Jump to content
BC Boards

Tess after THR


herdcentral
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi, I thought I would post a video of my 14 month old Border collie first time on sheep after having Total hip replacement surgery nearly 14 weeks ago. She was diagnosed just after 6 months old and was very lame. I had to wait till she was 10 months old to do the surgery. I am thrilled with the results as the other option was euthanasia it was that bad.

 

I am looking forward now to working with her. I like what I am seeing particularly as this is probably only her 5th time on sheep, she had one of the older ewes stand up to her and she didn't give an inch and had a controlled intensity about her that moved the sheep on.. I have no commands on her as yet so we are right at the beginning of our journey. I may have to do the other hip but that will remain to be seen. Just so happy seeing her able to do what she was born to do.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking good.

Do you know what the prognosis is after such a surgery?

In human medicine these kind of operations are being postponed as long as possible, to make them last the life time of the patient. Of course dogs live shorter (in relation to this an advantage) also the hip in a quadruped doesn´t take as much pressure.

But on the other hand a working dog needs quite some athletic capability.

It will be interesting to follow this dog, would be nice if you would keep us informed. As far as I know these surgeries are not performed on animals here in Iceland.

I am also curious why you choose this option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking good.

Do you know what the prognosis is after such a surgery?

In human medicine these kind of operations are being postponed as long as possible, to make them last the life time of the patient. Of course dogs live shorter (in relation to this an advantage) also the hip in a quadruped doesn´t take as much pressure.

But on the other hand a working dog needs quite some athletic capability.

It will be interesting to follow this dog, would be nice if you would keep us informed. As far as I know these surgeries are not performed on animals here in Iceland.

I am also curious why you choose this option.

 

These days there is a system called an uncemented hip replacement system (I have the Biomedtrix BFX). So the parts are not cemented into place, they are press fit and held by friction and the bone grows into them. The cemented systems over time can loosen but this is not a problem with the uncemented system and will easily out last the dog so can be used on younger dogs. The materials are also very high tech.

 

I chose this option because it gives the best outcome for a totally normal hip function. The key is to find a surgeon who has done at least a 100 hips and there is one specialist where I live at our University vet school who has this experience.

 

He will only do the surgery if the life of the dog is not viable without. My dog was so bad when my local vet who deals with a lot of working dogs took the x-rays she rang me up and asked me if I wanted to euthanaise while my dog was still sedated.

 

She continued to get worse while I waited till her growth plates had closed and was unable to run without falling over. it was horrible to watch. The specialist didn't even think twice in her case. The first hip is successful in 85-90% of cases. 10% of cases have complications and 5% of those can be fixed and 5% are a disaster. Generally the disasters are most likely to occur where it is impossible to keep the dog quiet in the first 4-6 weeks weeks or the owner does not follow the strict protocol. My girl has been crate and penned trained so was very good thank goodness. If I need her other hip done at least we know this so her chances of success are good

 

There are dogs doing agility and working sheep and doing protection sports after THR surgery. I doubt I will run her through the yards where a dog has to back sheep and jump panels, I have my super athletic kelpie and my other BC for that. I want her to be a paddock dog and to perhaps trial with.

 

I will keep you up to date with her progress. I found it very helpful to read other peoples experiences when undertaking this surgery because it is really scary in those first 6 weeks where there is risk of dislocation, fracture if the implant subsides and infection. Her femur fissured during surgery when they tapped the stem of the implant into her femur and they had to use a circle of wire to brace it, the sciatic nerve was also temporarily damaged. This surgery is harder the smaller the dog.

 

I sent the video to her surgeon and he is very pleased with her progress and he is keen for her to have a working life so will work with him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...