X-ray photo's of OFA fair's - Page 2

I imported a female some years ago who was fast-normal hips - I always re-xray hips with anything less than a-normal for my program - her hips looked super and came back OFA Good, at 6 years old.

SKI, I agree. The O.F.A. states that when it examines the hip quality of a specific breed of dog, that it compares that dog to others of the same breed who are close to the age of the examined dog. That is the only way it could be fair.

I had a male once who received a O.F.A. evaluation of "Good" but when he was re-examined at the age of eight (8) years he received a new O.F.A. evaluation rating of "Fair". He is deceased for a long time now and the grade of "Fair" is what is still stated on the O.F.A. database.
 
Since I was his second owner I wanted to see how he was holding up before I used him as a stud male. His hips certainly looked passable to me, but they were obviously "Fair". In my opinion the O.F.A. evaluation rating of "Good" assigned during his youth must have been a borderline call.

Best Regards,
Bob-O

A number of factors can influence how OFA grades x-rays, including:

The particular vets at OFA who are assessing Xrays
The positioning of the dog for the xray
The quality and clarity of the xray machine used,  film and developer
Age of the dog
Sex of the dog (a bitch shouldn't be xrayed when in heat, pregnant, or before 8 weeks after whelping...during these times the hips are loose and can result in a false reading of sub-luxation)  I once had a 4 year old bitch xrayed for OFA right after she had come out of heat, the results came back failed for subluxation.  A YEAR LATER NEW FILMS WERE SUBMITTED, at a time the bitch was not in heat, pregnant, and her litter was 3 months old, she went OFA GOOD at 5 years of age.  Comparing the two xrays, there was a noticeable difference in the size of the gap between the femoral head and the socket between the time the bitch had just come out of heat, and the xray taken a year later.

While OFAs are a good guideline for breeding, they aren't an absolute.  I once had a dog who OFA'd excellent at 8 years of age, but who was not a good hip producer.  I also had a male who was an OFA fair who produced many OFA good progeny and many of his descendants beyond the first generation also OFA'd good to excellent.

I just received my rating back and they were fair. They are posted on the board or look under my name. Hope this helps.

EK