Hip Dysplasia

Hip dysplasia is a common pathology in dogs, a lot of you have heard of it but not everyone knows exactly what it is; so here is a resume of this condition.

The hip joint is a ball and socket joint (ball = head of the femur; socket= acetabulum of the pelvis). For the joint to be functioning, the socket and the ball need to fit perfectly with each other, and they need to be tightly held together by ligaments and a joint capsule.

In the case of hip dysplasia, there is a laxity of the soft tissues holding the joint. This allows more movement of the ball in the socket. This excessive movement and rubbing will damage the joint.

If the joint is damaged, the ball and the socket won’t have a perfect fit anymore, the acetabulum (socket) will become less concave, and the head of the femur (ball) will be flattened. This will allow even more movement and aggravate the situation further.

With time, this will lead to arthritis which can be very painful. You will often realise that there is an issue with your dog’s hip when this arthritic pain starts to show (except if you have done a control X-ray).

The laxity of the soft tissues appears a few weeks after birth, which means that even if your dog is diagnosed later in life, the dysplasia has always been there. Some dogs will have symptoms, some won’t, and this is due to a lot of different environmental factors. Two of those factors are growth and nutrition.

The treatment of hip dysplasia depends on its severity and symptoms, it can go from surgery to management.

The management will include different areas:

  • The weight management will be extremely important as any extra weight will make the joint and dog suffer.

  • Having an exercise plan will also be important as it will help builds the necessary muscle to support the pathological joint.

Osteopathy can also help greatly with arthritis; Here is what the Osteopath would do:

  • Passive range of motion of the hip joint: Moving the joint in a pain-free way will help maintaining or gaining some range of motion in that joint.

  • Myo-fascial release: The muscles around the hip must work harder to protect the joint, they may become over contracted. Those tensions needs to be worked on as they can create more instability and pain around that hip.

  • Passive range of motion of other joints: The Osteopath needs to make sure that all the surrounding joints are functioning properly as they will work harder to take some of the stress and strain off the arthritic joint.

  • General balancing of the body: Keeping a body generally healthy and balanced will always help in case of pathology. Any issue somewhere else in the body could put more pressure on the hip joint. On the other hand, the malfunctioning hip will create compensation elsewhere which needs to be worked on for the body to be able to cope.

  • Advice: The Osteopath will also be able to give you advices on environmental factor and exercises for your dog.

Osteopathy can also help in a similar way for rehabilitation post surgery.

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