penn hip or ofa? - Page 1

would you please tell me which one you would do and your reasons for doing it? Thanks in advance!

I choose to go with the extended-leg x-ray used by the O.F.A. and the S.V.. Why not Penn-Hip? I guess for me it is (a) too new and (b) not offered where I live. I certainly see some merits of the Penn-Hip as far as the determination of excessive joint laxity is concerned. I also see the merits of the requirement that the veterinarian be certified to perform the procedure, unlike the O.F.A. who requires no certification other than a veterinary license. Hence the often poor quality of x-rays taken by many inexperienced veterinarians and their staffs. In many cases the O.F.A. will ask that the x-rays be made again and resubmitted, and in some cases the dog's hip quality will be graded lower or fail because the joints were misaligned/misplaced while the dog was sedated. Now the following is just my opinion of Penn-Hip and is not based on any experience of my own. I see some purpose for the Penn-Hip during the first year of a puppy's life in order to determine whether an inordinate amount of joint laxity exists. The reason is that even a "perfect" set of hips can be destroyed by excessive joint laxity if this is combined with extreme physical activity while the skeleton and connective tissues mature. The results from a Penn-Hip exam might give more guidance in what types of exercise are safe and beneficial for the puppy during the first two (2) years. Does the puppy need to swim versus run, etc.. Again, these are just my opinions. While I fully understand the Penn-Hip procedures I have no experience applying them and hence some apprehension until proven otherwise. Not much of an answer for your question, since I cannot base it on hard facts. Bob-O

thank you Bob-O, all opinons are welcomed! Maggie

We have been doing Penn hip for 5 years. We like it alot. Thought when we started doing it ...it would be the way of the future. Much more info than OFA. Cost about the same. 3 xrays instead of 1. Vet has to be specialy trained to do it

Here's a link to a really good article by Fred Lanting. "LOOKING AT OFA & PennHIP 2003 and 2004" http://www.angelfire.com/de3/jagenstadt/vonsalixarticles.html

Very interesting article Andrew. It does'nt knock OFA but thanks them for breaking ground and making people aware of hip dysplasia. But now its time to move on.Pennhip has improved on the method. Remeber you also get a extended veiw just the same as OFA. If you want to send it to OFA ask your Vet for a copy of that xray. If anyone is interested in Pennhip they should study the method. As I said earlier its a great tool to use in your breeding program.I will try to post a copy of a Penn hip evaluation for those interested to veiw.

I did both OFA prelims and PennHip on my male GSD at 9 months. The results were very good. So I may do OFA again at 2 years of age or not. But why not do both? PennHip cost me $140.00. Not a big deal. But if I had more dogs, I may feel differently. Jack

Here is an interesting question. Does PennHip put extra information in their evaluation such as "Transitional Vetebra"? The OFA does. Even though it does not affect the hip status. Even if the hip rating is normal, they put extra info on the certificate. Their rationale is that anything they see that is congenital (even if it is not medically significant in terms of soundness of the dog) they put on as additional notation. They advise that the dog is breed worthy, but should not be bred to another that has this congenital abnormality. However, from what I understand, the German and Canadian (OVC) certification does not include this notification, so how would anyone know if their potential breeding partner had this? By the way, the OFA keeps the radiographs, so your vet cannot re-evaluate based on the OFA notation unless you get and pay for further X-rays.

I might add that a search of the OFA database over the period of one year will demonstrate that very few North American breeders of German line GSDs are using OFA. I gather that most are sending to the SV for the "a" stamp.

I didnt get anything else from OFA except a certificate that said my dog had good hips. This was 5 years ago. Maybe they change. Pennhip is working on a Database. Hopefully it will be up and running soon.