We are getting Breeze spayed at the end of July and was wondering if it was worth getting her hip scored at the same time. Had to take her to the vet last night as she has an ear infection and asked them if it was possible while she was under GA anyway. They said that they could take an exray and tell me if her hips were ok instead of laying out £180 for the official scores.

The reason for the scoring is if I want to do agility with her later when she has stopped growing, then I will not do long term damage, she weighs 36 kilo now and will be about 40 - 45 kilo when gully grown.

What do you reckon, go for the official hip score or the vets opinion.

£180 sounds a bit steep for a dog thats 'out' already....in fact a bit steep anyway, vets here dont charge quite that much for the total (BVA fee etc), friend had one done recently.  Anyway, if I were you, and was confident in my vets opinion, Id just let the vet have a look, you dont need the hip score for breeding purposes (obviously :D) so the vet should be able to give an opinion on the state of the hips at present.

The BVA part of the hip scoring is only around £30.  Your local GP vet can be extremely inaccurate about the hips, often getting it way wrong. 

A friend had their dog x-rayed and the Vet urged them not to submit the plates as he thought they were poor, yet the score came back very good.

I would want a proper score.  After all it adds to the breeds data, and also helps show what her parents are producing.

I agree that vets can be very inaccurate in assessing hips.  I had one done and the vet was not happy, saying they would get a bad score - got 2:2!  If she is having a GA anyway, then the only extra cost involved would be the x-ray plates and the BVA fee.  I wouldn't have thought that would come to more than £60 / 70 in total.  If you want the reassurance that her hips are ok for future activities, then have her scored if that's what you want to do.  I am sure her breeder would be interested to see the scores he / she is producing.

Bit confused here. if a dog is suspected of having HD, does it have to be scored to confirm it, or not, as the case may be?

Almost every dog has a degree of HD. Only dogs with a score of 0/0 are not affected. So with that in mind, I would think, broadly speaking, that yes, a score would need to be obtained from the BVA, to confirm the HD and it's degree of severity.

Dawn R.

If your dog is having an anaesthetic and an xray anyway I think it is your duty, really, to the breed to have it scored properly and the result recorded officially.  As others have said that part of the cost is pretty mininimal really.

If you can get it down to the minimal cost, she was quoted £180! Bit stiff just to 'do your duty' :D

However, as others have said its wise to get a score, with the reasons for it, then I would go back to the vet and try to find out A/ How much they charge, inc BVA fees, for a hip score, and how that works out when broken down, then B/ How much for a spay alone. Then I'd want to know how much I would be saving as the op and the score are combined on the same day. There has to be a bit of a saving, surely. Unless the £180 was combined spay and score, in which case I'd say go for it :D

Yes £180 would certainly be a bit stiff.  As Brainless has pointed out the BVA scoring only costs around £30 so I am rather thinking it is a combined cost.  I think I would be asking the vet to look at it again if it was not.

I had my boy done recently, he scored excellent in Spain.  My vet was happy with the films knew that they wouldn't be fantastic but more near the top of our breed average, they've come back double.

I would of appealed but can't afford the £60 odd pound to appeal as I have another to hip score soon to do on my youngest girl.

My vet is shocked by the results as are his breeder, people who were there when he was x-rayed in Spain aand also the vets in Spain!

Meant to say that if you are having an anaesthetic I'd have my dogs hips scored t the same time and don't follow what the vet says, send it off as above has shown vets don't always get it right :d

I'm just wondering why you are having her spayed now when she hasn't "stopped growing"??

I think that Breeze is about 1 year old now so why shouldn't she be spayed? 

Anyway Sarah, I would get it done properly as you are having the hips properly assessed then rather than just 1 vets opinions - I believe the BVA is a board of people looking and scoring the hips and it is far more accurate than a vets quick look.  As she will already be out it wont do her any harm however I would begrudge paying that much!  I had Thai's rear dew claw removed whilst she was spayed a few weeks back and it cost me a further £21 which I was dead chuffed with!

I think tht you will find that it's only one person who will do the BVA score, it's just that they meet on a certain day to do it?  Not sure but this is how I've taken it.

Hope that they are not long this time round as there are two people who have sent off scores for their dogs who are from my dogs offspring, agghhhhhh, the wait seems so long especially when it's for 7 weeks :d :d

Oh really, I thought there were a few people that looked at the x-rays and all came up with their own score and between them agreed on the whole?  I could be very wrong and will have to pick my vets brains next time I see him :D

I too thought it was a panel of 3 people, for each plate.

