Dog Dysplasia Explained

We humans aren’t as special as we might think we are. More precisely, we aren’t that unique, and the things that might happen to us might also happen to other beings as well. For example only few people know that there is a connection between canine dysplasia and human arthritis.

Canine dysplasia might be defined as being a developmental malformation of the hip joints of dogs. A very similar condition has been recognized at humans by Hippocrates around 360 B. C.

Dog DysplasiaIn the past period a lot of money and energy has been used to make some further researches regarding the canine dysplasia.

The knowledge regarding the condition has been quite limited at the beginning. During the 30’s it has been known that the illness has been caused by faulty growth and development of the tissues around the hip joint.

Arthritis has been known as quite common among the children of a Canadian Indian tribe and also among Italian children. In case the problem wasn’t corrected in time, it led to pain in the middle of life or later.

When it comes to dogs the knowledge and the experience is increased, and now we know that there is an acute stage when the dogs are growing very fast. In this period, especially those breeds that will grow big, might have problems getting up, especially on slippery floors.

Later the researchers have found that the canines recovered from this acute phase by the time they achieved maturity. The hip joint symptoms decrease, and in many cases they completely disappear.

The human arthritis might become obvious during the middle of life or even later, but it is also possible that it never appears, depending on the lifestyle, race, activity, weight and sensitivity of the person in question. Regarding dogs it has been found that some of them are able to live long and healthy lives having no or only minimal discomfort because of this condition.

If we start to analyze the main differences between the condition in case of man and dogs, they are quite obvious. One of them is that humans are walking on their ‘hind legs’ for a longer period of time than dogs do. On the other hand the diagnosis of the condition in case of dogs has been done based on the joint looseness or laxity while they are still puppies.

We might say that dogs are a bit more fortunate than us, because in case they have problems with their hind legs, they have the possibility to shift their weight to their forelegs, minimizing the discomfort that they feel. Regarding joint laxity, it is good to know that the majority of breeds, except the racing Greyhounds, experience this problem, during some period of growth.

Paying attention to puppies during the growth period can allow the owner to see the signs of future joint issues. Also in this case the joint laxity might be a sign of hip dysplasia, but it isn’t certain that it will lead to arthritis at any stage of life so the cycle does not have to be completed.

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