By permission DogWorld

"Don't be too fanatical about HD"

Gary Clayton Jones is a specialist in orthopaedics and radiology and his name is almost synonymous with the subject of hip dysplasia, so it was with some surprise that we heard him say at the symposium:
"we must look at treating dogs and not treating x-rays. There is no correlation between radiographic changes and lameness. We are not testing guide dogs for speed or agility. Hip disease has been around for a long time, and not much has been done about it.
We have become confused between 'perfect' and 'normal' ".

We humans are not perfect but we expect our dogs to be! In young dogs we see a looseness of the hip joint, in older dogs there may be a degenerative joint problems, but an abnormality of the hip joint shown on x-ray may not disrupt a working life.

Doctor Clayton Jones showed a number of slides where the components of the hip joint had re-fashioned to become, a good fit with the actcabulum.

He said "We look at guide dogs who are working well and normally and find that they have HD. If a dog functions well it will last and do its job. Some police dogs known to have HD have only been retired at eight years of age".

He said that breeders favour selecting a stud dog with less than the breed mean hip score. But this is an artidicial statistic, only as accurate as the scoring in the breed, and because the schemes are voluntary there is selection of the scores sent in.

Some breeds have no so called 'normal' dogs, but the gene pool is lowered if good is bred to normal. It is possible to use dogs who have good hips themselves, but they may produce puppies with poor hips. We have got to select for dogs not likely to produce disease. When breeders attempt to select against a disorder, they can select into another disease, Dr.Clayton Jones pointed out.

When taking an x-ray of HD diagnosis it is important, he said, to position the dog correctly, in a non natural position. You will be looking for signs of instability, the ball not fitting properly into the socket.

Very small changes at each marked feature can add up to a considerable score, and we are looking for 0:0, while the most abnormal hips can amass a score of 52:52 = 104.
In the majority of cases a joint affected with HD will be normal and will be functional. Dr Claytons message was don't be too fanatical about HD.

DogWorld 24th August 2001.

Well, at last .....the voice of reason ! :-) Leigh xx

The voice of reason or an excuse for people not to bother or to use dogs/bitches with exceptionally high scores who are not limping at the time ??

Christine

Hello Leigh

Thankyou for posting that, it makes very interesting reading dosen't it.?
I think it is a good idea to get these things into perspective.
I have always felt that in the scheme of things the average score for a numerically high breed is often mis-leading, as like the article pointed out not ALL dogs are tested......so the average score is only an indication of the few that are. :-)

Paul x ;-)

One of the best moving Goldens I've seen had a hip score of just over 50. His daughter was 47! Neither ever had any trouble. Unfortunately his son was used for picking up on a large shoot and only lasted 3 seasons before he broke down. While I completely agree that some really horrifying hip scores can "Move like a train" and for that matter perform perfectly well as a guide dog where it's function is to move at walking pace, but when it comes to clearing fences at a run whilst carrying a heavy bird is a very different kettle of fish.

If you look at a Flatcoat with an average of 9, (I know I’m always talking Flatcoats but it's a breed I have a very high regard for) to all intense and porpoises it is just about perfect and a slightly higher score could be used without any significant reduction of the efficiency of the joint.

The other extreme is the Clumber. (Forgive me you Clumber people if you have later info) A few years ago their average was 47! This must be taken in context though because at that time very few Clumbers were tested so the results had to be just a little suspect.

Then again there are a whole variety of smaller dogs, Terriers and Toys etc who although they may have a relatively poor score are very unlikely to ever have problems because their very much lighter weight and their reduced activity. I know the terrier people will tell me their dogs are very active and so they are but it's a different kind of activity, a mad rush around the garden is not the same as an all day long retrieving in the field. (Not wishing to offence you Terrier people)

So, in my VERY humble opinion, although the article is correct it's not the whole story by any means.

Regards, John

It just means that hips or eyes or tailsets or anything else cannot be taken in isolation, all these things have to be weighed up, with Temperament paramount!