A lab pup that I bred is undergoing invetigations for a suspected OCD lesion in its hock. Luckily her hips look good and the lesion is not on the weight bearing part of the joint.
She is so lucky that this was spotted by her wonderful owners and she is on restricted exercise and medication.
I have read a lot on hip disorders and OCD doesn't seem to have as clear cut a hereditary factor as HD. Both my girl and the stud have hipscores below the breed [ (6/7) and (4/4) ]average but I am just concerned that I could have done more.
Should our girl be bred from again?
Advice and opinions greatly received
Kerr1969@aol.com

How sad for the pup, If you are going to use the female again you should have her elbows scored and dont use any dog that hasnt had his done as well that way you are covering your self and doing right by the dogs,but only if she has a very good score, the rest is up to the new owners to feed good body building food and not to walk/run/jump the legs off the puppy that way you have done your very best,Jackie

OCD is not straight forward. It is generally believed to be hereditory but that is only part of the story. On another board I subscribe to there was the case of a Sprocker (Springer Cocker first cross) who had OCD. Because this is a first cross of two different breeds it is impossible for it to be inherited. (The words of a lot cleverer person than me!). Exercise cannot bring on OCD, only make the OCD worst than it would otherwise be. Diet does seem to be at least a contributing factor. On that front I tend to lay the blame on the modern high growth puppy food! My reasons being that we are seeing so much more OCD these days than we ever saw back before they ever existed!!

The trouble for you seems that as this is a pure bred Labrador then you don't know whether it is inherited or not. I think you must now elbow score and see what the result of that is. The trouble with that is that your bitch might be fine but could still be a carrier! Using an elbow scored dog on an elbow scored bitch is really the minimum you can do to try to ensure any more puppies are free from problems.

So, is it safe to breed again? I don't think anyone can tell you! Sorry.

Regards, John