Hip Problems - Including Hip Dysplasia

There are a variety of things that can go wrong the hip joint.

Hip dysplasia occurs when the growth of the hip is abnormal, leading to a poor articulation between the cup (acetabulum) and the ball (femoral head).

If your dog is a young pup we have several options:

1. Appropriate feeding and supplementation 

This can offset hip dysplasia (HD) better than you imagine. Growth rate (and quality) can be altered using alimentary treatment alone.

2. JPS surgery

If your do is under 1 weeks of age, we can do a surgery that will change the growth of the entire pelvis, so that the acetabulum has a better chance to grow around the head of the femur (cup grows around the ball…).

JPS surgery is safe, cheap and effective. But it has to be done early!

3. TPO surgery

This stands for Triple Pelvic Osteotomy.

This is a specialist surgery. It has to be done before 7 months of age and, can also, change the growth of the pelvis so that the cup covers more of the ball… and forces are distributed evenly.

4. Hip replacement

Though not done here, we can refer dogs for this surgery in Porto/Lisbon. It is quite expensive and very invasive. Results depend on the surgeon involved and are usually very good.

5. FHNO

This is a salvage procedure whereby we remove the ball form the cup, permanently. It can restore normal function to a painful hip joint. The results are fantastic for small dogs and cats. We tend to reserve this surgery for dogs up to 20Kgs.

Dogs with lots of pain from arthritic hips will benefit from a Femoral Head and Neck Resection surgery (FHNO), which we undertake here about once a month, on average.

Dislocated hips and pelvic fractures are also treated here. Various surgical (and non-surgical) techniques are invoked to help dogs/cats with pelvis fractures or hip dislocations.

We also operate of sacro-iliac luxations/fractures using lag screws across the iliac wings and through the body of the sacrum.