Why do we health test TWICE?
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The first time we do hips and elbow we do them at 16 weeks old, we are ensuring that the puppies even qualify to be in our program. Studies show that prelims are ACTUALLY very ACCURATE. From personal experience our hips/elbows have only gotten better over time. The second time we test is prior to breeding. This is to ensure everything is normal, and continued to improve. Doing it this way will help conduct our personal pennhip study.
WHY do we choose to do this in our program? Is this accurate? YES!
Here is a study done by OFA that shows the reliability of prelims and WHY they would be okay for final scoring.
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Preliminary Evaluations for Animals Under 24 Months
Frequently, breeders want early knowledge of the hip status on puppies in a given litter. Preliminary hip evaluations may be as valuable to the owner or breeder as the final OFA evaluation. This allows early selection of dogs for use as show/performance/breeding prospects and dogs best suited for pet homes.
The OFA accepts preliminary consultation radiographs on puppies as young as 4 months of age for evaluation of hip conformation. If the dog is found to be dysplastic at an early age, the economic loss from the cost of training, handling, showing and so forth can be minimized and the emotional loss reduced. These preliminary radiographs are read by the OFA staff veterinary radiologist and are not sent to the outside consulting radiologists. The regular OFA hip grading scheme (excellent, good, fair, etc) is used to report preliminary cases.
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A previous OFA veterinary journal publication* compared the reliability of the preliminary evaluation hip grade phenotype with the 2 year old evaluation in dogs and there was 100% reliability for a preliminary grade of excellent being normal at 2 years of age (excellent, good, or fair). There was 97.9% reliability for a preliminary grade of good being normal at 2 years of age, and 76.9% reliability for a preliminary grade of fair being normal at 2 years of age. Reliability of preliminary evaluations increased as age at the time of preliminary evaluation increased, regardless of whether dogs received a preliminary evaluation of normal hip conformation or HD. For normal hip conformations, the reliability was 89.6% at 3-6 months, 93.8% at 7-12 months, and 95.2% at 13-18 months. These results suggest that preliminary evaluations of hip joint status in dogs are generally reliable. However, dogs that receive a preliminary evaluation of fair or mild hip joint conformation should be reevaluated at an older age (24 months).
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https://www.ofa.org/about/policies/preliminary-evaluations
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Evaluation of the relationship between Orthopedic Foundation for Animals' hip joint scores and PennHIP distraction index values in dogs: 80% of dogs evaluated as “normal” by the OFA were found to have hip laxity by PennHIP testing that predisposed them to developing hip osteoarthritis in the future.
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https://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.237.5.532
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The PennHIP method can be reliably performed on a dog as young as 16 weeks old.
PennHIP has studied the efficacy of this method from eight weeks up to three years of age. For the present, it is recommended that dogs should not be evaluated before 16 weeks of age and that follow-up radiography at 6 months or 1 year of age is encouraged. However, the decision to have the method performed again is always that of the owner.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9604023?dopt=Abstract
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The Distraction Index (DI) as determined by the PennHIP method is the most reliable indicator of future hip osteoarthritis.
In a study comparing factors such as age, breed, weight, gender, distraction index and Norberg angle (another method of measuring hip laxity based on the conventional OFA-type x-ray), it was found that the distraction index had the highest correlation (predictive power) with future development of osteoarthritis irrespective of age at the time of PennHIP evaluation.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7744684?dopt=Abstract
For more studies done by pennhip:
https://antechimagingservices.com/antechweb/fast-facts-behind-the-pennhip-research
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What is pennhip?
https://antechimagingservices.com/antechweb/what-is-pennhip
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The 10 most important things to know about canine hip dysplasia
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Why we choose to breed back to back IF our female is HEALTHY and back to weight:
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SPAYING & NEUTERING AND CANCER- NANCY SCANLAN, DVM, SHERMAN OAKS, CA
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Domestic animals are bred for maximum fertility. They go into heat more frequently and produce more offspring than their wild counterparts. In addition, the high-protein and high-caloric foods they eat stimulate more eggs and hence more offspring. Canines in the wild go into heath once a year and have a single litter. A female dog nurses her young longer and expends considerable energy hunting down food. This tends to delay the next heat period.
