Hip Displacia

[asal]

I was talking some time ago to a chap who bought a Cavalier King charles.

His vet had diagnosed it with not only luxating Patella and after taking it to a specalist vet has had that corrected at a cost of $5,000 was advised that it would probably need surgery for Hip Displacia as well.

I dont know the chap and havent seen him since but often wonder how it turned out.

I had never heard of anyone with a toy breed with HD?

Began wondering while on the subject of breeder liability.

now that would be a whammy of a court case if they decided to sue

Edited September 29, 2012 by asal

[espinay2]

No, toy breeds are not immune from joint and growth issues such as HD.

HD in CKCS: http://www.cavalierh...ipdysplasia.htm

The article states it is 'common' in the breed as in estimates of affected CKCS are 12.4% to 33%

Edited September 29, 2012 by espinay2

[asal]

No, toy breeds are not immune from joint and growth issues such as HD.

HD in CKCS: http://www.cavalierh...ipdysplasia.htm

The article states it is 'common' in the breed as in estimates of affected CKCS are 12.4% to 33%

goodness I had no idea.

as for this below, the poor pugs

It is believed by veterinary specialists in the field of hip dysplasia that the true incidence of HD in the cavalier King Charles spaniel probably is at least twice as high as those statistics would indicate, meaning 25% or more of all cavaliers.* Even higher percentages of cavaliers have been reported in recent studies of dogs requiring surgical hip procedures. See Veterinary Resources below. By comparison, OFA's current statistics show that 66% of pugs had dysplastic hips, 44.8% of Clumber spaniels, 30.4% of French bulldogs, and 19.7% of golden retrievers.

[asal]

I remember reading somewhere in dogzonline that food was being desicovered to have an affect on the incidence of HD

did some googling and found this..

extremly interesting. is there anyother reasearch along these lines?

http://www.parispoodles.com/hips.html

this is some of it.

"

Photos on this page are of our first German Shepherd Dog.

He suffered from crippling Hip Dysplasia until the age of 7

when we were forced to humanely euthanize him.....

(We suspected he had poor hips at 9 weeks old)

ALL of his ancestors for 10 GENERATIONS had OFA Good or

Excellent hips!

It is because of our Beautiful Boy that we are working so hard

to learn about the true causes of this condition.

Hip X-Rays ... not as simple as it sounds...

There are two problems that occur in getting hip X-rays taken.

1. Positioning of the dog - Bad positioning can make a dog with excellent hips

appear to have poor hips.

Read this breeder experience with poor positioning! Her dog went from

"mildly displastic" to OFA Good!!! http://www.takuaussies.com/hips.htm

Leerburg Kennels wrote a very informative article about hip positioning which

includes X-ray images. CLICK this link

2. Reading of the X-Rays

Reading hip x-rays is not a scientific field but subjective. Vets do not know

with absolute certainty what they are seeing when they look at hip x-rays. If

they see the gap between the femur head and socket and the shape of the

head and hairline cracks in the bone but they don't know the significance of

any of that. They can't tell whether there has been trauma in the area.

Looking at the wrong cause

German Shepherd breeders in Germany have spent a lot of time and money trying to

find the root cause of hip dysplasia. Although the German Shepherd Dog DOES

NOT have the greatest rate of Dysplasia of all the dog breeds, (The Bulldog is the

worst) it is one of the few breeds still functioning in a working capacity (law

enforcement, Search and Rescue, Sheep herding, or protection sports). Working

dogs must have good functional structure.

Helmut Raiser, the new breed warden for Germany's S.V, (the German Shepherd

Dog Club of Germany) says that after 40 years of x-raying hips their dogs are more

unhealthy than ever because they have been looking at the wrong thing.

What has been causing the problem is the bent spine that has caused the spinal

chord to narrow and pinch nerves. (Spondylosis and Cauda Equina.) The friction

against the nerve sheaths causes pain which Helmut believes is responsible for the

frantic 'drive' that has been selected for, and also the reason why many German

Shepherds are reluctant to sit (he says it's like sitting on nails). As the nerve

sheaths are worn away the back leg muscles waste away until the nerves stop

functioning completely and the dog becomes paralyzed. He says that the problem

has become much worse.

"10 years ago dogs were breaking down at 4 years old, nowadays they break down

at 2 years old." He is so despondent about the German Shepherd Dog's health that

he's considering crossing them with the Malinois (Belgian Shepherds). He says "...the

Malinois people are smart. They don't x-ray. They don't need to. If a dog can jump

a 2.2 metre wall at 10 years old, you don't need an x-ray."

Breeders should select for performance. If a dog shows poor health he should not

be used.

More about Hip issues

1- Keep your dog thin - when I say thin I mean you need to see a definition between the ribs and

loins of your dog. I cannot stress this enough. The more weight a dog carries the more pressure on

the hips. This is extremely important when the dog is growing (between 8 weeks and 18 months)

2- Do not over exercise your young dog. DO NOT TAKE A PUPPY JOGGING !!! Not until its older

than one year of age. Over exercise is the fastest way to destroy hips.

