Last year I brought a 5 month old puppy from a reputable breeder who knew that I hoped this puppy would be the start of my own line. She was hip and elbow scored on her 1st birthday and I have just recieved them back. Elbows 0, hips 45/48 total 93.
Obviously she will be spayed immediately. She does not carry any excess weight, if anything she is on the lean side, she is fed royal canin maxi junior and is not over excercised. She has never been lame or shown any sign of discomfort although I have noticed a rolling movement in her back end when she runs.
My question is have I done something to cause in the 7 months that I have owned her or is a score this high hereditary. What is her prognosis (I am waiting for a call back from the vets, but I'm impatient!) and also should I speak to her breeder, and if so what should I expect from the breeder.

I would certainly speak to the Breeder, but assuming there are good scores for her parents and further back in the pedigree, it may just be one of those unfortunate things. What a shame for you, and your dog.

I think with a score like that it would pay to speak to the breeder. While it is impossible to give any gaurantee as to future scores and (No dissrepect to you) hard to piont a finger at wholy hereditry or some environmental influence, i think as she was bought with breeding in mind you need to know more about her ancestory. They are very bad. I would be keen to see if anything in her first 5 month could have been a contributing factor.
I am sorry for you, I know how heartbreaking it is. I once purchased a GSD for breeding from a very reputable breeder and his hips turned out to be awfull and he was castrated very soon. I very nearly let him go as the vet wanted to save him a life of pain. However I persevered and after 6 long hard months of NO exersice his hips stabalized and he had 14 years of on the whole pain free life. He never needed pain relief till his last couple of years, so it can be done. He used to hop like a bunny behind as his hips fused, but he had the most magnificant front , built like a weightlifter from carrying most of his weight through his front legs.
Good luck in whatever you decide to do.
Aileen

Our first Bernese who we got at 6 months had dreadful hips too. We bought him from his first owner (not breeder) who had fed him rubbish to make him big we assume - then sold him on when he started showing problems. We were real novices and knew nothing at the time about hip scores etc(this was a long time ago pre-web days :-) ). We got in touch with his breeders and all of his littermates and parents had good scores so we always blamed his problems on that first owner.

As Aileen says - check with the breeder to see if there has been anything in the first 5 months and if not and the lines have good scores you may just have been unlucky :-( . It is a dreadful condition but you may find that the dog has no effects, Dakko was scored at age 6 as someone wanted to use him at stud, but his hips were dreadful so we didn't allow it - you would never have known to look at him though as his movement was great and he would regularly jump walls etc - he only really had issues at about age 8 or 9 when arthritis became a problem.

Sometimes you will get dogs that have bad hip scores that come from parents/grandparents etc that have really good hips. Its just massively unlucky

Thanks for the replys. Her parents and grandparents all have scores of A stamp normal or fast normal.  What does concern me is the breeder said get the vet to look at the plates (which I didn't) if they are no good don't send them off so I may no be getting a true picture of her other relatives scores. I do know the breeder feeds Royal Canin also. The only thing I can think of that could have contributed is that she allows her dogs to jump up which has been a habit that we have found hard to break, she used to spend more time on 2 legs than 4! But I also think there must have been a degree of HD present already as surely no amount of jumping up could result in a score of 93.
Her breeder is at Crufts this week but I shall ring after the weekend and see what she says.

What does concern me is the breeder said get the vet to look at the plates (which I didn't) if they are no good don't send them off so I may no be getting a true picture of her other relatives scores

This is just the sort of thing that gives a very untrue reflection of the breeds average scores. In reality we only ever get a minor veiw of an avarage score as a large propotion of pups are sold to the pet owner who never has them scored. That produces a less than average result. However it has always been such and this breeder should be encouraging everone to have them scored, not giving out this reaction. By the way the GSD I had was from all Germanic working stock with A Stamp Normal hips through 4 generations. He was not over excersised and not allowed to get fat, nor to do any jumping about, but by 6 months he was very very lame, so it could just be like him a weird outcast! And following S*Ds law he was a wonderfully constructed boy.
Aileen

also who did  the x rays some vets are rubbish ...why not get them done again just for your own peace of mind and his future ..although I know they cant be recorded .

