HIF - Springer Spaniel puppy

[LC23]

Hi all

I have a five and a half month old working springer. About 3 weeks ago he starting limping on his front left leg after an hour down the park. He has been to the vets and they have taken x rays. Their orthopaedic specialist/surgeon has diagnosed HIF having looked at these and is recommending surgery to limit the chance of future issues/breaks.

Having only been advised of this today I am trying to process next steps and the best course of action. I appreciate the likely correct answer is proceed with surgery but that also has potential complications and future issues as well. I wanted to obtain others insight that may have been through this with their dogs and what they have found/course of action that worked for them. I dont want to make a knee jerk decision on this but at the same time if surgery is the best option I want to get this underway asap.

Thanks

[moorx]

No experience, sorry, but found this when I was looking to see what HIF is (I'd not heard of it).

May be of interest if you've not already found/seen it.

https://www.langfordvets.co.uk/media/2635/humeral-...

[LC23]

Thank you. I've already started Googling as well and it seems all roads lead to surgery. Although it's not necessarily the case that HIF can lead to further problems or that surgery is a sure fire solution. I'm a little stuck at the moment. Rock and a hard place come to mind.

[Pieman68]

LC23 said:

Thank you. I've already started Googling as well and it seems all roads lead to surgery. Although it's not necessarily the case that HIF can lead to further problems or that surgery is a sure fire solution. I'm a little stuck at the moment. Rock and a hard place come to mind.

Was it a general vet or specialist?

Our Working Cocker was diagnosed at a young age with luxating patellas in both back legs. The vet said grade 2 in one leg and grade 3 in the other which would definitely need surgery, and packed us off to see the orthopaedic surgeon

Surgeon looked him over, said they weren't nearly that bad and to give him 6 months to grow a bit and see how it developed but go back if they got worse

He's way past his 3rd birthday now and his kneecap's haven't popped out since he was about 6 months old

[LC23]

Thanks for the reply. The general vet couldn't find anything in the x rays but passed it to the orthopaedic specialist to check. It's the specialist has advised its HIF and surgery is required.