TPO (triple pelvic osteometry) for hip dysplasia

3/5/99
It has now been ten days since the first surgery. Two of Booda's three incisions have gotten a bit red and swollen, especially the one under his leg. I called the vet per their instructions to do so if this occurred. I resisted bringing him in since they are a half hour to 45 minutes away, and I'm also resisting their recommendation to get him an Elizabethan collar. He is licking his wounds a little, but I can't imagine that it is worse

than the suffering he would go through wearing one of those cones on his neck. When I asked about using some ointment or antibiotic cream they said no. They suggested a warm compress for five minutes three times a day, and that seems to be helping. I did it at least four times yesterday and once so far today. There seems to be a little less redness. Generally, Booda cooperates by sleeping a lot. He is walking pretty well and doesn't really understand why we aren't going on our daily walks in the woods. We now wish we had taken the time to crate train him. Part of the reason we didn't was because he got much bigger than we were told he would and the crate we had bought when he was little was too small by the time he was 6 months old. We didn't think we would need a crate for him, and our place is pretty small and there really isn't a good place for a crate that's big enough for him. For this situation, however, friends generously gave us a very large cage which Booda doesn't mind being in (his bed is in there) when the door is open. If we close him in, however, he whines and tries to get out. He clawed or chewed a hole in his new bed once when no one was home. But overall we think it is going well. On Wednesday the 10th we go back to the vet, and we shall see what he says.

3/10/99
Well, what the vet says is that Booda is walking better than

most dogs at this stage, and we can go ahead and do the other hip. We are quite relieved, because he seemed to be limping a little bit more than usual the last couple of days, and the incision under his leg was getting pretty nasty despite many warm compresses. There was still some pus, and the area around it had broken out into a rash. The vet said it would probably clear up once the surgical staples were removed, which they will be tomorrow when they do the other side.

3/15/99
Booda had his right hip operated on on March 11th, 1999. This time, they used dissolving stitches on the incision under his leg so it hopefully won't get as irritated as the last one did. When we went to pick him up the next day, he wasn't as groggy as last time, although he wasn't very happy either. We saw the X-ray and it looked like the joints were fitting together much better. The vet said everything went well, and that the first hip was doing great. We are using a towel around his stomach to hold him up when we take him in or out up and down the two steps, but besides that he is walking on his own, albeit a bit wobbly. He also relies heavily on his front legs, leaning forward on them as he sits, and he seems to have a hard time getting comfortable lying down. But his walking improves every day. He is pretty grumpy about the whole situation, and wants to walk around a lot and go outside all the time, but besides that everything is going as well as can be expected. Yea! Oh, and the vet left a strip of hair along his back like we asked him to, so he has a little mohawk.

3/25/99
The staples came out yesterday and again the vet said everything looked fine. Booda is walking really well (except at the vet's office where they have the slipperiest floors in the world, which is bad for dogs with leg surgery, so go figure. We figure they are easy to clean). In two weeks, we get him x-rayed to make sure everything is healing right, and if so we are allowed to start taking him on walks. We've already been letting have the run of the house, which is against the rules but has worked out well so far. We think that is why he is walking so well. We don't seem to have the patience to keep him caged up. But Booda is a rather calm dog when compared to the kind like Gina saw yesterday at the vet's who is constantly wiggling, struggling against the leash, jumping up, and is generally very excitable. He mostly lays around anyway, why not let him be happy and just keep an eye on him? He goes outside a lot too (we have a doggy door and a fenced yard). There, sometimes he runs, which is probably not good. But he doesn't jump up...okay, he did a little once. But we stopped him.

4/9/99
This past Wednesday, two days ago, Booda went back to the vet's for an x-ray to see if everything healed up right. Gina dropped him off in the morning, since they have to anesthetize him for this x-ray because the position they put him in is painful. When we picked him up, the vet said everything looked great, his bones were healed and wouldn't come apart unless he was hit by a truck or something. We were pleased as the x-ray showed his joints looking very well seated. The x-rays cost $105, bringing the total to $2,705 (plus 9 trips to Annapolis worth of gas!). We took him for his first walk the next day. He was very very happy. He was so excited that he would run for a few steps, stop to leave his mark, and repeat. He is still a little wobbly, and sometimes he slips on the hardwood floor, but we've had most of the floor covered with throw rugs since this all began, so it doesn't happen too often. The vet says it will be a month or two until Booda walks and runs completely normally, but we are free to exercise him and build up his strength. He shouldn't have to ever go back to that office, and if he knew that, we are sure he would be thrilled.

6/1/99
In the almost two months that have passed since we wrote about Booda, he has been steadily improving, and is now at the point where we hardly remember what he has been through. He runs better and faster than ever, he jumps up (fortunately, not as much as before), he lays down without complaint, his fur is halfway regrown, and he's a happy little boy. He just had his first birthday (May 23rd), and he is going to get neutered in three days. We will do an update about that...Otherwise, there may not be any more entries for a long time. The goal of this log is to inform on the long term effects of TPO surgery, so we will update every year or so, or whenever anything related comes up.