If the plates were of good enough quality for the BVA to score them, I really can't see the point of getting another set of plates done. If they were poor quality plates the BVA would have returned them.

What breed is she and don't get the scoring system that you mentioned is the dog from somewhere other than the UK?

Re. jumping in many ways doubt that it would figure myself.  I had a Spanish who would jump up and down frm a few months old and at 7 months she was jumping higher than me.  She was hipscored at almost 6 years of age and had a hipscore of 6/4 and was always on two legs rather than four.

Id have thought that the dog would have started showing some signs of lameness, I really feel for you, but one good thing has come out of this, now you know there is a problem you will be able to treat before it gets really bad, you and your vet will be able to keep an eye out.

I think the max score is 100 (50/50) full HD

Max is 53/53=106.

I had a similar experience -although in my case the dog's mother had a poor score (30/30) and the breeder's excuse was she had used a "known hip improver" -well my dog ended up with 48/48=96. However he had no signs whatsoever until he was 6 years old, and he died last year aged 13 from other causes. From 6 until his death he was on 2 capsules daily of Glucosamine and Chondroitin and although he wasn't exactly going for extremely long walks, he had a normal life. :) So it can end well.

She is a GSD, her parents are german bred, hence the A stamp scoring, Anya was scored by the BVA.
Funnily enough, she had never before now given any signs of HD, although when we were out last night as she walked away she had a rolling kind of gait, and I thought then I'm not looking forward to the results coming back. My daughter and I took her out for a few minutes this afternoon and she was wobbily, bunny hopping, almost looked hunch backed and didn't jump up once. She had the most awful gait that I brought her straight back in. I have spoken to the vet this afternoon, who said it may not affect her for years but I'm just shocked how bad she looked today compared to a couple of days ago. Will she have good and bad days? I feel like I should have seen something earlier.

She could but I'd be ensuring that she's not done something to her back.

why buy a puppy if the mothers hip score was 30/30. it  seems to be a bit  of a risk to me, even if she had been right about the father improving hips.

Long story but in a nutshell I didn't find out the mother's score until I already had the pup.

if shes gone funny gaited straight after the x-rays be suspicious they may have accidently pulled her back while she was out cold.  had that happen to my weimarnaer who was having small lump removed- terrible back pain - was resolved with pain meds and rest. may be nothing to do with hips at this stage

She had the xrays about 4 and a half weeks ago so I don't think that is to blame. I'll watch her over the weekend and if there is no improvement I will take her up the vets on monday.

Is there a chance that she has always had a poor gait, bunny hopped etc, but you have never noticed?  since getting the results back, you are now looking for problems,

With such an even score, I dont think you can blame yourself for anything that has happened to her...accidental damage tends (not always) to be one-sided, giving a very uneven score..

sometimes it happens for no reason, even if generations of good scores are behind the pup...

I had half sisters, Emma and Penny... same dad, different mums.. Emma scored 6:7  and her sister came back 45:45  both parents had excellent scoring behind them..

HD is always hereditary but environmental factors can play a part.  However, it is a complicated disease caused by a number of different genes.  If the breeder bred from parents with good scores and the dogs behind the parents also had good scores, then they have done all that they can.

On a more positive note, the fact that she has not shown any clinical signs is good.  Careful exercise and possibly hydrotherapy will build up her muscles to support the joints.  I have (and know) quite a number of dogs with poor hips that are completely sound and live normal lives and had xrays not been taken no one would be any the wiser.  In fact, I suspect that there are more dogs with HD out there than we realise - it's just that the owners are unaware as there has never been any need to xray.

My oldest GSD, who we just lost (for other reasons!) had terrible hips.

We never got an official score for him but his right one was bad, his left there was no socket at all.  The vet was astounded as he didn't present any symptoms at all until he was 7 when we noticed a slight turn in off the left leg.  We swam him regularly, did agility and also plenty of on lead (off road) exercise with him and the vet said that his muscles were so good that they were in effect holding together his bad hip.

So, while a bad score isn't great it defienitely isn't the end of the world.  You just need to manage them a bit more carefully.

This is the reason scoring is worthwhile  for any dog, especially one to be worked, regardless if it is intended for breding.

If things are not good at least they can be managed for the best outcome for the dog.