Nearly a year ago i went to a breeder in East Yorkshire, Market Weighton to purchase a yellow labrador puppy. All was well until the next day when our labrador puppy developed a severe illness and almost died. Thankfully he recovered and up until a few months ago our lovely puppy was a very happy dog. As we went to the local puppy behaviour classes,the trainer noticed our puppy was walking funny, slightly bow legged and sitting and laying in strange posistions. We imediately booked an appointment with our local vet and discovered that he has severe hip dysplasia. The Breeders gave us the Kennel Club papers and we thought no further until prior to the vet appointment i took a look at the papers and discovered that only the mother was hip scored. The vet informed us that it doesn't matter whether the mother is hip scored, if the father has bad hips the litter will probably have bad hips aswell. Now we are going to another appointment with the vet to see if our dog is a candidate for hip replacement and if he isn't he will most definately suffer painfully eith his hips by the time he is 7 or 8 years old. How does the Kennel Club let the breeders get away with this? Surely the health of the litters are important to the Kennel club and the breeders should be regulary checked out. This was our first dog and as we had never had a dog before we were unaware of the dangers of bad breeders and breeding. We got our puppy at 6 weeks old and later on we discovered that this was too early to be taken away from its mother. And also nearly the whole litter had gone by then so obviously the other puppies had gone much earlier. Although i say this if we hadn't got him at this early stage his first illness (which nearly killed him) may have gone unnoticed so we count this as a blessing in disguise. Having said this i think the Kennel Club should look into more breeders and advise these breeders accordingly.

Sorry to hear about your pup, but the KC register dogs that have been bred in line with their rules and from registered parents. There rules do not include hip scoring because different breeds have different norms, and although the KC encourage the scoring of dogs only the breeder and the purchaser can decide which dog is suitable for breeding and which pup carries the lease risk of suffering with health problems. Having said that I know of a case were both parents and grandparents and G grandparents had scores under 10 and still produced a pup with a score of over 60. It is hoped the hip scoreing over the years will reduce the problem but you will always get the unfortunate pup that will have a health problem and no amount of careful breeding will stop a pup with bad health being born sometimes, all that can be said is that carefull breeding reduces the risk.

The first thing I would suggest you do with your pup is ask to be sent to a specialist and then take the advice you are offered, I do hope you will find it is not as bad as you now fear.

Have you gone back to the breeder to talk to her about it at all ?
It might be worth talking to her about it even if it is to make her aware of what has happened. No reputable breeder would I feel be breeding from a dog that has not been hip scored. :( Perhaps if she realises tha pain and suffering this condition can cause it may deter her from future breeding with a non good hip scored dog.

I do hope you will get the best possible treatment for your Lad.

Lucy
xx