Our Experience with Hip Dysplasia

Thank you for the well wishes for Fiona.  She is on the mend and doing quite well.  She has been running around the yard like crazy this past weekend as the weather has finally warmed up a bit and Fiona has decided to take advantage of it.  I swear, if you saw her, you'd never know she has hip dysplasia.  There is nothing better she loves to do than run.  She would've been the ultimate sled dog.  Sigh.  At least we got a couple good years of her sledding with her mom, Silver.  They were a good pair together.  How I wish I had video of them two sledding together.  Long before the times of GoPro's and such.  Or even a picture of them would be great.  They were my slow and steady girls.  Such a nice comfortable ride.  Steady pace.  So much fun for a beginning musher like myself.  The good ol' days.

And even though Silver had hip dysplasia as well, it never gave her any pain or problems.  And she really didn't pull until her later years, when she ran with her son, Zappa.   Another slow and steady runner.  And they ran beautiful together, especially when Silver did start pulling and taking some of the weight.  Silver still ran pain free and wasn't bothered by her hips issues.

But Fiona was a different story.  I notice she was bothered by her hips around the time she was 2 years old.  A few times sledding with her mom, regular chase games and it became obvious she was uncomfortable.  I gave her just regular pain meds, until the pain got so bad, we took her in for x-rays at age 3 to confirm, she had hip dysplsia,  Fiona was immediately put on a glucosamine supplement called:  Dasuquin with MSM.  Within a day, there was dramatic improvement, she was moving and eating again.  Dasuquin was our miracle for Fiona.  Not only was it helping with the pain, it cushioned the joints in her hip bone.  She's been on it now for 7 years, with no signs of stopping.  We just recently had x-rays done again and you can actually see between the hip bone and the leg bone a layer of cushion that wasn't there before.

When Fiona over does it, like running around the yard or I take her for too long of a walk and she needs pain and inflammation relief, the prescribes Melaxicam and seems to take care of pain.  This is how she is able to run around the yard at free will, one of the most beautiful sights to see.  Even if Zappa won't play with her, she runs FREE.

We've had three different dogs with hip dysplasia, Alex, Silver and Fiona. It's difficult at times, but with medication and management your dog can run free too.

I don't know why I went down this memory lane, but if it reaches you, know that hip dysplasia isn't the end of the world.

I wouldn't trade my three dogs for nothing and if I had to do over, I would do the same.

Don't let your dog and you be defined.

My poor Fiona

Had a bit of a scare last night with Fiona.  Her hip dysplsia had her in acute pain.  I over walked her the night before, but she didn't show any signs of pain until yesterday afternoon.  I gave her some medicine for the inflammation.  It usually only takes  about 45 minutes to an hour to work, but this time the pain must have been so deep, it took almost 5 hours before Fiona could settled down.  She was in so much pain that she couldn't lay down for any length of time.  She kept trying to lay down, then would get up and pace, panting, then do it all over again.  I had put in a call to the vet, but there wasn't much more I could do for her, but pray and wait. It was almost 8pm before she was able to lay down for 15 minutes straight.

There is nothing worse than feeling so helpless when one of the dogs is suffering.  Never have I seen her in that much pain for that length of a time.  I tried to comfort her the best I could, but it just didn't seem enough.

Today we are taking it easy and not taking any walks.  Fiona is a 100% better than she was last night, back to her feisty self.  I will continue with the medicine for about 3 more days then see how she is and if she will need more.  My guess is she won't need any more than that which will be great.

April 18, 2018

I've been in a writing slump for a while now.  Depression, the weather, no dog sledding and not enough dog walks.  And after last weekend's snowstorms that dumped a foot of snow in four days, I was beginning to feel at the end of my rope. 

That's when I picked up pen and paper and wrote this for Brut:

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You were fast and furious like the winds

that fell as gentle as the night sky

There was just something about you

that pushed the envelope

and brought rainbows in the night

Forever and ever how I will love you

Forever and ever the time was always right

My star, my love keeps falling

like the rain

You changed my life forever

In life and beyond

I will never know that love again

But only through God

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Writing this even though some of it didn't make any sense to me, helped to break the ice of my writing slump.  I re-read it today and today it made sense to me.  Today is Brut's two year and 10 month anniversary of his passing.  This is how I'm feeling at this marker today about the dog that transformed my life and everything I know about dogs.  The heart and soul of this blog.

My forever dog, Brut