How to make a homemade dog hip brace (canine hip displaysia)

This is Sally. She's just turned 14 and we've had her since she was a puppy. Over the last couple of years she's been occasionally doing "the splits" on the hardwood floors, which she would recover from after a few days. We got a bunch of area rugs and thought that would take care of the problem. Then while we were off on vacation she got stuck in the dog door for a while before the dogsitter came, and after that she could barely walk. We took her to the Vet (determined not to do any surgery) and the vet told us that in addition to displaysia she seemed to have a common nerve problem in her spine so that she couldn't really feel her hind legs anyway, so hip replacement surgery would not have been that helpful. I asked whether there were any braces available, (I had found some hint of such on the web) and she said she didn't know, that people sometimes made stuff themselves. Thus encouraged, I started thinking ...

I had the idea that parts from a Knee brace could be used for hinges, and gradually figured out that all the used knee braces are on ebay. Or lots of them anyway. What I ended up with was a Donjoy CI (Combined Instability) in size large-Left. I paid $50 plus shipping, for a nice piece of hardware retailing for upwards of $500. It turned out that a lot more than the hinges were useful.

What did was remove the lower strap and the lower hoop (That go below the knee). I cut the hoop in half, bent the pieces into curves, and refastened them in the opposite direction. Bits of the strap were fastened on to the leg hoops with electrical tape. The whole thing needed to be bent straight.

This particular brace worked out really well, since the velcro, straps and padding are easily modified. (Most of the Donjoy braces are "sportier" and less utilitarian.) The only things required were a standard harness and an old collar that holds the whole business forward.

So, Sally (a.k.a. "RoboDog") wore the brace for a month or so (taking it off every now and then to look for chafing) and she was able to walk, her spirits improved, and now she is getting around pretty well without it. Still not climbing whole flights of stairs, but stable and happy.

So, it's cheap and easy and if you're handy with a Dremel tool you can make something that IF you could find it would cost probably a grand or so, by the time you were done with fitting and all. But most "orthoticists" don't do pets, so it's pretty much up to you. Here's some things I learned that might help you:

• You will notice that the hinges aren't quite over her hip joints. This wasn't a problem, since she isn't running anymore. But if you have a more active dog, you will need to attend to the length of the upper strut and the location of the waist belt.
• Pivoting joints on the legs would be better. A single screw-rivet with a nylon washer might work there. The aluminum screw-rivets I used are probably not strong enough for that use.
• Velcro gets clogged with dog hair. Fastex buckles are bulky. I don't know what the ideal fastening is. Velcro might be fine for a short-haired dog. Otherwise, it's tweezers.
• I think the waist belt was causing her to leave wet spots where she slept. I don't know why, since it wasn't tight, but this is something to look out for. I ended up leaving the brace on over night anyway, since the morning seemed like a time when she was particularly likely to get re-injured because of her morning stiffnes and our younger dog's excitement about breakfast. But I threw out a dog beg and cleaned a couple of rugs. It might be possible to have the girth strap go around the rib cage instead of the abdomen.
• The hoop over her the back is metal, which means you can bend it to adjust the tension. It actually doesn't take that much inward force to be effective. (Think about how much support neoprene braces offer.) But I thought that if more lateral stability was needed, I could laminate a second piece over the top of the first.
• FITTING: keep your eyes open. Use your critical eye and your imagination. Watch for chafing and stress on the spine. It doesn't need to be tight. The purpose of the brace is simply to provide inward pressure on the mid thigh, while allowing full movement front and back. (BTW, many of the braces can be set to minimize front to back movement, if that is necessary.) You know how your dog moves, and you have way more time to observe them than a Vet or orthoticist would. I have heard that lots of the most effective sports prosthetics are homemade. But you have to tinker.
• How to buy a brace: ebay is the place, there's lots of them and many of them are barely used, since they are bought for surgury recovery rather than extreme sports. You end up buying them for somewhere around 10-20% of retail.
  • The Donjoy company seems to be the biggest, and offers seven standard sizes which are indexed by thigh circumference. Translating to dogs, you are looking at the waist just behind the rib cage. There is plentiful  information about sizing on the Donjoy website. There are also different lengths. And extra-long one might be best. Measure the distance from the back of the rib cage to the hip joint.
  • There are carbon fiber braces that look really "stealth" but you can't bend them like you can bend aluminum.
  • Note that knee braces are asymmetrical (left and right) so you will need to bend them straight for a dog brace.
  • The CI (Combined Instability) brace I found is not that common, but worked really well. Some of the other ones may require more extra parts.

I made this page because this worked for Sally, and if like us you have an older big dog with hip problems, you are probably struggling with the big quality of life/surgery/euthanasia questions. As far as I can tell, nothing like this is availalbe, and it really is pretty easy for a handy person. And it made me feel better, a bit less helpless.

Of course, I am not a professional, and so you use this information at your own risk.

If you find this information helpful, or have any questions, you can email me at billharms@billharms.com