Labranard

Roxie was born on the farm of a co-worker of my wife. Her mom was a half Saint Bernard, half Labrador-mix breed and her father was a short stumpy Labrador mix. She had 6 other brothers and sisters in her litter. She was the biggest puppy in the litter and only one of three that has the Saint Bernard style markings.

Roxie was born with grade 4 hip dysplasia which basically means she has no hips. Her hip socket looks more like a saucer than a tea cup. We discovered this when she was X-Rayed just prior to her spay surgery. The vet had noticed some clicking in Roxie’s hip on one of her early appointments and recommended that we do X-Rays when we got her spayed. That way she would only be put under once. The vet recommended we put her down as she would “likely be immobile within weeks”. Well, every year when we go in for her shots we always like to remind the staff at the clinic that Roxie has grade 4 hip dysplasia. She’s definitely not immobile and loves to run.

We had Roxie on pain medications for a short period of time after we found out about the hip dysplasia. That combined with the glucosamine, chondroitin, methyl sulfonyl methane (MSM) and vitamin C cocktail seemed to really help her build up a strong muscular backend. She was only on the medications for a couple months but we noticed a huge improvement. We kept her on the glucosamine, chondroitin, methyl sulfonyl methane (MSM) and vitamin C for longer as this combination is known to help with arthritis and joints in general.

Roxie isn’t a super active dog and that fits in well with our family. When we go on walks we have to be mindful of her as she doesn’t have a whole lot of stamina and will sometimes need to stop and rest. Since her entire back end is muscle, it’s understandable that she would get tired hauling around her 110lbs body. She runs like a rabbit – both back legs tend to move together as she hops along. Running and playing is something she loves to do but every now and then she will get carried away and over do it.

We have now had Roxie as part of our family for over 3 years. She’s a fantastic dog.