do i have to go to a specialist vet to get this done or should my own vet be able to do it ?

Your vet should be able to give you a very good indication if there is any abnormal movement in the patella, you can then always go specialist if there is cause for concern.

Bearing in mind there are several levels of patella1 - 4. 4 the most severe.

Surgery is an option but in the first 2 stages i personally would not have surgery becaues i have been told it can bring on early arthritis.

Maintaining a correct body weight and making sure your dog is exercised and kept moving properly with good muscle tone is important.

There's no official scheme so all you can do is ask your own vet to check and write you a letter/certificate saying they have found nothing wrong.

The Affenpinscher club have a scoring sheet which can be adapted for your own vet to use.
It is the PUTNAM (1968) SCORING SYSTEM

www.affenpinscherclubuk.com

My own vet always does my patella assessments before I take the decision to breed.  If he isn't happy, then my bitches don't have pups.

I wonder why this system as in other countries hasn't been adopted as an official health scheme?

I suppose anything which can't be measured and given a diffinative number rather than an 'opinion' makes it difficult to put on the KC database. Same with the MVD heart scheme in CKCS, difficult to standardise without massive vet training and standard setting.

thank you everyone, printed off the form from the spitz club and going to take it down to the vet and see if he will do the test ?

Do not think anything wrong but going to do the test before i use my stud dog just to make sure everything is ok

We use the putman score too but opinions vary. We had a so called specialist come to a club show and score lots of dogs, he was very young and heavy handed and dealt out lots of 3 3's only for them all to be retested and none had more than 1.1's (different vets in different areas too) I have a bitch that's been done 3 times and although I don't doubt for a second they are loose I disagree with the one score of 2.3 and agree with the other 2 scores of 1.2 :-)  its all in the individuals interpretation of the system.

I thought there was a standard grading for Patellas a bit like the heart grades?

http://www.offa.org/pl_grades.html  I have had copies of certificate for a bitch I exported to USA whose owners did the lot, hips eyes, elbows, patella and I think even heart.

come back from the vets and he does not do it, so going to find a vet that does

I think you will need a vet in the practice that is an orthopaedic specialist.

Yes its a/standard 4 grades but what one vet things is a small amount of movement another will think is a huge amount.

anyone know of a vet in the northampton area i can go to ?

It does quantify the grades so there really ought not to be huge variation in interpretation?  To be fair none of the grades ideally ought to be used for breeding, perhaps Grade 1 where the problem is very widespread in a breed, where removing dogs with any sign of luxation would narrow the gene pool too far.

I'm afraid our breed does not have that luxury ATM as I'd say atleast 80% bitches have some amount :( very sad state, but I agree that 2.2 and over not a good choice. Trouble is no one will be open with the scores so its difficult making a stud decision as to which line produces most affected etc.

Here are the statistics showing normal and affected results, and the worst affected breed are Pomeranians http://www.offa.org/stats_pl.html

That's USA though isn't it? Were still having a battle gettin ng everyone to score.
I watched poms at the Nordic and there was quite a few limping and still getting placed.

Well 40+% affected of tested dogs in USA is pretty awful.  No Jap Spitz in the table so either the breed is rare there (probably as they have their own small Spitz, the Amercian Eskimo, though that's not listed as havign over 50 tested.

Still can't see why the KC/BVA don't make an official scheme, as it seems to be a big problem in many breeds..

Japs are not big over there as they have the American Eskimo dog.

It's crazy that we don't have a official system. A lot of the European clubs do and when you go through the old pedigrees they've reduced it little by little.