Hip dysplasia and weight

kamfam · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:10 am Post subject: Hip dysplasia and weight

Darby has HD but it seems to be controlled with gluc/condroitin supplements and being underweight. I know that her weight should be monitored closely as to not gain too much, but my question is, how underweight should she be? She is very thin right now, I'm guessing between 5-10lbs underweight. Her spine and hips are very prominent. Her foster family had her in daycare 5 days a week where she got a TON of exercise and was being fed 8 cups of food per day. IMO, that is an INCREDIBLE amount of food.

I'll try to get some pics of her body today.

AmyB · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

Wow! That is alot of food! What kind of food was it?

I think just 5lbs underweight is a good place for her to be. I try to keep Holly on the skinny side too because of her HOD but it's hard because she's always eating what my son throws on the floor.

kamfam · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:30 am Post subject:

versatilek9s · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 9:39 am Post subject:

I keep all my dogs "underweight," for lots of reasons, but HD is one of them. I don't like to see much backbone, but hips sticking out and easily seen ribs are fine with me. Generally a vet will tell you if the dog is too skinny...though I have never heard it from mine. Good hard muscle tone also helps--so you can see the dogs aren't being starved. I would have to easily put 10-15 lbs on Maya to take her into the show ring.

I had an opportunity to test my underweight hypothesis with HD about a week ago when we did PennHIP. My vet said that in 20 years of practice he'd never seen hips so tight. In addition, I regularly have people ask me how old my puppies are...they are 4 and 6 (and one really is a puppy!).

I'll attach some pics when I can. 8 cups is a HUGE amount of food! I knew someone else who fed eagle pack (actually the owner of this year's WCA national field champion) and she also had to feed 6+ cups.

meredith

versatilek9s · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:02 pm Post subject:

This is Maya too skinny. She was still in great shape, but people raised eyebrows.

This is her the way I like her. Her hipbones are still very visible, vertebrae still pretty prominent. This is still too skinny to take into the ring when you put your hands on her and realize there's not any fat. This is what a healthy underweight dog looks like.

Sorry about the ugly stacking--hard without a helper!

meredith

kamfam · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:09 pm Post subject:

Great pictures. Darby looks very much like the top one. How do you gauge a "healthy skinny"?

anne · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:18 pm Post subject:

Hip bones is usually a good guage. You can see too much of the hip bones in the first pic of Maya.

8 cups of food??? What are the poops like? If there are large amounts of poop maybe it's just going thru the system too fast so even tho the volume is large, she's not getting all the nutritional benefits?

versatilek9s · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:28 pm Post subject:

I look at the muscle definition. The dog should feel "hard" when you touch them, not just bony. Good muscle structure around her hips and thighs will also help her with any arthritis the HD causes. Lots of dogs can have HD and be asymptomatic with it for years as long as they have great supporting musculature. I also really want muscle definition down their loin/back to help them avoid back injuries. When she jumps up, the muscles running down her backbone should feel very tight.

If you want to put some weight on quickly, this website has some great recipes, and some great articles in general:

http://lowchensaustralia.com/health/diet4.htm

Glad those photos helped!

kamfam · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:28 pm Post subject:

kamfam · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:30 pm Post subject:

versatilek9s · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 12:44 pm Post subject:

Running off leash, as long as she wants to run and it doesn't hurt her. I ride bikes with my dogs a lot...with Darby maybe do it off leash so she can let you know when she's had enough. Old fire service roads in national forests or any dirt road will work. You can also get her a pulling harness, and make her pull you on leash. My dogs know when their pulling harness goes on, they pull hard!

I think I posted on another thread about eagle pack...as good as it looks, I don't like it b/c of what you said. Every dog I know that ate it had to eat HUGE amounts of food. There a lots of threads about food, we fed Innova before we switched to raw and they did awesome on it.

You can still see Maya's hipbones in this shot that I took today if you look...

Sorry about the butt shot...Maya is a hussy anyway so she probably wouldn't mind. She's not stacked, she's sending me ESP to go away and leave her butt alone! Very Happy

meredith

anne · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:04 pm Post subject:

Nice rear

But you don't see the "pokey" hip bones!

versatilek9s · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject:

LOL...you're right, no pokeys. Very Happy

Wrench · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject:

For the adding muscles question.... If they have HD then maybe swimming would be a good work out? It's no impact but can do wonders...I see the difference it does in Wrench's muscles even though he's a whale belly compared to these guys! and he doesn't have HD but he is a puppy with growing bones.