Dog Hip Replacement Cost: $6,000 to $10,000

A dog total hip replacement costs $6,000 to $10,000 in the United States, and $8,000 is the typical price. Regionally the typical price runs from $3,500 in Gainesville, Florida to $9,250 in Columbia, Missouri — a 2.6x spread for the same procedure.

This is not the hip surgery most owners are quoted first

The cost of hip replacement surgery in dogs is three to four times the cost of the operation most dysplastic dogs actually get. A femoral head ostectomy averages $2,791 nationally in CareCredit's 50-state survey. The two teaching hospitals that publish a total hip replacement price quote $7,000 to $10,000 per hip.

They are not the same product. An ostectomy removes the ball of the joint and lets a false joint of muscle and scar tissue form. A replacement fits a titanium and polyethylene ball and socket and reproduces the mechanics of a working hip.

Our hip dysplasia surgery cost page covers the disease and the three cheaper operations for it — ostectomy, juvenile pubic symphysiodesis and pelvic osteotomy. This page covers the replacement only, because it is priced by different hospitals under a different set of rules.

Only two US teaching hospitals publish what they charge

Two, and their numbers are $2,000 apart:

• Iowa State University publishes $7,000 to $9,000 for the replacement itself.
• The University of Missouri publishes $8,500 to $10,000.

Both figures are per hip and both include anesthesia, the implants, theatre time and the post-operative stay. We found no private specialty practice publishing a hip replacement price anywhere in the country, which is unusual — private practices are normally cheaper than teaching hospitals for orthopaedic work, so the real market floor is probably below $7,000 and nobody will say so in public.

Missouri's own numbers show how fast this moves. Its 2019 client handout said $6,000 to $6,500; its current page says $8,500 to $10,000. The 2019 figure is still the one most cost articles quote.

The surgical fee is 60 to 75% of what you will pay

Add the consultation and the rechecks before you compare anything. Both published episodes cost 25 to 40% more than the surgery line, and the extras are compulsory, not optional:

• Iowa State: $8,700 to $11,100 for the episode. $1,000 to $1,200 for the initial consult, which covers the examination, an IV catheter, sedation, at least four hip radiographs and blood and urine work; $7,000 to $9,000 for the surgery; $700 to $900 for the two-month follow-up.
• Missouri: $11,700 to $14,000 for the episode. $2,000 to $2,500 for the consultation and diagnostics; $8,500 to $10,000 for the surgery; $600 to $700 for each of the six-week and twelve-week rechecks.

Iowa State charges nothing at all for the two-week recheck examination, with fees only if a medication refill or a radiograph is needed. Missouri's two rechecks are the difference between an $11,100 ceiling and a $14,000 one.

Missouri also requires a urinalysis from your own vet in the week before surgery to rule out a urinary tract infection, plus chlorhexidine baths. That is a separate invoice at a separate practice.

A clinical trial is the only published way under $6,000

The University of Florida states that out-of-pocket costs for dogs enrolled in its short-stem hip replacement trial are approximately $3,500, because the study covers the implant, against around $6,000 for a normal hip replacement. It also covers up to $4,000 of care if the implant fails or loosens.

That single sentence is the best public estimate of what the implant costs, and it is roughly $2,500 — a figure no US invoice itemises.

Trials have narrow inclusion criteria and finite enrolment, so this is not a plan you can rely on. It is the reason to ask every referral centre whether a trial is recruiting before you accept a quote.

Why nobody does this operation in general practice

Missouri states its replacements are performed by ACVS-boarded orthopaedic surgeons, with anesthesia overseen by a board-certified veterinary anesthesiologist and recovery in an ICU with 24-hour monitoring. Three specialists and an intensive care bed is what the price buys.

The complication rate justifies the staffing. Missouri publishes a 5 to 10% risk of serious complications, and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons lists infection, hip dislocation, implant loosening, nerve injury and femur fracture among them. A revision means a second implant and a second surgical fee.

