I have tried googling to get little bit more information about how the hips are scored.
I have also looked at BVA website to see if they give you any more information.
Sasha our Leonberger is now 15 months old and unfortunately she was hit by a car and broke her pelvis. The pelvis has been fixed and she is on a road to recovery.
However, one side of her pelvis actually "broke off" (not just one of the bones broken meaning it stayed at its place) and moved forwards and had to be pulled back to its place and re-lined with the healthy side. Her hip sockets were unaffected (no breakage there).

Now what I would like to know is little bit more information on how they score the hips here in UK?
Do they take in account the hips location relating to the other hip or do they score each individually as each is given seperate number?
Would they score her hips at allas I believe in Finland (whose hip scoring system I know) they would not even score her hips due them not being in their original state.

I have always got all my dogs hipscored just to give the breeder data and information.
I know Sasha's breeder is keen to get the hip scores of all the pups in the litter but obviously if her accident will twist the results and not give any detail of what the hips would be without the accident it will be a bit pointless excersise to get them done.

Not sure if you've seen this link - might help you understand the way in which they score in the UK (each hip is scored).

http://www.bva.co.uk/public/documents/chs_hip.pdf

Thanks.
Yes, I had seen the article but it didn't really give me the information I need.
I think I will need to speak to somebody from the BVA or maybe to a vet who does loads of hip xrays and has knowledge of how it all works.

Maybe it is just worth getting them done as the healthy side should at least give us some idea of what they might have been...
As I believe some people say if dog has very different scores for each hip the better one is likely to be the real genetical score and the bad one might have been affected by environment...
Not sure how correct this info is though...

I was going to get her unofficially xrayed before I brought her to UK but never got around doing it!
I now wish I had done so we would already know about her hips!

There is a document/article called Hip Dysplasia Scoring Criteria available free from the BVA if you ring them.

I was told recently by an independent vet that used to score, that if you get an uneven score it's down to vet error (limbs not aligned correctly for x-ray) or reader error.  She'd always take the lower side as the actual.
If you're not planning to breed from your dog though, I really wouldn't put it through an unnecessary anaesthetic and x-ray ... don't forget, they actually do quite a lot of manipulation of the back legs to get them into the right position for x-ray.  Is this really going to be the best thing given your dog's history?  If it's just to provide the breeder with information, that's really good of you, but I'd let the breeder get it from one of the pups that hasn't already gone through what I would presume to be major surgery.
If in doubt, ask your vet for advice ... so long as they're not likely to say yes 'cause it means lots of lovely money for them! ;-)

> I was told recently by an independent vet that used to score, that if you get an uneven score it's down to vet error (limbs not aligned correctly for x-ray) or reader error.  She'd always take the lower side as the actual.

What a load of rubbish-I've used the same vet for hip X rays for over 30 years & her plates are always of the best quality & she always has the legs aligned correctly(she uses a sling)I've had a dog whose score was 4:20=24. The hips were clearly different & the higher score was quite obvious. He had been squashed by his mother when he was three days old & this trauma could have affected the formation of the joint as it was this side that had been under his body, when he was squashed.

4:4 might have been his score if his mum hadn't lain on him, but the score wasn't down to the quality of the plate

You are very negative about hip scoring if the dog isn't going to be bred from, but if only good hips are scored then the real hip status of the breed is hidden.

My dogs have never had any after effects from their x raying, other than being a bit sleepy on the way home(all except on GSD bitch who was her usual hyper self on the way home, she obviously was well recovered from the GA

I have to say I agree with Moonmaiden as I have seen quite a few hip xrays some with differences between the two sides.
Quality of the plate or vet error would have not caused the differences.
Yes, vet needs to know what they are doing but there can be a big difference between the two hips even if the plate is perfect.
Wether the dog was born with them like that or as many seem to say it could be caused by external factors, I do not know.

I think I will wait for January when she gets xrayed to see how her pelvis has settled and then decide what I will do.
She actually gets put in a same position as in hip xrays and the "even" positioning is very important as they had to see that both sides of her pelvis "match" and the hips are in line.
From these xrays we already know her hips look ok. Naturally they are not pulled as much as in hip xrays but they definately look identical and nice shape and fit...

