Hi all
Could anyone shed some light on this for me plz? The breeder of my bullmastiff pup has just emailed me telling me that Kizer's parents hip scores are 18% for the sire and 32% for the dam. I didn't think that hip scores where read in this way and i have no idea if this is good or not. She also said that the normal for a bullmastiff is 29%.

Thanks Debbie

She's certainly confused you slightly Debbie. Forget the % sign that does not exist! In actual fact the "Normal" she gave you is old info. In 2003 the BMS was 28 and in 2004 it had improved still further to 27 total.

Best wishes, John

Thanks for the reply John.
So that would mean that my pups sire has good hips and her dam not so good?

Thanks Debbie

Basically true Debbie. It would appear that the breeder was trying to improve the litter's hips by using a dog with a well better than average score. The interesting thing would be how the score was made up. Obviously if both sides are even then the score would be rather better from the point of view of the dam than if one side is very good but the other side poor. From your point of view it would be better if one side was considerably better than the other because it would point to possible damage on that side. Interpreting hip scores is rather more than just a bald figure

Best wishes, John 

When a dog is x-rayed for hip scoring the plates are sent to the BVA  panel for scoring. Each individual hip is given a score between 0 and 53. A 0 score is perfect, and very rare. To get a total score, the number of points awarded on each hip are added together.
So for example:
A dog scoring 3 points on the left hip and 4 points on the right hip will have a total score of 7 points.
Every breed which is hip scored will have an average for it's breed. Ideally a breeder will not use a dog or bitch which is a lot higher than the breed average, and will use on a bitch a dog with a lower score than a bitch which is at the higher end of what the breeders consider acceptable.
Where you get a dog which has one hip scoring much higher than the other, you have to ask yourself which is the real hip? Usually it is a result of an injury.
Although breeders who use the scoring system do try to produce good sound stock, the nature of hip displaysia will mean that there are throw backs from time to time. For example, I bred a bitch, which scored 11-17=28 points total, which for my breed is a disaster! Our average is 9 points. Her sire was scored as 2-2=4 and her dam was scored as 0-0=0. All the rest of the litter that were scored, had scores ranging from 0-1=1 to 2-2=4. The grandparents of this bitch had also been scored and none had got a score higher than 3-2=5! As this high scoring bitch had roughly equal hips it was reasonably safe to assume that this was not totally caused by damage from over exercising or over feeding. Had this bitch scored 5-23 then I would have had to decide whether this was the result of damage, or was it possible that this bitch had a true hip score above the average on one hip and below the average on the other.
Hope that makes some sense.

Thanks Polly and John.
Yep makes perfect sence.
My pup has been lame now for about 2 weeks and we are at the referal specalist vet tomorrow. I just needed to know so that i can tell the vet then.

My pups problems tho seem to be from her knees but won't know for sure for a while yet.

Thanks again Debbie

Do let us know how things go and good luck at the specialist.

Hi Polly
The specalist couldn;t find anything wrong, so he thinks that she is just hurt and needs time to heal. He has given her some tabs and if she isn't better in a month then she has to go back.
Thanks Debbie

thanks for letting us know that fingers crossed she gets better soon.

Could well be pano. that is difficult to find but is self limiting.

Thanks Polly :)

Hi Jackie what is pano?
Debbie