Against that, Iowa State publishes its own outcome figure, and it is the reason owners pay the premium over an ostectomy in the first place: a successful return to good or excellent function in 95% of its cases.

The recurring cost that appears in no quote

Missouri instructs that any time a dog with a hip implant has a dental procedure or a systemic infection, it should be on broad-spectrum antibiotics for several weeks, to stop bacteria colonising the implant.

That is a permanent condition of ownership after this surgery, not a convalescent measure. Every future dental cleaning carries an antibiotic course with it for the rest of the dog's life.

Price it at $20 to $100 per event and assume one event a year. It is small money that nobody mentions before the operation and that dog owners discover five years later at a routine dental.

What your own vet has to do before the referral

Missouri sets pre-surgical conditions that are met and billed elsewhere. It requires a urinalysis performed by your own veterinarian in the week before surgery to rule out a urinary tract infection, plus chlorhexidine baths before admission.

A urine culture averages $78 nationally on CareCredit's figures, and a pre-referral examination is charged on top. Neither appears in either university's published price, because neither university performs them.

The hospital stay does sit inside the surgical fee at both. Iowa State keeps patients one to two nights and Missouri one to three days with ICU recovery and 24-hour monitoring — which is worth knowing, because a night's hospitalisation billed standalone runs $619 at a clinic and $866 at an emergency clinic on CareCredit's national averages. Bundled, it is invisible; unbundled, it is several hundred dollars a day.

Ask any practice quoting this operation whether the stay is capped, and what happens to the price if the dog needs a third or fourth night.

Does my dog need both hips replaced?

Possibly, and every published price on this page is per hip. Hip dysplasia is usually bilateral, and both Missouri and Iowa State discuss operating the second side as a separate later episode with its own consultation, surgery and follow-up fees. Two hips is two episodes, not a discounted pair.

Many bilateral dogs are only painful enough on one side to justify surgery there. That is a clinical judgement made on gait and radiographs, not a budgeting assumption you can safely make in advance.

What it means practically is that a $9,000 quote should be held in your head as a possible $18,000 across a few years, and that the annual limit on an insurance policy — not the reimbursement percentage — is what decides whether the second hip is affordable.

How old does a dog have to be for a hip replacement?

ACVS states a dog must be at least a year old for a total hip replacement, because the skeleton has to be mature enough to take the implant. A dysplastic puppy diagnosed at six months is therefore managed medically in the meantime.

Those months cost money that never appears in the surgical quote: anti-inflammatories, rechecks and the blood-test monitoring that long-term non-steroidal use requires. ACVS warns that at maximum daily dosing, the cost of the drug and the monitoring can exceed the cost of surgery in a young or middle-aged dog.

The cheap operations for this disease run the other way and expire early — juvenile pubic symphysiodesis must be done before 18 weeks of age. That timeline, and what it does to the bill, is on the hip dysplasia surgery page.

If the lameness has not been definitively localised to the hip, the two other hind-limb operations worth pricing are dog ACL surgery and luxating patella surgery. Everything else we have priced is on the vet cost index.

Dog Total Hip Replacement cost by region

These are the prices behind the range at the top of the page, one row per geography we could source. The basis column says how each row was arrived at.

What changes the price

Two invoices for the same procedure diverge for a small number of reasons. These are the ones that move the total most.

Total hip replacement versus femoral head ostectomy

3-4x for the same diagnosis. CareCredit's 50-state survey puts FHO at a $2,791 national average; the two teaching hospitals that publish a THR price quote $7,000-$10,000 per hip. THR restores a working joint, an FHO builds a painless false one, and ACVS notes FHO suits dogs under roughly 60-70 lbs while heavier dogs are steered to replacement

The surgical fee is not the bill

Both published university episodes cost 25-40% more than the surgery line. Iowa State: $1,000-$1,200 consult + $7,000-$9,000 surgery + $700-$900 two-month follow-up = $8,700-$11,100. Missouri: $2,000-$2,500 + $8,500-$10,000 + two rechecks at $600-$700 = $11,700-$14,000