6/11/99
Booda's neutering went fine. He was perfectly chipper when we picked him up from the vet, and went for a walk in the woods when we got home. Also, the small hernia he has had ever since he was little did not have to be operated on. The vet said the bump was just a fatty deposit now. Ever since the neutering on June 4th, he has acted normally except his appetite seemed to increase immediately. Before, we always had to coax him to eat, now he eats right away and still wants more.

2/25/00
So! It has been a year since Booda's first surgery. Everything seems to be just fine. Ever since the surgery he has insisted on hip massages whenever you start petting him, but he doesn't seem to be in any pain, he can run very fast and jump over things. We still don't think he uses his back legs as completely as a normal dog, but just barely. He does have thick scars under his fur that you can easily feel. But, for the most part, he is normal and healthy. We hope he stays that way for a long time.

2/9/01
Now it has been almost two years, and nothing has changed. We have been hearing from a few people about to get TPO on their dogs who thanked us for having this web page but still had questions and were looking for reassurance. There seems to be more information on the web than there was when we started out, but I still haven't found another page like this one. If you know of other good web pages that we should maybe link to, please let us know. Send e-mail to ginohn@wunderland.com.

8/22/02
Booda is now over four years old, and his surgery was about 3 1/2 years ago. Nothing has seemed to change - he still shows virtually no sign of pain, and runs around normally. On a rare occasion, when he's getting his hips rubbed, he will turn around and snap at you as if you have hurt him. This seems random. It is worrisome, but there are no other signs. I haven't had him X-rayed for arthritis, but if it were a more frequent occurrence, I might. We've taken to giving him a jerky treat every day called Sea Mobility by Ark Naturals (www.arknaturals.com) that I buy at my health food store. Just in case.

In the last couple of years we have gotten emails from many many people thanking us for this page, and looking for a little more reassurance. Usually they write while trying to decide what to do, or just before having TPO on their dog.

11/12/03
We are happy to report that at 51/2 years old, Booda is still doing great. Everything is fine, but we did have a problem at the beginning of this year. Booda developed a limp on his left front leg. We weren't sure what caused it, he certainly could have been hurt when a doggie playmate of his crashed into him, but we didn't really know. We began to worry when it lasted more than a few weeks. The vet couldn't find anything wrong, x-rays showed no problem, and doggie ibuprofen type stuff didn't help. I decided to get him tested for Lyme disease even though the symptoms weren't right. Wouldn't you know, his test results were unlike any the vet had seen before - a very faint positive. Usually the little test shows plainly one way or the other. We did a round of antibiotics. After a few weeks Booda's limp went away and we've practically forgotten all about it. But the limp lasted several months, and was quite worrisome for a while. I tend to think that Booda might have been suffering from Lymes, but his healthy all raw food diet helped keep it in check. I also still give him a glucosamine supplement almost daily.

We recieved an email unlike any we've recieved before, titled: TPO 17 years later. Here is the email, with the author's permission.

I happened to run across your website during a search about hip dysplasia. We have a Terrier/Sheltie mixed dog that was born in November 1986 and was diagnosed with hip dysplasia in April 1987. We were referred to a Veterinary Surgeon who had just began teaching the TPO procedure. After examining Brindle, he advised that we have the right hip done. He said the right side wasn't as bad and by doing one side, he would learn to favor the good side and thus slow the damage on the right side. We had the procedure done immediately since we were told that the operation must be done before he was a year old.

The surgeon who performed the operation had gone to Sweden to learn how to do it. They actually perfected the procedure there. He had a clinic in Plymouth MN. and was a friend of our regular vet. He was teaching the procedure one day a week at the University of MN Veterinary School. He had people flying purebred dogs to him from all over the US and here we come with out little mixed breed mutt. But we love him and were willing to spend the money. Surprisingly enough as I looked at your charges they had not gone up that much. We paid $1000 for just the left hip. And our pictures of Brindle after the surgery look just like your pictures. We have thought many times over the years about how happy we are that we had it done. We never had any problems at all with the surgery or anything connected with his hip over the last 16 years other than old age arthritis the last year or so.

Brindle is now 17 years old and still getting around. He has developed quite a lot of arthritis but until about 2 years ago was still running around like a pup. He occasionally will still run but not for long. If his leg starts to give out, he will just sit down for a second and then continue on his way. He has adapted very well to his condition and age. He no longer climbs stairs or jumps up on the couch but manages to get along pretty well. I honestly feel that if we had not done the TPO procedure when we did, he would not be alive now. He would have just been too crippled to continue. He has always weighed 40 - 45 lbs. He has never been a very big eater and the only treats we have ever given him are vegetables. He has been on a low-fat prescription diet since he was 6 months old and I truly feel it is the reason he has lived such a long and healthy life.

It was great to hear this positive story. It's very reassuring to hear TPO was the right thing to do and working for someone after all this time. You can write to Sheila at s_brisbin@hotmail.com.

We also heard from Doug and Kim who are documenting their Golden Retriever's TPO here!