Another question on hips - Page 1

I had my females hips x-rayed at 1 1/2 years, and vet thought they looked fine. I thought they looked like they would pass as good or fair. Anyway, now she is 2 years, and I had her hips done for OFA. The vet showed me the x-rays, one was terrible, the other so-so. Anyway, her hips came back with moderate dysplasia, and I was devistated, because she is such a beautiful dog from great lines. All of her siblings I have seen have a1, or OFA good hips. I would love to still have pups out of this dog, should I have another xray done? Another thing, she has been in a 1/2 acre pen since she was young, could this also affect her? I have since then started keeping my dogs in a smaller area. Thanks for any help.

Did you submit them to OFA for a prelim at 1 1/2 yrs? Were you able to compare her old xrays and the ones just done? Poor positioning can also be a factor. You can always have a different vet take them, just make sure they're experienced with ofa procedures and do quite a few ofa's each year.

No one is going to tell you that it is okay to breed her anyway, but I would get a second opinion. Many vets are don't do alot of hip xays so their positioning is often poor, which has a big affect on evaluation. Go to someone who does alot of xrays like University of Penn, near me. They are more likely to take as many films necessary to get a good STRAIGHT shot. I would also have them evaluated through the WDA a stamp program, many will say that their ratings are more lenient with the NZ a3 rating. Here is the link to the WDA a stamp program, scroll down till you see it. http://www.gsdca-wda.org/hundegrams/HundeGram112004.pdf Here is also a good article by Ed Frawley about hip positioning http://www.leerburg.com/hipart.htm

I had 2 litter brothers refused OFA numbers; at 26 months of age, they both were rated by OFA as mildy dysplastic. Although they lived in 2 differant parts of the country, their xrays were done the same week by 2 different vets. Both vets said - no way is this dog dysplastic. They were done again and received numbers and good ratings. Neither of these dogs was preliminaried. One was returned to me and he was re-xrayed at 7 years of age and his hips still looked good. I would think a dog rated as moderate will have some remodeling changes and will most likley not pass if re-xrayed regardless of positioning, but after my experience who can say for sure? If the 2nd xray looked bad to both you and your vet, the odds are against her getting a number. This is why OFA no longer certifies dogs less than 24 months old and why they offer preliminary evaluations on dogs younger.