A Crippling Revelation: Dealing with Hip Dysplasia in our Dog

It's funny how blogging has come to resemble life.  When I sarted this blog, it was my attempt to chronicle a period of my life that would be spent studying, learning and absorbing life in Madrid and Spanish history and culture.  Instead, as I sit here, I'm writing yet another entry that has nothing to do with Spain.  Yet like life, the topic of this entry will effect my life and eventual removal to Spain.Two days ago my family learned of another challenge that we will facing in the coming days and months.  On Tuesday afternoon we learned that our four-legged housemate has severe Hip Dysplaysia in both hips.

 Buddy has been living with us for just over a year now and has carved out a place in all of our hearts.  He is a 17month old Labrador Retriever mix with great temperment and a constanly wagging tail.  We knew we had a winner with him the first time my five year-old sat on his back and pulled a rawhide chew out of his mouth.  Buddy didn't bite, growl, bark, or even react.  He just sat there like nothing had happened.  A minute later Ben gave the chew back and Buddy resumed his former position. 

Buddy's life began like thousands of other dogs who find themselves on the street from birth.  In August of 2009, he was born in a ditch along the side of the road.  His mother was a stray who was grossly underweight.  Depsite being a Chocolate Lab mix, she weighed only 38 pounds after giving birth to her puppies.  Also tragic was her advanced age.  They estimated her age at eight years when she had this litter of puppies. 

Buddy's first bit of luck in life happened when the woman who owned the aforementioned ditch took pity on the old Lab and her tiny puppies.  She took the litter in, raising them for a week, then making the phone call that would change all the puppies lives for the good.

At a very young age, Buddy and his litter mates were taken in by a wonderful woman named Denise who operates the Save a Mom Pregnant Dog Rescue.  Save a Mom Rescue is a gem of an operation located in East Sparta, Ohio, just south of Canton.  She takes in pregant dogs and dogs that have recently had puppies, with the sole goal of adopting out both the moms and the babies.  In many cases, the dogs that Denise saves would be euthanized at another facility.

Buddy spent his first few months at Save a Mom before being adopted for the first time.  His first family had come with the intention of adopting one of his siblings, but ended up going home with both of the remaining puppies instead of just one.  I know very little about the six weeks that Buddy spent at that other home, although under their care he wasn't Buddy at all, but instead went by the name Milo.  In the end though, Milo wasn't a good fit for their family.  After six weeks time, Buddy's first owner called, in tears, and said she needed to return  one of the puppies.  She said simply that two lab pups was one too many.  So Milo, or Buddy, ended up right where he started.

Our relationship with Buddy began on a rainy Saturday a week and a half before Christmas 2009.  For a little over a year before that I had been working on my wife about getting a puppy.  I used all the typical arguements about kids and puppies, security, etc... and finally she caved and agreed to go look with us.  A week earlier I had begun asking around, which meant telling my Mother I was thinking about getting a dog, and had been referred to Denise and Save a Mom from the Tuscarawas County Humane officer, Karen Slough.  So by that Saturday, everything was in place and we went off to meet Buddy/Milo, a energetic, loving four and half month old lab mix.

The rest of Buddy's story for his first year with us is pretty typical, every year thousands of families adopt puppies and deal with the trials and tribulations involved in a dog's first year.  To summarize, he had accidents in the house, destroyed and tried to eat the kid's toys, succeeded in eating the drywall in the upstairs hallway of our home, and managed to turn our daily routine upside down.  During all of this he managed to melt our hearts and become a cherished member of our family.

In the end, I guess that's why dealing with this is so painful.  Dogs are like family members, or in their lingo, members of the pack.  When the vet told us his diagnosis, it was like hearing dire news about one of my children.

 Our next visit is scheduled for Friday morning.  During this consultation we will find out what options we have to move forward.  After that I'll try to update this blog with a summary of our intitial vet visit and our meeting with the specialist.  Whether it ever gets there or not, it's my hope that someone else dealing with this issue will run across this and better know what to expect with their own dog. 

Until Friday.....