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Well, Carrot survived his ordeal at the vets. He spent the day there pretty much. Dropped him in at a little after 8:30, walked away feeling a total traitor (left him his raggedy-cow toy to chew whilst he was waiting for the anaesthetic). Picked him up around 4pm.
The news is not as bad as I had feared and not as good as I had hoped.
He has a mild form of hip dysplasia. The joints aren't very badly malformed, nowhere near as bad as it can get, but nor are they quite right. The balls of the joints are slightly flattened at the head, and the sockets of the joints quite shallow.
I've seen what bad hip dysplasia can do and it's really horrible. I'm profoundly relieved that's not what he has to face. In some dogs the ball of the joint is barely bigger than the shaft, sometimes completely flat, like a little hammerhead. The socket can form so flat that there is no surround to the ball at all. And in the worst cases the two are actually at a slight distance from each other and not connecting at all as a joint, with muscle alone holding the two pieces together. At it's worst it is crippling.
The good news is that catching it at this age offers an opportunity to intervene whilst he is still growing and really strengthen the muscles around the joints. He'll be going for visits to the hydrotherapy pool to boost them. It won't make a massive difference to the next few years, but will hopefully payoff when he's a little older. What is done now has major implications for his quality of life past the age of 5 or 6.
He's fine. But it's worrying me a little. With shallow hipjoints he's at possible risk of dislocation if the joints are stressed. A fall or a bad landing could be a real problem. I have decided not to do agility classes with him (as I had considered doing once he hits a 1 year old), and will have to be a little cautious where I let him run free. Pilau was a little mountain goat and cuold always be relied upon to find a way up and over anything. Carrot has the same inclination, but when I think of some of the tumbles Pil took, I really don't like that thought for Carrot and his shallow hip joints.
Was so sad looking at his xrays. Flat on his back with his legs downwards, looked like a little human :p
Anyways. Yeah. A little upset at the thought of him having anything bad to contend with really.
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