Need help evaluating x-ray. - Page 1

Below are some x-rays of a three year old male GSD, hips and elbows. Looking for opinions and critiques as to whether they are good, fair, or poor.

Right hip mild dysplasia; left hip fair to good. BUT due to right hip you will probably get a fair or mild dysplasia.

If you were thinking about using this dog for breeding, I really do not feel these hips are good enough for that. BUT I do think if he is kept lean and well muscled with light exercise along with a good diet he could probably work for the rest of his life without any problems. I hope that is the case for him. Best of luck with him Nan

Agree with Nan. Don't really like the left hip either, but for sure right isn't good.

Wow!!! I was really hoping for a better response. Thanks for the response guys. What are you seeing in the various frames that brought you to the conclusion?

Right hip won't pass with these x-rays; maybe with others they could squeak by with a fair. Horrible positioning is making it look worse than it is.

Elbows: Left is normal, right may pass on a really good day (a Friday, maybe) at OFA, but I'd not be surprised to see DJD1 to come back on the right.

First off, I am no expert in this field. I am just a person who has been studying the grading of hips by OFA. My three year old male German Shepherd's hips, dog in profile picture, came back graded excellent by OFA. His hips were positioned perfectly in x-ray (plus he swims 3 or 4 days a week). The x-rays were taken during the summer months. Recently, I had another dog's hips x-rayed. They came back graded fair. I personally thought the hips were good (as did my vet) although the positioning was off on this one. I am going to x-ray again during the summer months after this dog has been swimming and exercising to see if this makes a difference. Also, I am going to make sure the hips are positioned correctly before I have them sent to be graded by OFA again.

To me, in the hip x-rays you provided, the positioning is off on the hip sockets. The right hip is definitely positioned higher than the left. If one was to draw a straight, horizontal line from the top of the left socket to the right, I believe the line would go through the top part of the right ball. Personally, I don't know if taking more x-rays would help or not as the right hip does look slighlty subluxated. I believe I would have x-rays redone with better positioning. Living Fence's original post entitled "Guide to interpreting hip x-rays" has a chart within the post that makes it easier to read the hip x-rays. Also, the pelvis doesn't look like it is positioned correctly to me.

Have you submitted the x-rays to OFA or any other organization?

 

Thank you Jenni and SRF. I saw the write up and also saw something that was slightly off on the right. Planning on seeing another vet next week for more expert evaluation. Have not sent the xrays in yet until I get some feed back from you guys and the vet visit next week. I'm thinking that a second xray might put the curiosity to bed. Surely will let you guys know how your evaluation stack up.

Right hip is not  realy good 

Also the dog position is no good, I see many X ray  pictures with dogs position
is  I don,t like. Go to a real specialist for this X ray  that realy makes a difference.

I do not know about OFA, but neither the hips nor the elbows would pass the SV evaluation I think, the right elbow is definitely not good enough, and I think both hips are not correct. I do not know why I rarely see a correct hip x-ray that is symmetrical posted here, you probably pay alot of money for these x-rays and then at least I would expect correct pictures.

The positioning on the hip x-rays is awful. The dog is not straight in first x-ray, in both he is twisted sideways on his spine (making one hip look more sublaxed & the other tighter in the socket than they really are), in both the legs aren't parallel & aren't turned inward enough (the knee caps should be in the center, not out to the side of leg).
Some of the markers you would expect for HD are absent (lipping on the upper acetabular rim for ex), other things that would more clearly indicate whether HD is present or not cannot be seen on this x-ray due to poor positioning. Based on only what you can see with these pics with a better x-ray I think fair, but these are really not diagnostic, imo.

I would find a vet that knows how to properly position for hips x-rays.
I'm not as good at reading elbows, so I will not comment on those.
Candace