That's horrible news for you all, I am so sorry Karen You have a plan, plans are good so you can manage him appropriately, he can enjoy his training and have a happy life xx Hmmmm ....... collars on doggies in the house Karen, my very worst nightmare x
I’m so sorry that you are having such medical problems with your dogs. I’ve never had much need for the vet despite one of my previous dogs developing epilepsy but one of my present dogs seems to be permanently in the surgery for something and it does become a huge worry. With Merlin’s hip score I know that this can happen to the best breeders, even those who have 00 scores for several generations but it’s no help if your dog is the one anomaly. At least you now know that there is a problem and can mitigate against it, I do wonder how many dogs who are not hip scored are happily running around with horrible hips and their owners are completely oblivious. I remember watching an interview with ‘Super Vet’ and he said that the biggest problem is that people don’t exercise their dogs during the week and then take them out for a 2 hours run at the weekend and that’s when things go badly wrong and he gets a frantic call. You can do lots of conditioning and swimming with Merlin to support his hips and there is evidence that this can make a big difference. There was a enormous row last year when someone published the hip scores of the Labradors who were taking part in the the IGL championships. Some of these dogs, who were at the top of their game, both physically and mentally had horrible hip scores. From memory I’m sure that there were a couple in the 40s and perhaps one was 50s. The person publishing was furious as one of the dogs had been used at stud! I can’t link as this information caused such a huge row that the thread was deleted but I hope that this knowledge might give you some comfort. We can only do the best for our dogs and I know that you will continue to love them and look after them whatever happens.
Oh gosh! Just catching up with this shocking news. I am really sorry for you, but the good thing is you have discovered Merlin has a problem BEFORE it has become a problem for him. You can plan and adjust accordingly.
I must say that I've been thinking about this an awful lot since reading the news about Merlin. We've got Ella's vaccinations in a couple of months and I'm seriously considering discussing some health testing with the vet.
As soon as Betsy was old enough, I had her joints x-rayed and the results checked by two specialist vets. The only reason I did this was because Betsy was going to step up her gundog training in her second year, and there was just no way I'd put a dog through training for any sport unless I knew that the dog was sound and fit to do it. I personally feel that knowing everything about Charlie's joints from such a young age helped me - because I knew, and adjusted his regime without waiting for symptoms to tell me I'd got it wrong, I think he has massively benefitted as a result. Hopefully it will be the same for Merlin, and he'll get to do lots of stuff with just sensible adjustments. Dogs can work very hard with structures that are not sound, and you would never know that they are working despite their unsound structures, and certainly not because they have a sound one.
I have only just seen this and have read the post from the beginning. I am so sorry, you must be feeling so disappointed that all your hopes for the future may now not take place, but on the other hand they might! I know of Labs with terrible hips who work happily and never appear to be in pain. If the worst comes to the worst, then a hip replacement is a possibility, I had a German Shorthaired Pointer who damaged his hip falling off some agility equipment and he had his hip replaced. Sadly he had epilepsy and died at just 8 years old, but the hip replacement was 100% successful.
Just because they will work - and often work very well - doesn't mean they should work. I've honestly seen spaniels hunt like demons, and looked at their front structures and thought "how on earth....?". Ditto the rear structure on some Labradors. Dogs can be driven to work, with adrenaline masking a lot of pain, and seem to be having the time of their lives. It's just a massive myth that dogs 'tested in the field' have sound structures - it's not true at all. Certainly, if I'd have let him - which I certainly did not - Charlie would have retrieved all day with two busted cruciate ligaments. But this would have been storing up so much trouble for the future.... I constantly agonise over how much I let Charlie do because he loves it, and balance that against him living a long, happy and pain free life. He does train, very occasionally work, and he is checked over by specialist vets ever month, and we discuss how he is doing, and what is ok for the next month.... Best of luck to Karen and Merlin. If my experience is anything to go by, with enough care you can make it work....
Thank you @JulieT. That's much how I look at it - I'm glad I know what the situation is regarding Merlin's hips, because, like you with Charlie, it means I can make informed decisions, with his best interests at heart. We'll make it work, one way or the other. I have a plan in place, but it's flexible and depends on his level of fitness and how his hips are holding up. At present he is pain-free, mobile and completely happy, and that is a great base to be starting from, rather than only finding out he had a problem due to limping as a result of arthritis.
I am sure the owners of dogs with bad hips would not knowingly work their dogs to harm them. I think the hips have been discovered later in old age. Not everyone has their dogs x-rayed. I always thought my deceased lab had bad hips as sometimes he had a funny walk, but when x-rayed near the end of his life, his hips were perfect.
Just catching up on this thread now and wanted to say I'm so sorry for Merlin's diagnosis. He doesn't know how lucky he is to have such a good mama who will do all to make sure he has a happy, normal life. Or on second thought, he probably DOES know how lucky he is to have you as his mama. Your plan sounds like a good one and hearing about how you get on will help educate a lot of people here who may be facing similar circumstances. Love that photo upthread, by the way - those are two gorgeous pups. And yes, Merlin, i bet it DOES mean you get a new bed.
No, I'm sure no caring owner would deliberately make things worse. I was just really saying a dog's enthusiasm for work is no guide at all as to what is best for the dog. It's interesting that people with dogs working don't do x-rays unless they plan on breeding. Most serious agility people will x-ray dogs, and some do so every year. Personally, I think dogs destined for hard work should have x-ray of their joints. It's just sensible. I'd go further and say with what seems to be approaching a crisis in Labrador joint disease, I wouldn't even train any Labrador hard unless I knew they had sound joints. I appreciate that might seem outlandish to some, but it's what I think. There is the flip side too, of course. The very best bit of vet advice I ever had about Charlie, very relevant to Merlin, is to not "invalid him out". By that he meant don't treat Charlie like an invalid, wrapped in cotton wool, and I'm glad I didn't. Charlie has slabs of muscle, on his bum and shoulders, and I can't but think this helps everything.
I haven't had my Lab x-rayed and would be reluctant to put him under unnecessary anaesthetic. He has worked for three years, one year with me and two years for my friend, however, she is now retiring so he won't work anymore.
Here in Germany, most people who work their dogs and/or compete in working tests have them x-rayed, for exactly that reason. It's not mandatory (except for breeding purposes), but serious breeders really encourage it for their litters, and the clubs also really encourage their members to have the hips scored. At first I thought it was odd; now it just seems an extremely sensible precaution. This is very true; and almost everyone has been telling me exactly that. Don't stop working him; build up his muscles, keep him on the thin side of slim, and then work him sensibly.
Yep, exactly. Some dogs enter a vicious circle of doing less, having less muscle, suffering more, so doing less.... I think I have the opposite with Charlie. He has a virtuous circle of doing more, building muscle, so doing even more, and building more muscle...
