Hi everyone,
I am new to this forum. I raise and breed rottweilers. I tend to breed toward the working dog rather than the couch potato but I do tend to have dogs that want to get out and work, but are easy to live with! My last litter was born a year ago. I hadn't planned on keeping any at this time. But I fell in love with one boy I named Stryker. He has great drive, AMAZING work ethic and trains soooo easily. Imagine my heartache when I found out (when he was 7mo) that he had severe dysplasia in both hips. The right is worse than the left. But the left was really loose. Yes all the dogs in his lines have OFA certs or the equivalent for the imports. His 10 yo grandmother shows no sign of arthritis at all and that is after years of agility. Euthanasia did cross my mind, but this dog and I are so bonded and I believe he has so much potential. So I have decided, despite being unemployed since January to give him the bionic booty! I consulted with two surgeons. One quoted me $5300-$7000 to replace just the right hip and to watch and wait on the left. The second agreed that the right would need to be replaced for him to function in any working sport. But felt that the left was loose enough that it WOULD be a problem. he decided that he could still do a TPO on the left, but we needed to do that immediately before any more damage was done to the hip, which would make that surgery ineffective. The replacement could be done at anytime I decided after the left healed. He is going to do BOTH hips for around the $7000 range. Stryker is currently home recovering from his TPO which was done last Wednesday, HATING his cage rest! The reason I posted this is that there was a lot of questions on previous posts about what can be done for dysplasia and when or what should be done. I would like to help with any questions that people might have about what they should do or when to do it. I am a Chiropractor and a vet tech. so hopefully I can answer any questions you might have about the options that are available now. I will keep everyone posted on how my boy is doing.