Hi I have had some good advice here so posting again.

A friend of a friend has bred her GSD, I am rather respected locally by GSD owners and she contacted me for some advice.

During this conversation it came up that she hasn't hip and elbow scored hee dog!!! Dm tested but that is it.

I have suggested even though she has already bred the bitch and is due in a few days that following the litters birth it would be responsible for her to have the hips and elbows done as peice if mind and if anything bad comes up on the scores she can warn the future puppy owners or reatin the puppies. (estimated litter of 3 after a sheep scanner scaned to confirm pregnancy)

My question, how soon after birth could she have the dog hip and elbow scored but without any effect fromthe pregnancy making the scores worse or better than normal so they are a true result?

I have warned her that BVA turn around may be slow due to COVID and it wouldn't be advisable to take mum away before the puppies have started to wean at the very very very earliest.

What is the experience here? All my dogs get scored before breeding is even planned let alone takes place.

I don't think I would recommend taking a dam away from her pups to a clinic environment even with older pups as they are still non-vaccinated.

I wouldn't recommend hip or elbow scoring until pups have gone to new homes and so it all becomes a bit academic at that point. There are some health tests you can safely do during pregnancy but unfortunately hip and elbow scoring isn't one of them...

I assume the stud dog was hip and elbow scored?

Stud dog had hips done but no elbows.

I just tried to catch up with her on FB and she said her vet suggested having her x rays done and sent off when the puppies are 3 week.....

Aside from the issue you raised with pups not being vaccinated etc surely the hormones from birth can effect the hip score?

As Lexy has said is it is pretty academic and there isn't any great point in scoring after the mating has taken place. However if she is looking for peace of mind (or not) EBVs may help as a dog will have an estimated breeding value for hips or elbows even if it hasn't actually been scored.

https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/services/public/mateselect/ebv/Default.aspx?breed=5106

Add the EBV value for the sire and dam together and if it is lower than zero then the mating theoretically should improve the breed with respect to hips or eyes as appropriate.

Hi thanks, i sent her your link but now she is adamant of having the dog scored properly.

If only she had this attitude before thr mating......

I wouldn't really suggest she go ahead with scoring when the pups are 3 weeks old. Hormones will be all over the place and many people choose to score mid-way between heat cycles just to avoid the slight effect that being in heat or just out of heat or coming into heat has, on the ligaments. I can only imagine the effects will be even more pronounced if she is lactating with puppies so she could well get a much worse score than she should get...

Not to mention that if a general anaesthetic or sedative is used, she will need to be kept away from puppies for X amount of time afterwards - whilst still being full of milk, which can predispose to mastitis and so on.

Basically it's really not worth it.

There isn’t much point scoring her until the puppies have left. Relaxin which is produced in pregnancy and during whelping can result in laxity of the joints which isn’t normally present. It’s recommended you xray a couple of months after she’s finished lactating or four months after whelping.

I wonder if she is thinking of using her again at some point ?
That would then make sense as to why she is so interesd in scoring .
If this is really at the back of her mind maybe she should investigate more about health testing for gsd as well as the considerations of breeding a bitch and homing future puppies