Adventures Outdoors'
Hip Dysplasia
By Rick Spoerl
"I'm sorry sir, your dog has hip dysplasia". That is by far one of the scariest things you could hear after spending two years training your dog. All the time and money spent on old poochie to hear he is probably going to be writtled with arthritis and in tremendous amounts of pain, much less certainly taken out of a breeding program. It happened to my Father over 30 years ago and thank god in all the dogs he has had since, have been dysplasia free. I have been lucky. In the 7 dogs I have had, I have yet to see a genetic disease in my own dogs. But I have friends that weren't as fortunate.
The most important way to minimize your chances of disappointment is to research the puppies pedigree. Look for at least 3 generations of OFA (orthopedic foundation for animals) certified sires and dams. The OFA certifies dogs with good hips by examining an x-ray of the dog laying on his back with his legs stretched out. 3 different OFA certified vets make a judgment on the condition of the hips. But they will only evaluate x-rays of dogs over two years old. Most breeders give a two to three year warranty on the pups. But a lot of good it does if you have spent hundreds of hours training.
The PennHip (the university of Pennsylvania hip improvement program) method can be done at 16 weeks. Which if found to be bad, could save you tremendous amounts of training time, as well as money, not to mention being quite attached to the little mutt by the two years required of the OFA to receive a score. The pennhip method is done with three different x-rays. One showing distraction (stretching the hip bone out of the socket), using a tool to spread the leg socket out of the joint. Another showing compressed (pushing the ball of the leg into the socket using weights). And finally a third with the dog positioned on his back with his legs stretched out. They measure the amount of laxity (looseness) of the hip joint, and come up with numbers of good or bad. This method seems somewhat new, but actually has been around since 1983.
Always make sure the pedigree your looking at have got the OFA or PennHip certification numbers next to the dogs name. if they aren't there, there's probably a reason for it.
To find out more about hip dysplasia, the OFA, or the PennHip foundation see there websites.
OFA- www.offa.org
PennHip- www.vet.upenn.edu/research