If you own an unspayed female who keeps coming into heat, and you do not breed her, she will have a tendency to develop cysts on the ovaries and be more prone to cancer, especially breast cancer. Also at risk for pyometra.
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At an AKC Dog Breeding Symposium held at Michigan State University with key note speaker Dr. Claudia Orlandi Ph.D. (AKC's breeder of the year and author of The ABC's of Dog Breeding) shocked many breeders when it was disclosed that there have been scientific studies to show that it is detrimental for bitches to skip heat cycles. It was shared that once you have begun to mate a bitch that you should NOT skip any heat cycles until she is completely finished breeding. A bitch is said to be "finished" breeding when her litter size is drastically decreased. The study involved following females that were bred every heat cycle and females that were bred every other heat cycle. After they were "finished" breeding, the bitches were spayed and their uterus dissected. Those showing most stress, and damage of the uterus were the females that were bred "every other" heat cycle. Part of the rational that skipping heat cycles is harmful stems from the fact that with consecutive heat cycles there is no "flushing action" of the uterus, that normally occurs by having a litter of puppies.The female will go through Estrus no matter if she is bred or not and by breeding a healthy bitch back to back,can lesson the chances of the female experiencing pyometra, infections and false pregnancy's. The choice to breed or not, should be contingent upon the goals the breeder has and for sure the mental and physical health of the female, above all else. The important information to take away from this study, is that a breeder with healthy females, does have "choices".
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https://petlosopher.com/breeding-back-to-back-is-it-truly-better/
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https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/false-pregnancy-or-pseudopregnancy-in-dogs
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What is Dysplasia? And what is the cause?
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The word "Dysplasia" means improper growth. In dogs, dysplasia refers to abnormal formation of the hip complex, a pivotal structure that include muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and the joint capsule that holds together the ball of the thigh bone and the socket of the hip. The problem originates in puppyhood, when the skeleton grows more rapidly than the supporting soft tissue. This results in unstable hip joints. The ball and socket are not held together normally.
One minute a dog can be a picture of health, jumping, running, and chasing a ball under a full head steam. With one vigorous leap on unstable joints, the ball of the thigh bone can be wrenched out of the hip socket, and you now have a dysplastic dog.
The condition usually affects both hips and ranges from mild, with no apparent symptoms, to severe, painful, and crippling. Signs of dysplasia include hind leg lameness, a wobbly or swaying gate, difficulty upon rising (particularly in the morning), and reluctance to walk up stairs or to run or jump as normal.
As dogs age, abnormal movements within the dysplastic joints, cause cartilage erosion and degenerate arthritis. Although most common in larger dogs, hip dysplasia may strike an animal of any size. In the past, many veterinary researchers contended that the primary reason for hip dysplasia was genetic, and therefore it was important to evaluate the hips of prospective breeding animals to determine the potential for problems in offspring. But recent evidence has indicated the condition is more complex and that major nutritional factors are involved.
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Source: The Veterinarian's Guide to Natural Remedies for DOGS by Martin Zucker..
Safe and Effective Alternative Treatments and healing techniques from the Nation's Top Holistic Veterinarians
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In 1976 Wendell Belfield, DVM reported in a medical journal how he used a nutritional supplement to prevent hip dysplasia in eight litters of German Shepard puppies born to parents with dysplastic hips. In these cases, the bitches were maintained on the supplement through out the pregnancy and the pups fed the supplement until adulthood.
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For more information about his protocol read page 181 in "The Veterinarian's Guide to Natural Remedies for DOGS by Martin Zucker". This was a great experiment to see how supplements, and diet can change your dogs outcome.
Safe and Effective Alternative Treatments and healing techniques from the Nation's Top Holistic Veterinarians
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