Wyn

Are you saying you are going to have them sleep together, I would not be leaving an 8 week old pup with a 9 month old pup unsupervised AT ALL, at 9 months old they don't know their own strenght and could hurt the puppy badly or worse, kill it,( not intentionally of course) sounds dramatic I know, but at 8 weeks the pup is unable to defend itself against the bigger dog.

yep, the breeder knows all about the problem. what she does with the info..... ???? She is still showing the full brother and sister (winning too) - future breeding stock i'd say. I think a system needs to be in place to follow the family tree of all dogs affected. Apparantly only 150 chosen vet practices compile the stats in australia. Have you also informed the stud dog owner as well,the pedigree has two sides not just a mother,

I must say that I'm surprised that a dog with grade 2 elbows shows such extreme symptoms. I have bred a bitch who had one elbow graded 2 and she is completely asymptomatic. The swollen hocks also have me a little puzzled. I also cannot understand how a dog with 'balls not such a good shape' scored 10 or 11, or do you mean 10 or 11 for each hip? Were the x-rays sent away for scoring or is this your vet's assessment? Regarding your question on management and 'how long did they last' I know of a bitch with UAP in both elbows who had surgery and lived happily for 11 1/2 years and my very first dog had severe HD and lived until he was 13. Keeping the dog lean, regular cartrophen injections, fish oil and a supplement such as Joint Guard can help a lot. Hi Miranda, Thanks for your reply. I feel abit better now about the situation with my boy. It is still a mystery to my vet also on the degree of pain to the dog given that the x-rays weren't that bad. My dogs probably faking it so he remains a house dog. So why do people still breed from a dog that has a 1 elbow score, if the scoreing says it is mild ED and these changes are being seen in a young dog chances are it may get worse. I must admit I am leaning towards not breeding from dogs/bitches that don't have 0/0 elbows scores, yes there are still no guarentees but i would like to lessen the odds of a pup with ED Grade 0 = normal elbows (no enthesophyte formation) Grade 1 = Mild ED (<2mm thickness of new bone formation) Grade 2 = Moderate ED or a primary lesion (2mm to <5 mm of new bone) Grade 3 = Severe ED (5+ mm of new bone formation or UAP) In fact, one study found that the heritability factor of elbow problems was even higher than that for hip dysplasia