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hip dysplasia

is hip dysplasia a very serious problem, and are coonhounds prone to having this?

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Wills creek blues!
Imperials Blue Bradley

I'm sure it's a very serious problem if your dog has it. I have never owned a hound that had, it least not to my knowlege. Don't know anyone who has. It doesn't seem to be prevelant among coonhound from what I can tell.

HD in Coonhounds

Hip Dysplasia has been found mostly in B&Ts and Redbones - but it HAS been found in all the coonhound breeds.

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SKY
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Author of the novel "Follow Jennifer"

I've had two.

Both were Walker females. First one was in the 70's & a granddaughter of hers in the 90's. The first one I had the ball of the hip joint taken off, & about three to four months later had to go back in & take some calcium deposits out. She had trouble getting around in the woods, getting over big logs, swimming, & etc. I'll never go through that again. The second one I didn't do anything different then I did with the rest of the dogs. I considered both of them three legged dogs, but the second one got around better than the first one. They both did their best to knock a hole in the dark when I turned them loose, but I also couldn't help but feel sorry for both of them. A pup of the first female, & sire of the second was Nt. Ch. Pr. Wittenborn's Bourbon which needed one win to be a Gr. Nt. CH. (as an early three year old) when I pulled him from all comp. hunts for getting to growly around the tree. He was a super athletic type of dog, 80 lbs. & could fly on track. I.M.O. I think it is inherited, & for this reason I will not say what strains of dogs that they were out of.

My brother bought a brittany earlier this year it had HD vet recomended putting it to sleep because of problems with activity. So he did then bought a Golden retriever. Tried to sell him a walker pup he didnt think it would retrieve ducks very well.lol

It just cost me $1,100.00 to have ONE leg fixed on my wife's house dog! I could've bought 10 more house dogs for her at that price, but I've sure been able to hunt more lately! LOL

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Alan R. Holding
Fishers, IN

"Champions don't become champions in the winner's circle, they are merely recognized there!"

Home of "PKC CH UKC CH GR NITE CH HOLDING'S NORTHERN ROCKET (2001 B&T Days King of Hunt, 2001 UKC World Championship High Scoring Black & Tan, 2003 Purina Coonhound of the Year Breed Winner, and 2006 AKC World Champion Black & Tan)

Home of PKC CH GRCH GRNITECH BLACK IRON STRIKE - co-owned w/Darrell Bodkin

Home of GRCH GRNITECH BLACK JOLENE - co-owned with Darrell Bodkin

Home of NT CH Rocket's Little Witch - co-owned with Paul Bennett

Home of NTCH Black River Boots - co-owned with Derrick Bridge

Past Home of GRNITECH THE JOKER - now owned by Darrell Bodkin

Home of CH GR NITE CH ROCKET'S DEADLY LITTLE DIXIE (2007 AKC World Champion Black & Tan)

Home of PKC CH, UKC GRNITECH FUEL'S WICKED WITCH

Home of GRNITECH WHITE'S BLACK RIVER BONES - co-owned w/Darrell Bodkin

Past Home of GRNITE CH Ozark's Smokin' Fizz - Owned BY Don Martin

Past Home of NATIONAL GR NITE CH BLACK & TAN - CH GR NITE CH HOLDING'S ROCKET FUEL (2006 National Grand Nite Champion of Breed, 2006 UKC World Coonhound Championship High Scoring Black & Tan; 2006 Georgia State Champion; 2007 UKC World Coonhound Championship High Scoring Black & Tan)

HA d a redbone with displaysia, cost to much to put in a new joint so we left him alone.His one back leg moved funny when he ran.I would give him 1/2 an aspirin each day with his food to help with circulation.He finally died at 13-14 years old.

My wife raises Golden Retrievers which is a breed that has a huge problem with HD. Dysplasia has different degrees of severity which can range from a mildly uncomfortable problem to a totally debilitating skeletal deformity. I have personally seen dogs that had HD so severe that the only thing that kept the hind legs on the dog were the muscles, there was absolutely no head on the femur and the hip socket was flat. This dog could barely walk, but swam like a beaver. By the age of 2 it was in such poor shape that it had to be put down. Personally I have never seen a UKC hound that had HD. I see by some of the other posts that a few other people have, and I hope that none of these dogs were ever bred. HD is a very difficult trait to breed out and it is also a very expensive disease to asses correctly when choosing breeding stock. HD is a very serious problem, particularly with dogs used for performance uses like coonhounds. If you want more detailed information I would suggest that you visit with your vet and check out the "Pennhip" site on the web.

my vet said my dog had HD, and i think she was giving me a line of BS

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Wills creek blues!
Imperials Blue Bradley

Tell it straight Jimmy

She just wanted him to be a bagless wonder and was pulling out all the stops to get you to ok it... we need those xrays to show to someone else...