We imported her to UK to get some new blood so we were hoping to breed if all health results were ok but obviously this is all on hold now.
I have spoken to our vet about this and it all really depends of the location of her pelvis, after the operation xrays it was back to where it is supposed to be but there will always be some movement inwards as the dogs tend to lay on the damaged side...
If her pelvis has been made very narrow, we will naturally bury the breeding hopes but I would still like to get the official hip scoring result for her breeder who also owns the sire so is very keen to get health data.
But then if Sasha's scores will be totally incorrect because of her accident there really isn't any benefit in getting them.

I have seen quite a few hip xrays some with differences between the two sides.

I once went to look at some plates of a bitch with a dreadful score.  I couldn't believe that the Vet who'd taken the plates and the 'expert' who'd read them, hadn't spotted that she'd got 2 tails! :(  The plates were as bad as her score!

Oooh, errrr ... I beg your pardon!  Surely if someone posts comments you obviously very strongly disagree with, it's much nice to be pleasant about it.  I've re-read this reply a couple of times and I'm very sorry, but I just find it quite rude and insulting.  Maybe I'm frequenting the wrong forum ... maybe I've just had a bad day, but I feel like I've really been shouted at.  I'm not in the habit of being shouted at!

I cannot change the information that I was passed on, as said by an independent vet who used to be a 'scorer'.  Maybe she wasn't talking about scores where there's a huge difference as in your 4:20 and obvious previous injury (as in your squashed pup), I don't know, I will have to go back and ask her. 

I'm not negative about hip scoring at all.  It is a fact that if only good x-rays are subjected to the scoring system then the system is not showing a true mean for the breed.  However, in this particular case the dog has already suffered fairly major damage and it may be that it would be better not to subject the dog to a further x-ray.  This is exactly why I suggested to the original poster that they discuss it with their vet.  I've had dogs x-rayed with no problem, but I've also had a dog x-rayed a year after a fairly serious leg injury ... she was left with problems, as a direct result of the manipulation of her leg, for some time afterwards.  In retrospect, I would not have subjected her to that had I realised what would happen.

With that I shall retire for the evening, and I hope that I do not return to the forum, to reply to a posting of yours starting with .... WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH!

Moderator - feel free to remove this if you feel that I am totally in the wrong and have got the complete wrong end of the stick.  As said, maybe I've had a bad day, but I am just a bit upset at the moment.

I hope I have not insulted you as I definately didn't mean to!

Thank you for letting me know you have had problems with a dog with a injury after the xrays, I will definately look in to it all and ask questions if we decide to maybe go ahead with the hip xrays.

The vet seemed to think it would be ok to get the hips xrayed (the process side of it) but obviously we have lot of different points from how twisted the results would actually be to possible side effects from pulling to consider.

Naturallly if the results would just be awful because of her injury this will not do any good for anybody as the result would not show the real state of her hips or give a true picture of what she "has inherited from her parents".
If this will be the case there really is no point doing it.

After we know how well it all has healed(January), I will call BVA and see if they can give me an idea of how it all will effect the scores...

WOW westcoat that makes a mockery of the scoring system then.  I have been told other things that also make me worry.  One of my boys has been scored fairly high and no-one can believe the score, he was scored in Spain as an excellent. 

So actually this could mean that many of us may have incorrect scores then?

> but obviously we have lot of different points from how twisted the results would actually be to possible side effects from pulling to consider.

If you go to a vet who uses a sling there in no pulling to get the legs into the correct position, the ball joint falls naturally into place. If your vet uses a table & isn't very experienced in taking hip scoring x rays, then I would go elsewhere & find a vet who uses a sling & has the experience

> I couldn't believe that the Vet who'd taken the plates and the 'expert' who'd read them, hadn't spotted that she'd got 2 tails!

Have you considered that perhaps the experts (I believe it is a panel that give their opinion) are skilled enough to evaluate a hip socket even with an obvious double exposure.  The mere fact it was obvious to you, a layperson, suggests it would have been obvious to them too, surely.  They don't just get called in off the street :-)

I have had numerous  giant breed dogs scored over the years by my vet ,  a couple of my dogs were so long that they didnt even fit on the table , she has never used a sling  but does have experience  in hip scoring , i would have thought if a sling was the best thing to use why dont all vets that hips score on a regular basis use them, also many of mine sleep on their backs legs a kimbo and its not unlike the hip scoring pose when a dog is under GA