Hip X-Ray @5months - Pointless or Insightful? - Page 1

As my title insinuates, I was calling some vets today to get a feel on who does OFA Radiographs without sedation.

I came across one vet, who doesn't sedate, is fairly close to me, charges a reasonable price and the vet himself breeds Rodhesian Ridgebacks and does all of his OFA hips/elbows himself so seems fairly knowledgable.

That being said, Beau is roughly almost 5 months old. I am not an idiot (just impatient) and realize no OFA ratings can be issued before 12 months for pre-lims and 24 months for final ratings, however, I do want to "sneak a peak" at those hips before I invest a tremendous deal of time and money into titles, if his hips are "shot" at so young, I would either take training easier or keep on the same path depending on findings.

At 5 months old, I DO realize he is a puppy, his hips WILL be loose/underdeveloped and results can vary from 5 months to 24months of age. However, is it completely pointless for me to even take a look at 5months to determine what I decide to do with him, or is it not that bad of an idea? I don't expect his hips to come out looking like an OFA Excellent at this age, but being as both his sire and dam were OFA Good, Normal Elbows and his bloodlines are a1, 0/0, I don't SUSPECT there will be a problem, but I do want to at least get an idea to gauge a level of training I can/should do with him.

So, opinions; is this foolish and will results be absolutly pointless, or can I at least get a decent idea if he'll pass at 12 and then 24 months?

Will radiation at this age hurt him?

Looking for opinions, not nasty remarks. PMs are also appreciated!

As mentioned, this vet is one of the ONLY local ones who do NOT use Sedation, which is a plus!

Beau will be 5 months old on 5-21-12, but the appointment can be made for next Monday, 5-14-12, a week before his 5month old mark.

  I see no reason to xray a pup at this early an age, unless he is limping, in pain, and shows signs of something wrong.


  Many big breeders do it because their livlihoods depend on thousands of dollars they have invested or they are in training programs that need to either know now to continue.

  Wait till he is 12 months old for his prelim

  HE needs time to exercise and grow properly..NO need to worry...After all HE is not the neighborhood Stud>..LOL

inside joke!!!!!!!!

 Nick told me what your so called breeder told you..I had a big laugh on that one..

Yr

He isn't showing any discomfort or limping, I'm just impatient, I'm sure Nick told you that LOL

Yeah...whoever decides to pre-lim and breed is their own right/business, but I won't be one of them. I don't care if his hips looked fantastic at 12months, he still wouldn't be bred until that FINAL hip score came in. I'm not decided on even breeding him at this point, I just see him doing things, being a puppy, and worry if his "puppy-ness" is hurting his hips in the long run.

We only have three steps on our stairs, but at over 40lbs, and my Fibro, I can't lift him like when he was a baby. I carried him up and down those steps until he was over 4 months old, I just can't do it any more, so he has to go up and down those 3 steps several times a day.

Also, in the "heat of the moment" trying to run down our 2yr old pitbull, he will occasionally "bail" over the back of the couch. It's about 3ft. high or so, and of course, when I see he's going to do it, I stop him, but it DOES happen occasionally. 

About 50% of our house is either hardwood flooring/tile so I can't avoid that, either.

Maybe it's paranoia, but I can't put him in a bubble all day either, it's like trying to contain a tornado, you can try to STOP it from doing what is in it's nature, but it's still going to do what's in it's nature.

I've tried my very best at limiting his couch bailing habits, but he still does it.

I don't think I could worry this much about a human child, for goodness sake! 

I have yet to learn patience so I do pre-lim early.  I do Pennhip and OFA per-lim elbows at around 8-10 months and do OFA hips and elbows at 2 years.  Never had an issue with xraying early affecting the dog.  Just had my 8 month old ACD puppy xrayed a couple weeks ago and have gotten my pennhip results back and am now impatiently waiting for the elbows to come back :-)  If you want to do it and can afford to do it I would go ahead and make the appointment but this is coming from someone who cannot wait ;-) 

Personally I think that hip x-rays done at a younger age gives a better assessment of the actual genetic quality of the hip joint formations.  Whereas the older the dog is, the more likely that environmental factors will affect the hips and perhaps not show a true picture of the dog's genetic quality.   

PennHip will grade hips as young as 16 weeks.  PennHip can predict if a dog will have dysplacia later in life, whereas OFA can only say if the dog is dysplastic or not right in that moment the x-rays are taken.  

I did x-ray at 5 months. I x-rayed a male at 5 months well over a decade ago as he had to have a retained canine puppy tooth pulled. He came back OFA good and when redone at 24 months he was OFA good. Ironically, a totally unrelated female who is working lines and just now an adult also had retained puppy teeth pulled (first guy was showlines). I x-rayed her at about 6 months. Her hips and elbow films were just redone and are on their way for the "a" stamp. They look good. Again non related to either of the 2 above, I had another female's retained canine pulled out of caution and just after I did the adult canine move over to where it needed to be. She was 5 months old. She was x-rayed too and her sister was also. Thought I would take both. 

They are still developing and growth plates are not closed, but none of the dogs above had loose hips. Actually all really nice and tight. What you can see at this age is if there are bone changes already which are not going to obviously go away.

All of these were done because they were going to the vet for something else except the one litter mate who came for the ride.

I normally would not do it until 12 months. Point is none were loose and I thought the same thing that they would surely be and the x-rays did tell something.

I "threaten" all my pet owners to do pre-lims when they fix the dog (earliest at one year) or else..lol

I want to know what I bred darnet!
Other than that, unless there is a problem, I don't rush it. Or if a sibling has a problem.. then I might have people x-ray the puppers to make sure. Or if they are in the process of selling the dog I tell them that my contract will not cover the new owner if there is a problem.

At 5 months, the joints are still calcifying--I think I'd wait until at least 8 months, personally.

pennhip at 5 months is fine and fairly accurate

Patience is truly a virtue I was never born with, nor developed over childhood, teenage years, adult hood, and now, here we are, an adult who gets more excited about having her dog's hips done than she does over say, Christmas, Halloween, an Anniversary. Heaven help my poor husband!

If it won't HURT Beau to be xrayed so soon, and has the potential to at least give me a ball park range of what I'm working with, I guess it's a small price to pay. Heck, if I see something I don't like though, well, I'll be panic stricken until 12 months and then until 24months. Vicious cycle.

How do you guys cope with the "need to know" while waiting to test your dogs? I ordered a DM kit today from OFA, that didn't even partially satisfy my "need to know".