Let's talk about the hip dysplasia in small breed dogs.
Let's watch the video!
Everything about your pet
Well, the first thing is that I've separated the hip dysplasia in small breed dogs
and in large breed dogs.
I'm going to talk about small breed dogs.
First, in small breeds, hip dysplasia is much less common.
Small dogs are usually better genetically adapted,
they are lighter so their hips suffer less.
Also we find less problems with the conformation of the hip structure.
The hip structure, the hip-joint is basically made of two bones.
One, that we call acetabulum, which is shaped like a crescent moon.
This part belongs to the hip.
Another bone that is a part of the leg, the head of the femur.
And the femoral head fits into the acetabulum, like this.
Therefore a dog who doesn't have hip dysplasia,
it's a dog which has perfectly round acetabulum
and perfectly round head of the femur and these two pieces are perfectly fitted.
This is the case of a dog that doesn't have hip dysplasia.
And from there, to the maximum 5th degree, begins a dog with a hip dysplasia.
First degree is when femur no longer fits perfectly.
It looks like this.
2nd degree a little further, 3rd degree a little further, 4th degree and 5th degree
is when the head of the femur and acetabulum are completely separated.
And this is where things change in a large dogs and in a small dogs.
In large dogs we have a serious problem,
because this joint has to bear a lot of weight.
And we have to do certain things to solve this problem.
In a small dog, like it this one,
we're talking about a weight between 10 and 12 kilos or less.
In small dogs when these joints are problematic,
when bones don't fit and osteoarthritis appears,
what we do is, like in case of Chad and what you're going to see in his X-ray,
we remove the head of the femur.
We prefer that it doesn't have a head,
because this head is scraping and damaging the joint.
Before removing the head of the femur, we also have other, quite new, technique,
which is gold implant.
But we will talk about it in different video
that we're going to prepare for you about this technique
that will stop all osteoarthritis in small and big dogs
thanks to implating gold around joint.
Many of you probably wonder how do we know, how do we judge condition of hips?
There is a test that is very important to do, especially in small breeds like
Wests, Pugs, French bulldogs, because they are very predisposed to have hip dysplasia.
It's very important that you request your vet to do a control X-ray examination of the hip.
It's the best way to know if the dog is affected or not.
This x-ray is taken in a special position with the dog lying down
with its legs fully extended, like a human being.
Many times your dog doesn't have X-ray done, but it limps.
Well if there is lameness unilateral or bilateral, of one or the two legs
it's always necessary to do the test to confirm is it a hip dysplasia.
Because it can also be knee problem, problems with tarsals
or problems in other places of the dog's musculoskeletal system.
But in addition hips can also be are affected.
It is very common to perform knee surgery after a serious knee injury
and to focus on knee problem without having a hip diagnosed.
Often, hip problems go unnoticed.
Usually there are more obvious problems but it's very important to check the hips.