Question:
well not for ME but for our little peanut, maika. she needs to have her back legs & hips looked at, xrayed, whatever it takes for us to know what we're to expect down the road. they are getting worse slowly but surely I mean SHE doesn't know it and nothing slows her down, she plays, jumps, runs, etc but her stick-straight legs and hyper-extended hocks are sure to cause trouble down the road...

anybody know a good, reputable & affordable orthopedic vet within driving distance of Mtl?...

Answer:
I hope my little Maika friend's legs are better than you're anticipating.

Answer:
TD, you could go to my vet....he's not an orthopedic vet but has a lot of experience and has done quite a bit of surgery for luxating patellas etc... so if you would like to take Maika there for a consult, I can set it up? The Boston meetup group have several little gaffers whom he's worked on because he is reasonable. Just a suggestion.

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My parents IrishWolf Hound has problems with his hips which makes his hind legs look very funny. We took him to our vet in ST.Lambert, it turns out he has severe hip displysia in both hips.

We had to go to St. Hyasenths (sp) where they had to take another batch of x-rays and they put him under to do hip palpitations just to confirm he does have hip displysia and at the time he was too young to have surgery for total replacement of the hip.

If I was you, I would just make an appoitment right at St.Hyasenths to check out her hind legs.

Answer:
I hope Maika is ok. I don't know a ton about orthopedics in animals but I've heard that the place to go around here is Ste. Hyacinthe. That's where my vet wanted to refer me when Charlene the cat had all her back problems. My DH is currently renovating the house of one of the vets at Pierrefonds clinic, I'll ask him to ask her if she knows of anywhere else that's good for orthopedics.

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Your own vet should be able to refer you to one ,and your own vet can do the x-rays then when you go the see the ortho you pick them up and take them with you, the ortho surgeon will read them himself, for larger dogs they often have to sedate them to do the hip x-rays so this becomes quite a time saver for the specialist.

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BMD, where is your vet located?... might be a good idea. i don't know if my local vet (where maika got spayed) is any good... i do know they take xrays there so that could be a first step. i'm not comfortable getting a diagnosis/ analysis from a vet who covers a million things, you know?...

Very bad memories from ste-hyacinthe. that's where they butchered my dobie girl, went in for a liver biopsy and a spay, she walked out sliced and diced and with about 50 huge stitches to her abdomen, bloated, sick, and never recovered. and they charged a fortune for it.... am never going back there again

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I think you are going the right route thinking about having her looked at by an ortho vet, they have spent extra years in school specializing on joints and bones, that is why when my vet seen Callies x-ray wanted the ortho vet to confirm what he was seeing on her xray as other bone problems can appear to look like cancer, for example a bone fungus which is treatable

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He's in Lasalle TD. He confers with the orthopedic surgeon at the DMV who just did a new technique on my Berner. He was there for the surgery. He is a good start and he'll point you in the right direction and give you an idea of what can be done meaning the various options. If he can do the surgery, he will do so, if not then he will say so too. Provided surgery is what is needed that is.

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