Elbow xrays - Page 1

Now that the SV has elbow evaluation, would you use a stud dog/brood bitch that didn't have an elbow xray?

I would have to say no...but I didn't in the first place. I have had a few dogs come up with perfect hips, best the vet ever seen, and then they have ED with DJD...

We had a lot of discussion about elbow x-ray results the other day, and there were some good links posted about this subject. Whose results do you trust? The O.F.A. results at two (2) years of age where tiny nodes of arthritic activity will cause a dog to labeled as Level 1 DJD, or the S.V. results given at one (1) year of age possibly before the development of any arthritic nodes? The O.F.A. has a very tough standard for even the minute presence of DJD. I know virtually nothing about the evaluations done by the S.V., save for the fact that they grade elbows with a scoring system that is indentical to the one used for hips. We know that arthritic changes take time to develop, so I guess the question that I have pertains to the amount of time required for these changes. The more serious cases of ED involve the poor development of the bones, i.e. there is a void where there should be bone present, or the joint surfaces are minimum or misshapen. To me this is much more serious than the evidence of tiny arthritic nodes, as it is a true structural defect. Level 1 DJD is suspected to never become worse as the dog ages, as perhaps will the other levels. Bob-O