Hip Dysplasia

I'm taking one of my Aussies in on Wednesday to get x-rays done on her hips as a prerequisite to breeding her. While she shows all the signs of being perfectly normal, I'm having the orthopedic foundation for animals or OFA evaluate her x-rays and give her a permanent rating. On dogs under 24 months, they won't have a permanent certification.

The downside is that it is expensive and not something you'd just run out and get on your hunting dog. The x-rays are so concise that they dog has to be anesthesised just like you'd do for major surgery. Then, you send in an application and $35 to OFA so they can evaluate the films. Optimally, you'd get back an Excellent or Good rating as opposed to an abnormal or dysplatic finding. Your vet can typically tell you if you're spinning your wheels sending the film in to OFA, but the money's been spent at the vet already. You'd be into the dog another $175 or $200 by that point.

Given the fact that hunting dogs are required to give so much of their bodies, it would make sense to get OFA ratings on heavily used breeding dogs. That said, it likely isn't done because HD just isn't seen as often as you'd think in the dogs we use. Think about how many dogs have been owned by or are currently owned by just the members on this board. Yet this is the first I've heard any mention of dysplatic dogs. What I find equally as interesting is the fact that two of these dysplatic dogs are from the same line of BMCs (most likely genetic for someone in that pedigree of BMCs). Now check out a duck hunting dog forum and I bet this subject has been brought up a hundred times if it's ever been brought up once.

Cheers
M