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Fan of the of the Bragg and Vaughn Blues !! TREE OLD HUSSLER in Memory of DOC Householder... Rest in Peace Rev. Kenneth Adkins my dear friend !! Home Will's Creek Savage Sioux-Zee!!
Yeah, I competition hunt !! All Fall and Winter long.. My Blues compete with the local coon.. My Blues win a ton !!! We use and recommend MOONSHINER LIGHTS, Peggs , Ok.

I worked for a vet a while ago and

was outraged at the HD issues I saw. 7/8 dogs under the age of one year that had been diagnosed as HD had perfect x-rays at 2 or younger.

according to my vet the culprit at causing the hysteria, DOG FOOD. Purina puppy chow being the most noted. layman's terms according to several vets I have talked to about the issue over the last 3-4 years (which seems to be growing) is that commercial puppy food is growing our pups like livestock to be butchered, by producing rapid growth at young ages. basically in a nut shell larger breeds (seen this in labs, rotts, goldens, malinois, mastiffs to name a few) are growing too fast for their joints. I have been told there's nothing you can feed a dog to make the joints grow rapidly like you can muscle and bones. feeding food that grows larger breeds too fast at a young age put on the muscle and rapidly grow the bones weakening the hips/shoulders as a common symptom.

Since glycoflex, msm/gluc, and chondrotin have appeared a lot of people quit putting their pups down due to dysplastic joints and some of these diagnosed with dysplastic joints seemed to miraculously heal themselves and produce clean x-rays in a matter of months. now there are many vets that are still quick to diagnos HD in young dogs, my malinois breeder that produced most the malinois I get for police dogs had a similar issue with a littermate of one of my dogs at just under a year. He was sold to a service home and the vet tending to the dog took his prelims and discovered HD and rendered the dog unsound and told the owner that he'd be crippled. the breeder called me and I sent her to a specific specialist and told her to wait a month or two after he was back on his normal food (we feed the same food).

Less than 2 months the dog was taken to the specialist and the results were definitely NOT the same. she brought in her x-rays from the original vet and had another set taken. The specialist told her there were no crippling issues in the hips of the dog and confirmed what I had told her. he did notice some minor issues and told her that they looked to be fixing themselves with age and proper nutrition. he also told her that the dog would have issues with his hips being a working dog, but it would be way beyond the working age of the dog, he figured about 10 years of age. the pup was given a clean bill of health and hips cleared at just under a year of age. unfortunately the pup was pulled from working by the first diagnosis and was set to go to a pet home based on the first vet's recomendations before the specialist saw the dog and cleared it.

A friend had similar issue with a lab pup that was about 6 mos old. vet gave him remadyl and told him to take him off purina puppy chow and get him on decent food. I had him switch to what I feed and within a month and a half there was no tenderness, soreness and the pup could swim, run, and jump without limping and pain (by 9 mos of age).

My cousin had a golden retriever that was diagnosed at 5 mos with severe HD. The breeder refunded the money and left her to deal with the dog. By the time the dog was a year of age he had CLEAN x-rays and she didn't change his food.

as one vet told me, our dogs are not going to be butchered at 6-9 months old and do not need to be full size by then so we need to quit feeding them as such and let them grow evenly and slowly. rapid growth puts a lot of pressure on joints and there's nothing you can do to promote full sized joints in this age and just as with children joint issues arise when the joints cannot keep up and support the bones.

I honestly cannot count how many people I know have had pups diagnosed with HD the last 4 years and had their pups pull out by a year and a half with clean x-rays. I can only think of three dogs that did not pull out of HD. a specialist I talked to told me that HD IS STILL a very real issue, but it is one of the most common misdiagnosed and not as prevelant as when the general public thinks. she told me it makes her sick to think about the hundreds of young dogs put down every year due to HD that were not true HD cases and would have turned out perfectly healthy.

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It ain't the bark, it ain't the growl, it's the bite that hurts!