clients that has bone related issues, hydrotherapy combined with weight bearing exercises. As marke mentioned, weight bearing exercises contribute to increased bone density ie. Stronger bones.