Hips? - Page 1

I was just wondering if 3 1/2 months is too early to get a pups hips x-rayed? Which is the earliest possible age I can get the hips x-rayed.

Mav, too young. you can get a prelim X ray at 12 months. But if you wish to go for O.F.A. the dog must be 24 months of age.

Depending on which country you come from, you can get a pre-xray from 51/2-6 months. The final pictures are not to be done before 15 months, as many GSDs are still growing then.

ofa will do a prelim rating at 4 month of age

You can do prelims at about 6 months. If it looks good at this age, doesn't necessarily mean that it will look just as good at 12 or 24 months. But if it is bad, you at least know not too invest too much training/showing into this pup - it will not improve... I once bough a puppy that ended up being severely dysplastic, and we x-raid her very early to diagnose this. I don't remember exactly - she was 4 or 6 months at that time. So if you have real reason to suspect HD, I guess you can x-ray your pup very early. PS I'm happy to say that the dysplastic pup we had was a small female, and FHO surgery was a great option for her. She couldn't get up without crying at 6 m. o. but now she is nearly 3 years old and is very happy and active : ) Please don’t put your dysplastic dogs to sleep automatically - there are great (though expensive) surgical options for them now -> pain free life.

You can Penhip at 16 weeks. Kari

Maverick, I will add that that if you choose to do the O.F.A. preliminary examination at 4 1/2 months of age, and no evidence of dysplasie is found, then it will probably be okay to wait until the puppy reaches twelve (12) months for the S.V. x-rays, or twenty-four (24) months for the final O.F.A. exam. This early examination will determine the basic quality of the joint, and later examinations will determine whether any negative changes are occurring. But, if at this young age the determination is made that the hips are "fair" to "borderline", then you should definitely make a follow-up examination at nine (9) to ten (10) months of age, and the O.F.A. will probably suggest this to you, as well. I think that we all agree that none of us would trust a passing "excellent" or "good" score at this very young age, and I personally would not trust a "fair" or "borderline" score either at this age, as the puppy still has eight (8) more months to grow before his bones become ossified, and the hip quality could change slightly for the better or for the worse. Bob-O

ThankS everyone for the advice. I just wanted to get an early x-ray to determine the quality of the hips but I understand that there is a lot of growing up that the puppy has to do. He doesn't display any signs that would cause me to worry, but since I just got him I am being overly paranoid about everything :) Thanks again for the info

Maverick13, I suggest you go to the OFA website and read the research articles on hips. I have always found that an OFA type xray without anesthia is about 80% dignostic for serious HD at 12-16 weeks for young puppies (xrays at 6-8 weeks have even worked for me in the past). The OFA research supports my belief. If the hips look good (normal balls deep set into the female part of the joint at 50% or greater with no roughness and visible laxity), then the odds are greatly in your favor that the dog will never have crippling HD. It may not grow up to have perfect hips, but they are not likely to be an issue unless you want to use the dog for breeding, in which case you will want great hip confirmation rather than just good. I have found that supplementing puppies with these basically soundly conformed hips like this with glucosamine/chondroitin every day (in adult human dosage) (liquid or crushed pill or opened capsule form), that these puppies developed OFA good hips at 2 years old. You may want your vet to do a quick screening hip xray and get your own copy. Then go to the OFA site and examine it in comparison to their diagrams and photos. Also you may find the information available on the "Norberg Angle" quite helpful and informative. A properly controlled diet, not too much exercise, and good care obviously increase your odds greatly even if the huip joints aren't as deep as one would like. Many GSD live out normal lives that had somewhat shallow hip joints that were raised and conditioned properly and were never overweight. Environmental factors are important.