Hello forum,
I need some advice and hopeful words. Our just under 13 month old golden Marlow has had a rough go of it so far in this life. At 11 months she was diagnosed with masticatory myositis and started a long course of prednisone. She's recovering from that well and everything seemed to be heading in a positive direction. Until this past Saturday that is....
On Saturday morning Marlow and I headed to the park for our daily 45 min fetch session, that includes lots of sniffing in circles, greeting and getting scratches from other park goers, and running after a ball. Less than 10 minutes into play Marlow fell and wouldn't get up. I managed to coax her up but she was limping in her right hind leg and wouldn't put a lot of weight on it. Concerned - the myositis has been stressful and made us very vigilant - I made a vet appointment for an hour later and off we went. The vet did xrays of her hips and sent them away to be reviewed by radiologists, mentioning she thought it might be hip dysplasia (oh the tears that came after that). Radiologists said they wanted another set of xrays including her knees, so Marlow went back today, was sedated and had them done. We just picked her up and got the diagnosis - mild hip dysplasia and a torn ACL in the right leg. Our vet - who is absolutely amazing and LOVES goldens because she has one - said that the dysplasia has likely been there since she was a puppy and the weakness because of it on the right side is what caused the ACL to tear. We're due to have a consult with an orthopaedic surgeon within the next 2 days and surgery very quickly after to repair the ACL.
My questions are:
- What can we expect in terms of recovery, cost, rehab, etc etc?
- Our breeder says that Marlow is too young to have hip dysplasia and that likely at 2 yrs of age when she's done developing the diagnosis will change - her mom is OFA excellent and her dad good. Can the breeder be correct?
- Our breeder also said that the ACL is our fault, that we were overexercising her and she's too young to be playing fetch like that. Is 30-45 min a day with many breaks and a warm up/cool down really too much? She gets plenty of walks too.
- What can we expect with hip dysplasia? As of tonight she's on Hill's Mobility food. Our vet says she wouldn't recommend surgery for mild hip dysplasia.
I'm devastated. I don't know what to do. I love Marlow so so very much and would do anything for her, but it's been 2.5 months of nightmares with her health. We've done everything right - training, preventative health care, socialization, chose a reputable breeder, etc etc - but still we're here. With a very sick, very young dog at the beginning of a very long hard road.
Dani
I need some advice and hopeful words. Our just under 13 month old golden Marlow has had a rough go of it so far in this life. At 11 months she was diagnosed with masticatory myositis and started a long course of prednisone. She's recovering from that well and everything seemed to be heading in a positive direction. Until this past Saturday that is....
On Saturday morning Marlow and I headed to the park for our daily 45 min fetch session, that includes lots of sniffing in circles, greeting and getting scratches from other park goers, and running after a ball. Less than 10 minutes into play Marlow fell and wouldn't get up. I managed to coax her up but she was limping in her right hind leg and wouldn't put a lot of weight on it. Concerned - the myositis has been stressful and made us very vigilant - I made a vet appointment for an hour later and off we went. The vet did xrays of her hips and sent them away to be reviewed by radiologists, mentioning she thought it might be hip dysplasia (oh the tears that came after that). Radiologists said they wanted another set of xrays including her knees, so Marlow went back today, was sedated and had them done. We just picked her up and got the diagnosis - mild hip dysplasia and a torn ACL in the right leg. Our vet - who is absolutely amazing and LOVES goldens because she has one - said that the dysplasia has likely been there since she was a puppy and the weakness because of it on the right side is what caused the ACL to tear. We're due to have a consult with an orthopaedic surgeon within the next 2 days and surgery very quickly after to repair the ACL.
My questions are:
- What can we expect in terms of recovery, cost, rehab, etc etc?
- Our breeder says that Marlow is too young to have hip dysplasia and that likely at 2 yrs of age when she's done developing the diagnosis will change - her mom is OFA excellent and her dad good. Can the breeder be correct?
- Our breeder also said that the ACL is our fault, that we were overexercising her and she's too young to be playing fetch like that. Is 30-45 min a day with many breaks and a warm up/cool down really too much? She gets plenty of walks too.
- What can we expect with hip dysplasia? As of tonight she's on Hill's Mobility food. Our vet says she wouldn't recommend surgery for mild hip dysplasia.
I'm devastated. I don't know what to do. I love Marlow so so very much and would do anything for her, but it's been 2.5 months of nightmares with her health. We've done everything right - training, preventative health care, socialization, chose a reputable breeder, etc etc - but still we're here. With a very sick, very young dog at the beginning of a very long hard road.
Dani