Hi Karmen,

We live in Santa Barbara, CA. The place that we are looking at is the Veterinary Medical and Surgical Group in Ventura. We don't have any vet schools nearby...

This surgeon does an arthroscopic procedure prior to starting the TPO to ensure there are no early stage arthritic changes.

People keep asking if I'm going to get a second opinion (really a 3rd since my first vet diagnosed) but I really can't afford another round of x-rays and consultation. Do you know if they provide diagnosis and recomendations when they review the penn-hip films at U of Penn?

I have not had experience with total hip replacement, but I have taken my dogs to the Ventura folks for other orthopedic surgery and I will take my GSD with HD there when surgery is required. They took excellent care of my dogs and yes they are pricey, but I have found that all orthopedic specialists that I have consulted with are more expensive than your general practice vet. Good luck to you and your dog.

Krista,
I had a rottweiler a few years back that showed pain and/or weakness at about 14 weeks of age. He had trouble getting up if he was laying with his legs out behind him and cried in pain. I would hurry to help him if I saw this. He ran around and played fine. I had him Penn Hip'd at about 5 months and his results were pretty bad. 0.83 and 0.81, which means he was looser than more than 80% of all the rottweilers evaluated. His standard hips extended view showed that his hips came out pretty far, but that the were no degenerative changes. All this was done with a board certified radiologist. They recommended TPO.
I chose not to do anything. At about 10 months I took him back for a follow-up xray. He no longer had any trouble and was strong and muscular. His x-rays looked great and no longer appeared loose. I did not re Penn Hip him.
At 24 months i took him to my local vet and had him evaluated with OFA. He was rated excellent. He was never lame again.
I believe this dogs hips got tighter with growth and proper care. I am glad I didn't do the TPO, but I feel since his hip joint conformation was good other than being very loose this was his saving grace.
Hope this helps.
Candy

The vet practice I used to work at had a 2 year old Newfoundland in for bilateral TPO. Not entirely sure why they chose TPO over any other surgery for a 2 year old Newf (I'll assume the arthritic changes were not too bad at his age) but this poor guy had it done. The owners then followed up with the usual four monthly doses of cartrophen. The surgery ended up being a complete success. Go figure...

How about using another NSAID like Metacam (Meloxicam) or cartrophen injections? I know they are used for osteoarthritis, but could they be useful for a young dog with HD?

Ester-C might also be an option. It is more easily absorbed than regular Vit C, and stays in the system longer.

Hopefully these might be of use to you. I can sympathize- I know that if I was in your position I'd like to know ALL my options before proceeding with major surgery. Good luck.

Candy - thanks for posting that, it is good information to have. Nice to hear how well your dog is doing now.

I have a 6-month-old pup that is showing (what looks like to me) some signs of HD. I am going to just wait and see how he does on his own.

I am going to continue following this post to see what Krista decides to do with her pup and how things turn out (hopefully she'll keep us updated).

We had a unilateral TPO procedure done on my wife's GSD, a year ago. We are very happy with the results. With that being said, I would only do the procedure if the dysplasia was obvious
and symtomatic. Marco/Neoshoba was obtained at nine months and had to be kenneled for the first two weeks. (My wife needed that time to get me used to the idea that she had bought a GSD :-)
Anyway, the dysplasia was exacerbated by being on
concrete. Part of the decision to do the surgery was the fact that we'd bonded to him and the likelyhood that he'd be put down if returned.

Thanks for all your input. We received her penn-hip report and she is pretty much at the worst end. She has distraction indexes of L-0.75, R-0.68 and is in the 10th percentile of laxity ranking (Meaning 90% of all GSDs surveyed had tighter hips than she does.)

She has no evidence of degenerative joint disease (DJD) or cavitation in either hip. I don't know what cavitation is... I'm waiting for the vet to call me back.

We are taking her in tonight (weds) for the TPO on her left hip - we can come get her friday night. I think these next two days will be much harder on me than on her. Do you think they prescribe those sedatives for owners too?? (just kidding...)

Anyway, if you all are interested I may post a new thread about the surgery details and recovery. It has been very difficult to find information on aftercare and recovery for this procedure.

Anyway, many thanks from me and Tasha...

Depends on the joint shape. TPO only works when the joint is poorly placed but correctly formed. I had the chance to talk with an ortho vet (Dr. Roe at NCSU, will take a dog to him if I ever have to) for several hours and spent quite a while looking into THR systems (biomaterials class report). I would do TPO if the dog was young, healthy, and had properly formed but misplaced joints.

Implants are not perfect. Loosening is a concern, as is the plastic parts wearing out (the cup of all systems has a UHMWPE liner).

Hi Krista,

I will be very interested to see how things turn out for Tasha...

Hope all went well with her surgery and that there is a speedy recovery ahead.

Mike

Hi, this is my first post. I've been reading about Krista's decision on the TPO surgery and would love to hear how Tasha is doing. Our dog had TPO surgery on March 11, 2005, so it's been two weeks now. "Duncan" had it done on his left hip and on April 8th, we will go back to have his right hip done. It is very emotional on us all, especially since he doesn't realize what's going on and why he can't go outside and run around like he's used to doing. The week after was the worst because he layed around all the time, did not eat or drink. He seemed very depressed. This past week however he is much better, more active (sometimes too active), but he's still not eating good. He went in today to have his stitches taken out and he lost two lbs. All in all, we think everything has gone well so far. It's just the recovery period that is so hard.

Krista, if you're still out there, I'd love to hear how Tasha is recovering and maybe we can compare notes.

Thanks.