It was a torn CCL and ruptured Medial Meniscus. He did have surgery last Oct and he is doing well. He just came out of the house off the porch and was holding up his leg. Wouldn't put any pressure on it sctreamed when we rolled him over to check his leg. There was no swelling to speak of and the xray determined that this was the problem but they couldn't tell how bad the CCL was until they got inside and it was only holding together by a fiber. He evidently injured it going down the porch stairs or chasing his toy in the house.

nm

Hip dysplasia does not occur overnight. 3 years ago, my Clem suddenly began to limp/favoring his back leg. I took him to a vet that did a complete set of x-rays, he was determined that Clem's lameness was due to HD and arthritis. I in turn insisted that even if the x-rays showed HD that the current problem was sudden and therefore I didn't believe that HD could be the cause. I took him to a vet that sees a lot of Bulldogs, his diagnosis was a torn ACL. We first attempted to treat with rest but ultimately he had to have surgery. That was 3 years ago, he continues to have a beautiful gate with no lameness at all and he is 11 years old.

Good luck

Lynn K

This is wonderful news to me. I have a 1 year old that has horrible x-rays of her hip sockets. She is sound and happy. I almost wish I hadn't seen her x-rays because I constantly think "when are we going to have to have that hip surgery?" I keep her exercising to build her muscles to keep that hip joint sound. And Joint suppliments,too. Your story gives me hope that I might never have to do the hip repalcement surgery in her.

My last bulldog had bad hip problems that we didn't even know about until she tore her ACL and had her xrayed. Sad to say she was a puppymill puppy. When the vet xrayed her she was around 6 years old and she had no hip sockets at all. What was holding her hips in place was lots of muscle. He said it looked like she had hip surgery and a muscled flap was formed to hold her hips in place. her symptoms were exactly like what Patti said when she was a puppy with lots of weakness in her back legs which we thought was from her being in a cage most of her young life at that point. She had no problems with her hips during her life and lived to a ripe old age of 11 and a half.

I WOULD NOT DO THE SURG. CRATE FOR A FEW WEEKS AND SEE HOW SHE DOES.

AGAIN, I KNOW 2 PEOPLE WHO WERE TOLD TO DO THIS AND THE X-RAYS WERE FINE!!!!

Vicky Bosco & Bella

Bulldog Club of Greater Seattle

http://www.rainyday.net/bcgs

Perhaps Kinko or someplace like that would be able to scan it and put it on a disc for you. Or, if you want to mail them to me to look at and for my vet's opinion, email me privately and I'll give you my mailing address.

However, Carl, from what you have described with the sudden onset and holding the leg up and not bearing weight on it, it is NOT her hips, but she has injured her leg, perhaps bruised her hip joint, pulled tendon, etc.

I am quite sure if you crate rested her with very limted activity for about two weeks, she will be back as fine as ever.

Patti,

I actually have the xrays at my house, but I have no idea how I would scan them (don't have a scanner). Any suggestions?

What caused me to take her to the vet to have an xray was the fact that should would not put any pressure on her left leg last Friday. She held the leg up high and would not put it on the gorund. She was obviously in pain (or at least very uncomfortable). I thought at first that it was just from playing with her sister, but the vet could not find any sore spots on the leg. Thus, she did the xray (then she did 2 more to get diffent angles).

Is there anyway you can "scan" the x-ray and email it to me, or even post it? It is really hard to make a judgement without seeing the x-ray. Describing as "loose", in OFA terms, still can be decent and ok for a Bulldog. And as I said, with the muscle mass, you'll never know or have a problem. The thing I would be concerned with, is that this is a new procedure. I know my vet is excited about it. But....and this is the point, there certainly isn't a long track record, especially doing with a Bulldog, to know the long term effects. So, unless I had a puppy that from the time it was getting up and "trying" to walk I could tell there were problems with the rear, had absolutely no stability or strength, and wouldn't even want to attempt to get up and run around or play, I wouldn't think of doing this procedure. This is for what medically would be considered crippling HD, where by the time a dog is not even 6 months old, it can barely get up and around, let alone walk down the sidewalk for a couple of houses. At least, this is my feelings and opinion.

You still haven't explained what prompted you to have the hips x-rayed.

As the vet explained the procedure to me, the hips are not actually touched. Cartilidge producing cells are removed from the middle of the pelvic bone, which then causing the pelvic bone (and therefore the hips) to form differently. This procedure will cost about $1,000.

Very happy to hear about Bubba's successful surgery.

These bulldogs certainly are expensive to maintain!

If you go to the link he has, it has diagrams that show. I tried explaining it the other day, but said pictures show it better.

If fact, this is not done by major surgery, as with the type I think you had. This is by laproscopic surgery where they fuse the pelvic bone in the middle.

Patti,

I took Ruby to another vet today that is a 'bulldog specialist' orthopedic surgeon. He has over 200 bulldog patients and has performed thousands of procedures on bulldogs (he says that bulldogs per capital require the highest number of surgical procedures). He confirmed that Ruby's hips were incredibly loose (even for a bulldog) and there is a good chance that this procedure will prevent some future problems.

The JPS is certainly a new procedure and I a nervous about it, but what choice do I have? If I know she is going to have a high likiehood of painful hips her entire life and I have a chance to avoid some of that pain by this procedure it seems to be a prudent decision. Do you agree?

My puppy Bubba had this surgery at 6 months b/c he had severe hip dysplasia and he is doing FABULOUS today. He actually had to have two surgeries --- one on each hip --- but he made it through and is feeling so much better. My doctor said that it is better to have the surgery when they are young and their hips are not fully developed so they grow into their new hips. Bubba is a new dog and I would recommend the surgery to anyone w/ a pup w/ severe hip dysplasia at such an early age. However, it did cost me $5,000 so I might be the sucker if I could have done something else but my philososphy is that I will and did do anything for my baby.

I said that my vet is doing that procedure here in Las Vegas. He says though it is normally other breeds that you use it on because HD is far more crippling for them compared to a Bulldog with a lot of muscle mass.

I had asked, and don't think you answered though, what "symptoms" caused you to have the puppy x-rayed? Because, if a puppy has HD that severe, you will know by even how they start walking, not being able to get up on their hind legs, etc. And, when a vet checks them even at 8 weeks, it is very easy and standard to check and manipulate the rear legs/hips to see if they are loose or popping.

Was it a Bulldog vet that checked the x-rays? Because, if a vet is not familiar with Bulldogs, and refers you to a "specialist", they'll say, Yeah, the dog has HD and let's do this surgey" when it really isn't needed.

Just wanting to point a few issues out, because I've only known of a few Bulldogs who were so bad at that young of an age, and they were pet shop/puppy mill dogs.

In fact, over 25 years ago my first Bulldog friend here in LV had a bitch who's hips were terrible...totally out of the socket. But, you would have never known, and she lived to 7 or 8, and died of cancer. But, she was a hefty bitch with a lot of muscle mass.

See page 3.

http://www.vetmed.vt.edu/Publications/News/ColNewsletters/VetNotes/VetNotes_102.pdf