Last November Mystic was diagnosed w/ hip dysplasia. After joining i-dog I was informed it would be a good idea to take her to a vet school for an evaluation. Her appointment down at VA-MD vet school was tuesday.
We ended up getting lost on campus (they were redirecting traffic b/c VA Tech was playing the Yankees, I thought was pretty neat) but when I called the woman had me keep telling her what buildings and streets we were passing and we got there w/out too much problem.
For the appointment itself we got some good news and bad news. The bad news was that the X-ray that our vet had done sort of gave us mis-information. From that X-ray it looked like only the right hip was laxating (sp?) but Todd (the student) said that the hips weren't lined up quite right in that X-ray and showed us how we could tell that (I would have never known). So they knocked her out to do more X-rays and on the new ones you could see that actually BOTH hips are dysplasic (sp?) but the right one is the worst of the two.
The good news was that both Todd and Dr. Gonzalas (he was the surgeon that Todd was reporting to) felt that right now Mystic is doing well enough that they are not recommending surgery. They think we should continue w/ the suppliments that we're doing and if she starts showing pain then at that point we can talk about management w/ pain meds or if we want, surgery. The Dr. actually seemed to want to keep us away from surgery if possible, which surprised me. He said if it got worse he would see what could be done w/ pain meds before considering surgery b/c with THR, when it goes well, it's great, but when something goes wrong, its really bad. So we're gonna keep w/ the supplements we've been doing and trying to build up her muscle and keep her lean (still working on that, she's in a healthy weight range but I'd like to see her on the lower side of that). Hopefully when it warms up we'll find a place for her to swim at sometimes.
Overall I thought it went really well. Both Todd and the Dr. made sure to answer all our questions and didn't make me feel dumb for asking (even tho I'm sure some of the questions were). They *loved* Mystic. They couldn't believe how loving she was, even when they extended her hips and it hurt she was trying to give them kisses. The Dr asked us if she's always like this. We told him yes and after that he kept joking that he was gonna keep her b/c she was a perfect dog (*beaming*). I thought he'd change his mind b/c when they took her back to do the X-rays they put her in a kennel and she freaked out. Todd said she completely tore up the cage mat and "redecorated w/ feces and urine" (his words). *Sigh* so much for being on her best behaviour. But even after that the Dr still said he was keeping her and that she was his now.
Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading my book :o)