The second hip

Prices are published per hip, and hip dysplasia is usually bilateral. Missouri and Iowa State both discuss operating the contralateral side as a separate later episode with its own consult, surgery and follow-up fees

A clinical trial, where one exists

The largest discount available on this operation. The University of Florida publishes approximately $3,500 out-of-pocket for its short-stem THR trial because the study covers the implant, against a stated $6,000 for a normal hip replacement - and it also covers up to $4,000 of care if the implant fails or loosens

Board-certified surgeon and anaesthesiologist required

Missouri states its THRs are performed by ACVS-boarded orthopaedic surgeons with anesthesia overseen by a board-certified veterinary anesthesiologist and recovery in an ICU with 24-hour monitoring. That staffing is the price; no general practice performs this operation

Complications are rare but expensive

Missouri publishes a 5-10% serious complication risk; ACVS lists infection, hip dislocation, implant loosening, nerve injury and femur fracture. A revision means a second implant and a second surgical fee

Waiting for skeletal maturity

ACVS states a dog must be at least a year old for THR, so a young dysplastic dog is managed medically in the interim - months of anti-inflammatories and rechecks that are never counted in the surgery quote

What the itemized invoice looks like

Clinics quote a bundled number and itemize afterwards. This is the decomposition, so you can read a real estimate line by line before you sign it.

Successful return to good to excellent function occurs in 95% of our cases.Iowa State University Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center, Total Hip Replacement

Does pet insurance cover dog total hip replacement?

Dog Total Hip Replacement is normally covered by a standard accident-and-illness policy. Hip dysplasia is hereditary and developmental, which puts this operation in the hardest corner of pet insurance. It is covered only if no hip abnormality was recorded before enrolment - not a diagnosis, a breeder note or a vet's comment about loose hips. Several carriers apply a longer waiting period specifically to hereditary orthopaedic conditions, and one, Healthy Paws, applies a 12-month wait for hip dysplasia in particular. Because a dog must be at least a year old for THR, there is usually a long documented history by the time the surgery happens, and that history is what the claim is judged on. At $7,000-$10,000 per hip this is one of the few procedures where the annual policy limit, not the reimbursement percentage, is the binding constraint. MetLife publishes one worked example: a one-year-old German shepherd whose total hip replacement cost nearly $6,000 was reimbursed just under $5,000.

What you would get back: 70-90% of the covered bill after the annual deductible, subject to the annual limit - which a bilateral case in one policy year can exhaust.

Coverage rules differ enough between carriers that the only useful answer is a side-by-side: our pet insurance comparison for dog total hip replacement shows which policies pay for it, what the waiting period is, and what counts as pre-existing.

Common questions

Why a pet needs dog total hip replacement

The pages below are the reasons this bill happens. Each one carries the same price data you are reading, in the context of the problem that produces it.

Conditions treated with dog total hip replacement

• hip dysplasia in dogs Can be an emergency — An inherited malformation in which the hip joint is too loose, so the ball grinds in the socket and arthritis follows.