Oh good Barbara, I didn't dream it - I have been sat here pondering over it and I am thinking, I am sure more than 2 people decide the score LOL :)

When I was allowed to sit in as a guest at a scrutineer training session there were two scrutineers-no I'm not a vet I donated a set of hip X rays of a dog with perfect hip & pelvic structure for training purposes & my reward was a tour of the BVA training for hip scoring & other schemes

You lucky, lucky thing, would love to have a look round and see how it's done :d

In this article it says that 2 scrutineers agree the score for each plate.

I have just read the same on the BVA site - 2 scrutineers.  I can do links but here is the relevant site to copy and paste should you so wish:

http://www.bva.co.uk/public/chs/HDProcedureNotes.pdf

whenever my dogs have been exrayed for hips I,ve had to sign the BVA form agreeing to a score being done before my vet will do the exray.
I think this should be done anyway as its the only true way to get an idea of the breeds hips,if everyone who had plates done never submitted them we,d never know what state our dogs were in.

Well only one out then, it was the apeal process that made me think it was three as it goes to a third for re scoring.

If all dogs have a degree of HD, why are not all dogs hip scored for breeding?

Should be in my and many peoples view.  All breeders in my breed (proper ones) hip score and eye test breeding stock in line with the joint breed clubs code of ethics.

Breeds that do not routinely hip score have had individuals with very high score, so I believe they are wrong to be complacent.

One of the best scoring breeds are Siberian Huskies, yet I believe they encourage scoring to ensure it stays that way.

As they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

To be honest, your post makes so much sense Brainless. To me, it seems better to know all is well and monitor it. Then if someting were to go wrong it would be seen, and those dogs that are not tested, if they were would know for definate if eyes and hips were a problem/potential problem.

Thanks everyone.
Unfortunately, its not a combined cost.... To have her spayed is nearly £300 because of her size - she is 36 kilo now. As for having her done while she is still growing, she will be 16 months old when she is done so nearly there with the growing. I thought £180 was very expensive, especially on top of the cost of the spaying, thats why I wondered if I should get it done. I will speak to the vet and others in the area to see how much they charge, but if the cost is £30, they are totally ripping me off and will find another practice to register her with.
I don't know this practice well enough to take their word for it, unlike my last place and even though its further away, I may take her back there.

£300 for a spay??? Yikes! I thought my vet was expensive at £200 for spaying a 50kg Newfie (including an overnight stay).

To have her spayed is nearly £300 because of her size - she is 36 kilo now. As for having her done while she is still growing, she will be 16 months old when she is done so nearly there with the growing. I thought £180 was very expensive, especially on top of the cost of the spaying, thats why I wondered if I should get it done.

My vets are generally quite expensive (but good!) but they have totally stopped charging a different fee according to the size of the animal. They say anaesthetic cost the same regardless of animal size and so their charge for that is £98 whether it is a cat or a Great Dane, and then everything else done is on top.(This is always itemised on the bill so you see what you pay for.) A month ago I had one of my dogs x-rayed as we were worried about his front legs (turned out his is in recovery from Panosteitis) and as he was going under we decided we might as well do his hip scoring at the same time. They did the hips, x-rayed each elbow, front leg and front paw (so in total 7 plates), and the total cost was around £300. It really added very little to do the hips at the same time, in fact we calculated we saved £100 by not doing it on a separate occasion.

I would expect some difference for size as at least some of the drugs are dosed to weight, Propofol the induction agent often used these days for safety is particularly expensive.
The price of £30, Sarah, is just for the BVA scoring fee you would also have to pay the vet for the Xray and I suppose the size of plates required for a large dog may also make a difference.  I think you need to ask your vet to break the charge down and then you would have a better idea of whether it is reasonable or not.

I think I am going to make some calls to other vets in the area to see what they charge as it seems £300 is a lot for spaying.

When she had a hot spot, they charged £160 for 2 consultations and some medication. The insurance covered it all so I didn't really notice the cost a it was all claimed back. I have had exrays done before and they don't seem that expensive, but this seems very high.

Have I got the most expensive vet in the UK :rolleyes: It would seem so....

No..several years ago my friend who used to frequent a practice in Fleet (Vets in Practice star!) was charged £250 for a cut pad on her dog!    So beat that!

I hope my vet doesn't read this...he might decide he isn't charging enough!!

I paid around £170 last year for a 20kg dog to be hip scored .  It broke down to £50 odd pounds for the plates and £50 odd for the anaesthetic.  With Vat and BVA fee it came to £170.

Now her Mum was done while under for something else do only the charge for the plate and the BVA on top of what she was having done.

I would ring around.  As the only extra cost should be the X-ray plate and BVA fee.