Small dog with clicking hip joint - please help!

[Kaitlin]

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Hi,

I am worried about my Miniature Schnauzer; I noticed while out on a walk a few days ago that with every step, her pelvis seemed to snap to the right and make a loud clicking noise. Poppy (the dog in question) has a history of arthritis in her back legs, but this has never happened before and I would like to know what action to take.

Poppy is a dog rescued from a puppy farm with an uncertain age - she was marketed as five when we bought her, and we have had her for four years, making her nine years old (though I suspect she may be a year or so older than this). She has a cataract in her left eye due to her abuse and neglect in her puppy farm years, and this half-blindness has caused her to take on a diagonal walk to see better. I believe this awkward pelvic position may have contributed to her "clicky hip".

I have done some research into the subject, and had a brief look at hip dysplasia, which is certainly a possibility, albeit a small one. Hip dysplasia usually affects young, large dogs, whereas Poppy is small and old. However, this is not to completely disregard the condition; if you have any further knowledge of it, please do not hesitate to let me know.

The only other thing I believe you should know is that Poppy is given one Green Lipped Mussel tablet each day (mixed in with her food) to help her arthritis. I have observed that they seem to have no effect on the clicking hip. It concerns me that she may be in pain, though she is still eating well and not acting abnormally.

This is about all the information I can give you surrounding Poppy's health - if you have any suggestions on what the cause of the clicking may be, please respond with your answer. Thanks.

 

[eingana]

Poppy's hip sounds rather like one of my knees at the moment!

I don't think it sounds like hip dysplasia, but it does sound like arthritis, which would be far more likely given her age and potential inbreeding/mistreatment in her past.

I think that an x-ray of her hips would be a good plan, and potentially consider whether there's any surgery that could help her. It's quite possible that there's a bony growth due to a combination of the walking at a diagonal and the arthritis, and if there is a particular bony area then that could potentially be resurfaced quite easily by a surgeon, although it is still major surgery. If Poppy is a little dog and in otherwise good health she could have a good few years left yet and I'd certainly investigate the possibility of that because of how much better her future could be.

Does the click seem to give her any discomfort? That would be another of my guiding factors to be honest. Things that aren't causing them any discomfort I regard as being far less of an issue than those which are bothering them. I can tell you from experience that some clicks (even little ones) can be desperately painful and others (even really big ones) don't hurt at all.