More surgery costs

• acl surgery cost dog — Dog ACL surgery costs $1,000 to $10,000, and up to 60% of dogs tear the other knee too.
• dog heartworm treatment cost — Dog heartworm treatment costs $300 to $1,800.
• hernia dog surgery cost — Dog hernia surgery costs $150 to $5,000 because hernia names four operations.
• cherry eye dog surgery cost — Cherry eye surgery costs $275 at a nonprofit clinic, $544 on average and up to $1,900 with an ophthalmologist.
• hip dysplasia surgery cost dog — Dog hip dysplasia surgery costs $1,200 to $10,000.
• canine lipoma removal cost — Removing a fatty lump from a dog costs $250 to $1,800, and the first question is whether to remove it at all.
• luxating patella surgery cost — Luxating patella surgery costs $400 to $5,000 per knee.
• tplo dog surgery cost — TPLO dog surgery costs $2,500 to $7,500.
• how much does chemo for dogs cost — Dog chemotherapy costs $1,800 to $16,000.
• boas surgery costs — BOAS surgery costs $1,450 to $5,500.
• dog ear hematoma surgery cost — Dog ear hematoma surgery costs $535 to $1,804.
• dog bowel obstruction surgery cost — Dog bowel obstruction surgery costs $1,200 to $7,976.
• cat bowel obstruction surgery cost — Cat bowel obstruction surgery costs $755 to $5,500, about half the dog figure.
• cost of chemo for cats — Cat chemotherapy costs $2,500 to $9,500.
• dog ruptured anal-gland abscess treatment cost — A ruptured dog anal gland abscess costs $100 to $1,000 per episode.
• dog anus gland removal cost — Dog anal gland removal costs $650 to $5,600 — an 8.6x spread across nine published fee sheets, the widest on this site.
• entropion in dogs surgery cost — Entropion surgery for dogs costs $125 to $3,000 and is priced per eyelid, not per dog.
• eye removal surgery for dogs cost — Dog eye removal costs $200 at a nonprofit clinic and $3,000 at a full-service hospital.
• cost of leg amputation for dog — Dog leg amputation costs $735 to $6,800.
• dog splenectomy cost — Dog splenectomy costs $1,700 to $5,000 across seven published fee sheets.
• eye removal surgery cat cost — Cat eye removal costs $415 to $2,000, and both US clinics that split fees by species charge less for a cat than a dog.
• cat surgery costs — Cat surgery costs $350 to $6,282.
• dog tumor removal cost — Dog tumor removal costs $250 to $3,000, and histopathology is billed separately.
• cat pu surgery cost — Cat PU surgery costs $995 to $2,395 across thirteen published fee sheets.
• how much is a biopsy for a dog — A dog biopsy costs $144 to $1,110.
• cost of dog bladder stone surgery — Dog bladder stone surgery costs $587 to $5,000 across fifteen fee sheets.
• gastropexy cost — Gastropexy costs $600 to $2,200 planned and $2,200 to $7,500 as emergency bloat surgery.
• how much does it cost to fix paraphimosis in dogs — Fixing paraphimosis in dogs costs $300 to $1,500 on three published prices.
• cat cataracts surgery cost — Cat cataract surgery costs $2,000 to $2,500 per eye and $3,000 to $3,500 for both.
• broken leg dog surgery cost — Dog broken leg surgery costs $1,371 to $5,803.
• dog eye surgery cost — Dog eye surgery costs $300 to $6,700, and which operation your dog needs decides the bill.
• dog eyelid tumor removal cost — Removing an eyelid tumor from a dog costs $320 in general practice and $2,200 with an ophthalmologist.
• lymphoma dog treatment cost — Treating canine lymphoma costs $3,600 to $16,000.
• pyometra dog surgery cost — Dog pyometra surgery costs $500 to $4,000.
• salivary mucocele dog surgery cost — Salivary mucocele surgery in dogs costs $1,681 to $2,400 — three fee sheets within 1.4x.
• dog spinal surgery cost — Dog spinal surgery costs $2,500 to $15,000, and the MRI is billed first.
• cost of stenotic nares surgery — Stenotic nares surgery costs $485 to $1,519, a 3.1x spread between practices for the same short operation.
• how much are dog stitches — Dog stitches cost $182 to $2,600 because the word covers four different injuries.

Every procedure we have priced is listed on the vet cost index.

Sources

1. Total Hip Replacement — Iowa State University Lloyd Veterinary Medical Center, 2026.
2. Canine Total Hip Replacement — University of Missouri Veterinary Health Center, 2026.
3. Total Hip Replacement — American College of Veterinary Surgeons, 2026.
4. Dog Hip Dysplasia Surgery Cost — CareCredit (Synchrony), 2025.
5. How Much Does an Emergency Vet Visit Cost? — CareCredit (Synchrony), 2026.
6. Short-Stem Total Hip Replacement Clinical Trial — University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, 2026.
7. Total Hip Replacement Surgery for Dogs — MetLife Pet Insurance, 2026.