Anyone familiar with reading hip xrays?
I had some xrays done on Luke because of this mild limp that won't seem to go away, and the vet did a hip xray just in case (we're both pretty sure it's his knee though, see an orthopedist next Monday). Anyway she thought he had "mild to moderate" hip dysplasia, more so in the left hip. I was hoping to find out if he really does have HD or if the vet just isn't used to seeing corgi hips. I could try to send them in to OFA I suppose, but since I didn't ask ahead of time I'm not sure if the xray is up to their standards. I already have him on glucosamine and try to keep him on the lean side, so I'm not horribly concerned about it at the moment, but I'd like to know for sure, ya know?
And is it just me or does the contrast on this xray kind of suck? lol
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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I can't read x-rays but I've had more than one Corgi breeder express frustration with OFA; one small breeder said they can send in the same x-rays more than once and get them labeled "fair" one time and mildly dysplastic the next. So I can't read them, but I do know that lots of vets have trouble with Corgi hips and a normal Corgi hip can look dysplastic on x-ray.
Are you in touch with the breeder? He/she probably has experience interpreting x-rays. I think with Corgis, a lot of good breeders look at the x-ray but also the whole dog and how it moves and acts, since the x-rays alone can be misleading.
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Permalink Reply by Rachael & Waffle on
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The left-side hip does look dysplastic.
Here is a normal hip X-ray (though the hip on the right side of the pic is visibly looser than the left side, but not dysplastic):
Here is an abnormal hip X-ray (actually of his back, but you can see what looks like a dysplastic hip on the right, going off the page):
So, Luke's hip definitely looks dysplastic, but the above X-rays are both of Waffle! The dysplastic looking one is because he wasn't set up right for a hip X-ray. If your vet knew what she was doing, then it appears Luke may have a bum hip--based on these X-rays.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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Left hip looking at the x-ray or his left hip? To me it looks like his right hip is more dysplastic but that would be grasping. To me it looks like his femurs are incredibly distorted so I'd say an diagnosis he made on these x-rays should be taken with a grain of salt. His pelvis also looks slightly rotated to his right which will also distort the x-ray. While I am in no way able to diagnose anything, I am currently in a radiology class and a big portion of it is critiquing x-rays. I wouldn't call this x-ray OFA ok. Was he anesthetized or sedated for them? If not, then it for sure wouldn't be worth sending to OFA because you can't get the proper positioning without sedation/anesthesia.
Here is an x-ray taken of Franklin's pelvis while he was under anesthesia. He has been x-rayed twice by 2 different vets for unresolved limping and both have said he has excellent hips. You can use it to compare positioning (even though this one isn't perfect, but its better). If you look at Franklin's femurs vs Luke's you will see what I mean by how distorted Luke's are in this film. Its not a conformation thing, its a positioning thing, which will throw off the position of his hip joint and may create a dysplastic look when its not really there. (sorry this was taken with a cell phone so quality isn't that great).
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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on
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The orthopedist should be qualified to give you a better evaluation of the current X-rays. If it's the knee causing the limp, you can repeat the hip x-rays at a later date, when he's healed from the knee injury. I would call several of the Corgi breeders in your general area and see who they use for hip x-rays. It is common for breeders to use a vet for their general needs and someone else for hip x-rays to be submitted to OFA. Fingers crossed.
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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on
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Sidney has hip dysplasia. Your corgi's hips look really good to me!
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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I've heard that any radiologist will call a corgi's x-ray dysplastic, that all corgis are borderline dyplastic. Get a second opinion from someone experienced with the breed.
Keep the animal lean, do the glucosamine/MSM thing (it might help, a good placebo at worst). Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by Jane on
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Thank you for the replies everyone. Yes he was sedated for these, which is one of the reasons I'm kind of annoyed they don't appear to be very good xrays. His leg xray at least looks good which is the important one I guess. I'm obviously no expert but I was comparing them to others on breeder's blogs and such and I didn't think they looked that bad. (And the xray may be flipped...sorry I took this with my camera on a lightbox real quick so I may not have had it the right way). Either way he is already on Dasaquin with MSM and there's nothing else I could really do at this point for his hips even if I was sure he had HD. Unfortunately I'm not really in touch with his breeder and I honestly do not trust my vet's opinion on this. I'm debating picking one of the breeders from the blogs I follow and seeing if they will just give me a quick opinion....I hate to bother people though.
Oh and his limp is on his rear right...vet said the HD was on the left. So it's not even the correct leg to be causing the limp lol. She thinks there's something going on with his tibia or his knee joint, but could find no sign of loose knees or hips when he was sedated. Hopefully the orthopedist will have an answer. Kind of annoyed it took me 4 vet trips to get a referral though. Argh.
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I think corgis just have bum right legs. Its a breed thing lol. Franklin has had a limp with heavy exercise for almost 2 years now. Been examined by 2 vets, nobody found anything wrong. The last one said soft tissue injury and to rest him. He was rested, but on anti-inflammatories but still will have a limp after a long fetch session. I've read on here of several other corgis with right hind leg lameness off and on, so I'm going to have to diagnose corgis with bum right legs and save us all some money. :-D
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Haha thanks for the diagnosis! We've tried resting him multiple times (which he loves as you can imagine), anti-inflammatories, different supplements, etc with no change. Eventually I just said screw it, let him be a dog and manage the symptoms until we can figure it out. 95% of the time he is fine and runs around like crazy, but that other 5% kills me to see him hurt. If I give him Metacam he acts 100% fine, but I don't want to keep him on that forever...right now I just give him a dose if he seems sore. This has been going on for almost a year now and it's so frustrating! I'm sure to the vets who don't see him every day it seems like a very minor lameness (she said 0-1 on their scale), but ugh, I just want to know what is wrong with my little guy.
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I am totally with you on this. I've been dealing with Frank's lameness for over a year as well. And his only shows up when we play fetch for a while and then he will hop and/or not put weight on his right leg for about a day then its gone. The vets generally can't even see a limp when I take him in the day after but it is SO BAD the day of a heavy play session. Wish I knew what was causing it! He had a muscle biopsy on that leg about 1 1/2 years ago and I dont' know if they damaged a nerve or something when taking the biopsy because this showed up after that and vets keep saying its soft tissue and not a bone issue. Wish Frank could tell me exactly where the pain was.
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Oh sure, Sidney has to be the outlier, LOL! His bum leg is his left :)
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Permalink Reply by Chris, Kadi & Brodie on
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I spent lots of years helping to take xrays to send to the OFA and I can tell you this is not a good enough one to submit. The placement is not right for it to be read properly.
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