Got home a bit late after some bizarre confluence of special needs folks at the pharmacy. Got out the door for the pooch-walk at 6:15, wanted to be home by 7:00, so I decided to try and speedy-walk, which consists primarily of me trying to keep up with the dog.
This walk normally takes 45 minutes to an hour, depending on tree-sniffin' and peein' on stuff.
I made it in 30 minutes. With only one poop-stop. Go me. Seriously, that's 30 minutes of aerobic walking, which surprises the hell out of me.
And I got some Ester-C for the pooch. Preventative for hip dysplasia. She's still got the bunny-hop on stairs, but she does alright on flat ground.
Tonight is some playing with the new toy.
This walk normally takes 45 minutes to an hour, depending on tree-sniffin' and peein' on stuff.
I made it in 30 minutes. With only one poop-stop. Go me. Seriously, that's 30 minutes of aerobic walking, which surprises the hell out of me.
And I got some Ester-C for the pooch. Preventative for hip dysplasia. She's still got the bunny-hop on stairs, but she does alright on flat ground.
Tonight is some playing with the new toy.
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magicmarmot- Tom Ramcigam
- Magic Marmot Studios
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new toy!
brother!
Hip dysplasia is a genetic joint disease. You cannot prevent a genetic joint disease with vitamin c. Maybe you can help make the dog less painful (though I'd love to read studies on the effects of vitamin c on osteoarthritis pain) with vitamin c, but you can't prevent it. It's genetic. It's joints.
It's like saying that giving vitamin c will prevent blue eyes, or tallness, or genetic thyroid problems.
Ok, off my soapbox.
http://www.workingdogs.com/doc0039.htm
http://www.nlpp.com/products.html?topic=ester-c
http://www.vetinfo.com/ddyspla.html
What I see is a lot of "It can't hurt, and it might help".
I don't know if she has dysplasia-- original vet when she was a puppy said no-- but she's got some pain and is starting to look possibly arthritic.
It is probably arguing semantics, but what I objected to was not that ester-c would help but your incorrect use of the word "prevent."
Also, nowhere did any of those sites do anything more than a passing mention of a study. What about longterm effects? How does ester-c affect liver and kidney function? Where are the hard medical figures?
It is important to note that some dogs may be highly dysplastic but asymptomatic, and others may only be mild on one hip but suffer a lot of discomfort.
If you're not sure if she's dysplastic or not, have her OFAd. Stillwater Animal Hospital and Smith Veterinary Hospital both have excellent techs skilled at doing OFA radiographs (Dr. Smith is actually the president of the OFA) but any competent vet can tell you if an animal is dysplastic. Hell, I could do that, though it wouldn't be legal.
And your original vet is full of it. You can't tell radiographically if a puppy is dysplastic or not, even with films. OFA requires prelims to wait until the animal is 6 months of age, and will not evaluate an animal's radiographs until 24 months. If your original vet said that she could rule out dysplasia as a puppy (especially if no rads were taken), she's definitely full of it.
Talk to your vet about pain management if you're worried about her limping. Don't go off information on the internet. Please please please take this from someone who sees far too many animals go with chronic pain because "x couldn't hurt." X may not hurt, but doing X in place of Y, which may be 500 times better, can by omission.
It's like advil for a sore foot when you may need a cast.