My Mocha corgi diagnosed with hip dysplasia

Hi guys,

I'm a new member to the community.

I have a Pembroke welsh corgi named mocha. She is a year and half now. She has had on and off limping after long walks for the past 2 month. At first vet thought it could be a sprained or pulled muscle, but yesterday we got her x-rayed and they diagnosed her with hip dysplasia. I will be going to a specialist sometime end of this or next week to get it more carefully examined.

I've attached a x-ray of her and was wondering if any of you guys had similar issues and what treatments were taken. I don't know how to read an x-ray so all I know is what the vet and the tech told me. I'm so saddened by the fact that Mocha might need surgery and hip replacement at such a young age...

Thank you for your time.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on April 23, 2013 at 12:03pm

I can't read x-rays but I would say wait to see what the specialist says. Corgis have funny hips because they are dwarfed, and a "normal" Corgi hip can look dysplastic to a vet who is not familiar with Corgi anatomy. A specialist usually has a broader understanding of what is "normal."

I'm not saying it isn't hip dysplasia, just that if it were me, I would wait to hear what the specialist says.

I'm sorry your Corgi is having lameness issues. :-( I hope you get some good answers from the specialist.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Kim on April 23, 2013 at 12:07pm

Thank you so much.

I will definitely be getting more diagnoses since even our vet has recommended me see a specialist.

Mocha will be getting the best treatment and care possible. It just breaks my heart thinking about what can happen.

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Permalink Reply by Beth on April 23, 2013 at 12:09pm

The images don't load on this computer so I just checked my phone and the hip looks mostly out of the socket in the bottom image. But again I'm not at all familiar with x-rays and know they are meant to position the legs in a certain way to x-ray.

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Permalink Reply by Geri & Sidney on April 24, 2013 at 1:16am

Oh, poor little Mocha! Two and a half years ago, Sidney was diagnosed with HD at the age of three. His left hip was completely dislocated. The good news is, he had FHO surgery and he's good as new. You would never know he ever had HD.

FHO (femoral head ostectomy) is a surgery where they remove the head of the femur. Instead of a ball-and-socket joint, the hip becomes a floating joint with scar tissue holding the leg in place. He had a relatively short (no pun intended) recovery period and then we were encouraged to get him moving as much as possible. We took him to hydrotherapy and it worked wonders. Now he runs, jumps, hikes with no trace of a limp. He does need glucosamine supplements 3x a week to help keep arthritis at bay.

Feel free to go find by blog postings from September 2010 and see how Sidney's recovery went. Mocha will be fine, he's got you to see him through this.

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Permalink Reply by Jane on April 24, 2013 at 8:42pm

I would submit these xrays to the OFA (offa.org) before I did surgery. I am NOT an expert, but from what I've seen of other corgis' xrays and my own, it does look like she may have HD.

Edit: actually her femurs look distorted so I'm guessing she wasn't positioned very well. I'm not sure how that would affect the view, but I'm sure it certainly could. I would still get a second opinion.