Rupert Has Hip Dyspasia

Oh!!!! It all started back in January when gung ho Rupert tried to fly a dog walk and came off. A few weeks later he started dropping poles and I noticed he was 3 seconds slower. He was also holding up his right leg. I took him to the vet, who was not our usual vet and she simply gave me a lecture of how wrong I was to BARF but she OK take him to a chiro if you want him to do better at agility. Our chiro is great and expereinced with agility dogs. She confirmed he had a compressed verterbrae and he responded well to her treatment. He stopped dropping poles and his times are almost back to where they were. However he still has a great deal of stiffness in his lower back.

At Paws in the Park his Dash n Splash jumps weren't his massive 19 to 20 foot jumps. We are due to see the chiro agian in July but I contacted Sara, who is offering Galen massge to injured agility dogs to do case studies. I feel this will really help Rup with the muscle stiffness. However I needed a vet's consent form so back I went to the vet. Kate, one of the Dash n Splash trainers also feels Rup isn't right and she wondered if it was spondolitis. It was my usual vet and a new permanent vet so they took me a lot more seriously and decided to X ray Rup. The good news is that his spine and discs are OK. They are concerned about the muscle stiffness. BUT he has bilateral hip dysplasia. It is mild at the moment and probably would not have been picked up if all this hadn't happened. The vet feels he must do agility and continue with his active lifestyle. I said I'd retire him from flyball but she says not to. Thankfully I have historically fed him evening primrose oil, glucosamine and chonoroitin, grizzly salmon oil/cod liver since he started agility, so he should have good synovial fluid. The vet has also given his a course of 4 injections that have to be repeated annually.


Jordan is gutted. Rupert is only 4 and we now cannot predict how long his agility career will be. What we do know is that he will only do it as long as he enjoys it and is comfortable doing it. His partnership with Magic is still in the early stages and Magic is a bit of a mummy's boy. And to be honest Magic's heart is in flyball and Dash n Splash/Dock Dogs . I think all we can do is monitor Rupert. When we find a new flyball team he can do starters where he is a nice consistant banker dog. He's not knocking poles and is still doing his cannonball agility runs so he must be enjoying them. And as long as he gets to jump into water it doesn't matter if he does 16 or 20 foot. I hope retirement and the painful arthristis stage is a long way off for Rupert.

We are now seriously looking for new dog(s) to replace Rupert in the longer term.