3- Feed a quality all-natural diet. If you don’t want to feed a raw diet at least feed it an all-

natural commercial diet. We have fed this for years and feel that it's the best we can find.

We stress the diet with our puppy families and it has made a huge difference

4- If you have a question about subluxation in a young dog - SWIM the dog!! Take the dog

swimming every day for 3 or 4 months before you have x-rays taken. Swimming is the best

exercise you can do for a dog. It is way better than jogging the dog. When you stop and think that

subluxation means the head of the femur is loose in the socket - does it not make sense to exercise

the dog so the muscles and ligaments tighten up the dog as much as possible.

5- We give our dogs 99% Glucosamine supplements

Growing dogs, usually in their first year, often limp and have what vets coin as 'growing pains'. We

believe that these pains are in the muscles and are caused by faulty nutrition (unless of course the

limp is due to an injury or sore foot- pads). Giving them bone shavings, liver, vitamine C, vitamine E

and micro-organisms to improve intestinal flora (such as live cultures or raw dirty tripe), in

addition to their basic diet, rectifies these pains within about 3 weeks.

Over-feeding causing Hip Dysplasia

There was a very good long term study done on the effects of overfeeding in dogs as it relates to HD.

To cancel out the effects of genetics and focus just on food intake, they randomly divided Lab pups from

several litters into two groups. One group (the ad libitum-fed control group) was allowed to eat as much as

they wanted, while the other group (the limit-fed group) was fed 25% less than the first group.

They were all fed the same thing. The dogs were followed from 8 weeks of age until they died.

Here's some excerpts from the 4 reports that were published in the Journal of the American Veterinary

Medical Association:

"Using the OFA method, 7 of the 24 limit-fed dogs and 16 of the 24 ad libitum-fed dogs were diagnosed as

having hip dysplasia. Similarly, using the Swedish method, 5 of the 24 limit-fed dogs and 18 of the 24 ad

libitum-fed dogs were diagnosed as having hip dysplasia. "

"Radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis that affected multiple joints was significantly more common in the

control-fed group than in the limit-fed group. Prevalence of lesions in the hip joint was 15/22 in the control-

fed group and 3/21 in the limit-fed group. Prevalence of lesions in the shoulder joint was 19/22 in the control-

fed group and 12/21 in the limit-fed group; lesions in this joint were generally mild. Severity, but not

prevalence, of osteoarthritis in the elbow joint was greater in the control-fed group than in the limit-fed

group"

"food-restricted dogs weighed less and had lower body fat content and lower serum triglycerides,

triiodothyronine, insulin, and glucose concentrations. Median life span was significantly longer for dogs in which

food was restricted. The onset of clinical signs of chronic disease generally was delayed for food-restricted

dogs."

There is NO QUESTION that over feeding is a major factor in HD - the above post addresses this - what it

does not address is how a quality all-natural diet in limit-fed dogs improves orthopedics’ AND how over

exercise at a young age increases HD.

For years people wrongly laid the blame of HD on genetics and breeders. As this information comes out it will

improve our dogs because people will step to the line and raise their pups in a healthier manner."

sooo again it appears there is not agreement among the researchers let alone the vets, yet?

Edited September 29, 2012 by asal

[Steve]

73% higher incidfence of HD in male dogs desexed before 12 months too.

[Jetpoint GSP]

They don't x-ray. They don't need to. If a dog can jump

a 2.2 metre wall at 10 years old, you don't need an x-ray."

Breeders should select for performance. If a dog shows poor health he should not

be used.

I know it goes against everything that is said these days but strangely - makes a lot of sense....

[Steve]

Once upon a time if a dogs hips weren't good enough to support them during mating dogs didn't get mated - now we just do AI's

[Jetpoint GSP]

Sad isn't it really when 'show quality' takes precedence over function...when working dogs couldn't do a full days work if their lives depended on it, makes me very sad to see the way some breeds are going.

[Steve]

Yes but its not just about the "show quality" back then we had more choices because if you had more than average you had somewhere to go and you could be afford to be more selective - you were well respected and seen as an expert now if you have more than 2 you're a puppy farmer or a hoarder or the council come gunning for you.

Lots of things impacting including how vets and breeders are being educated and social issues, built up suburbs, council and state laws and especially animal rights propaganda.

[dancinbcs]

While a lot of smaller dogs may have less than perfect hips, the lower weight means it often has little or no impact on their lives and this is why most breeders do not consider it a problem. If their small breed is active well into very old age with no sign of hip problems, then they are probably not going to be worried about hip scores. The heavier the dog, the greater faulty joints will affect movement and their quality of life and this is why so many bigger breeds have problems. Also dogs that vary greatly from "normal generic dog shape" tend to have abnormal joints. You cannot change a skeleton like in Pugs, Bulldog breeds and dwarf breeds and expect all the resulting dogs to have normal joints.

One of the vets I use has also commented to me that the invention of commercial dog food marked the start of HD problems across all breeds. Something to think about.