Beardie dislocated hip!

Hi, I've been posting on the regular forum for past few mths about my sick beardie, Shelby & vet not being able to figure out whats wrong with him, even with all the tests. Its been recommended that I bring him to this specialist that shes been consulting with about Shelby but its over 5 hrs away, so not that easy. Now hes somehow dislocated his hip! My vet says shes not sure if it can even be fixed, probably needs a pin put in if so, but shes waiting to hear back from the specialist. Either way it would have to be a specialist that would need to fix it & not sure how costly it would be. I dont have thousands of dollars to do it. Anyway, hes in a lot of pain so Im wondering if anyone on here has any answers for me. I hate to go thru wknd if it comes down to needing to euthanize him, as much as I love the little guy. Please help! Thanks

Hi Misky, I'm sorry that your boy is having such trouble. How long was Shelby sick and were the symptoms leading up to his hip problem ? How did they determine his joint is dislocated ? Could it be a case of MBD ? [ metabolic bone disease ]

Does he get calcium supplements + proper uvb ? What exact uvb do you use ? Can you post a video of him walking ? Or at least pics of him ?

Hi. Shelby has been sick since last July. It started out with swollen toes & feet. He had blood work, xrays & a sample drawn from swollen toe in Sept but nothing definitive showed up. His bones looked good too. He was started on an antibiotic in Aug. then switched to an antifungal in Nov. Neither seemed to help so we stopped them in Feb. He had all tests rerun in March & nothing definitive again except crystals showed up. Hes now on Allopurinol for gout & black cherry juice. He recently started the antibiotic (Ceftazidime), along with a probiotic, again because he had an infected bump on back & has an infection in his tail thats killing it off. The vet doesnt know if his tail or hip is related to his illness. He has been on a Critical Care diet since Sept cause he stopped eating. Occasionally he'll eat a few wax worms dusted with a calcium & vitamin supplement. Hes also been on pain med Buprenorphine from the beginning. He had a new Zilla 50 UVB light but switched to a Reptisun 10.0 T5 in March. I seen the xray of his hip & its very obviously dislocated. I can post pics of feet & tail but hes hurting too much to have him walk around for video. Hope I covered every thing. Thanks

I remember now, I looked through your old posts. Poor thing, when did the tail get like that ? Did it start gradually ? It looks like it needs amputated right above where the bad part ends + the good tissue begins. Is the ceftazidime oral or injected ?

The tail started gradually going bad. I noticed it got darker but didnt know it was a problem til it got hard too. Then it kept climbing up his tail. It seemed to have stopped since hes been on antibiotic now, since March 17. The vet thought it would fall off but hasnt yet.

Is the ceft. being given orally or injected ?

Hes getting injections for the Ceft. antibiotic. Also its dislocated at the top of femur bone where it joins hip socket.

Where are the injections being given ? Poor thing, he looks really miserable there in the last pic. I'm sorry that you + Shelby are going through this.

He gets the injections every other day in alternating front legs. He is pretty miserable. Isnt eating any more & barely moves. Just cuddles up to me & goes to sleep if I take him out. Hes getting his pain meds increased a tad today so hopefully that will help. So have you heard of a hip dislocation being fixable? I've been searching the web & found a forum from UK where it sounds like a similar situation happened & it was fixable. Just dont think theres a vet around here that has experience with it.

I Googled + found the same thing. I wonder if a dislocation can just be put back, sometimes they do with dogs. I wonder if Shelby will be able to go through anything more, he has so many problems and it seems that his tail needs to be amputated as well. He's very weak and is suffering. I think you might consider putting him to sleep.

He is going to see another vet in the morning to get evaluated. I will see how that goes & figure things out from there. Yes, euthanizing him has been brought up but I want to explore all humane possibilities first.

Maybe a new vet will have some ideas to help Shelby. Best wishes for a glimmer of hope and not too much pain.

Hello,

They may be able to put his hip back in, if it just subluxed. Poor Shelby, I am so sorry.
It is hard on him to be on an antibiotic when he has gout though. That may be one thing causing him to not feel well, it is too hard on his kidneys.
Maybe if you can get his tail taken care of, he can get off of the antibiotics to spare his kidneys right now. Did he start to have a black beard when he started the Ceftz injections?
Gout is tricky, antibiotics are usually not a good idea.
This is a difficult situation to be dealing with.
The Reptisun 10 T5 tube should be emitting adequate UVB for him. I am not sure how he could have dislocated his hip. Sometimes gout can cause issues with calcium absorption.
Let us know what the vet says in the morning.

Tracie

I brought Shelby to a different vet Friday morning. Devastating news! She looked at xray & said top of femur bone, knee joint & couple other spots along his leg are dying, necrosis I think she said. Most likely cancer. She said he might not have had gout, didnt get a definitive result showing that. Guess it doesnt matter anyway, cancer pretty much tops all. She said he could go on heavy pain meds & see a specialist but his legs were really stiff both Thurs & Friday, he refused to eat for past few days, wasnt moving around anymore, so I figured he's had enough. I wasnt going to make him suffer anymore when he couldnt get better. He was euthanized Friday afternoon. Hopefully he can rest in peace now.
Thank you to everybody whose provided advice for my little guy in the past mths. It was much appreciated.

I still have my female beardie but hopefully she will live a long & healthy life without any bad issues.
Misky

Btw Tracie, he did start to have a black beard around the time he started the antibiotic. Does that mean something? I thought it was maybe cause he was hurting from moving around too much so I started to limit his activity.