We had the same problem with our ten month old Shih Tzu. We noticed after he had his hair cut short. We took him to the vet today and the vet x-rayed him and found that he had premature growth plate closure that caused the leg to bow and the foot turn out. We are going to have him fixed but the estimate we have is not near $1,700.00. Your vet must have been going to do a different procedure.Maybe there's a way they can fix it that isn't quite so expensive. There is a site called healthy pets.mercola.com you can go to and get the information you are looking for. I had six Shih Tzu's and have lost three between the ages of 15 and almost 17 and got another one and this is the first time we have nada problem. Good luck to all of you.