Prelim hip and elbow exam

[cotts135]

While looking through the started dogs category I came across an ad that said dog was checked preliminary for it's hips and elbows. Can someone tell me what that procedure is and how do you go about getting it done

cotts

[okvet]

radiographs were taken of hips and elbows--these radiographs were sent in to the OFA-- www.offa.org . The radiographs were evaluated by a board certified radiologist. If a passing grade was given then both hips and elbows were found to be free of dysplasia. The elbows are just graded as normal and the hips are given a passing grade of either: excellent, good, or fair.

[blakegober]

Prelim means it is not yet 24 Months old yet and therefore the OFFA will not certify the dog b/c it is not fully developed yet, but they will basically speculate as to what it will be when it is 24 months old. Basically if it is 18 months old probably not too much going to change in 6 months. But it is normally over $125 to get it all done, so I would personally wait and pay only once when they are 24 months old.

[cotts135]

The reason I ask this is that I now have a dog who when x-rayed at 24 months came back with mild hip displasia. I now have a 7 week old puppy and if possible I would like to know if her hips will be good at 24 months. Is Penn hip an alternative to this that is reliable?

[YardleyLabs]

I normally do a PennHIP screening on my dogs at 20-24 weeks so that I know their condition before I begin spending large sums of money on training. I believe it's an excellent tool for evaluating hips.

[bfosmark]

I was wondering the same thing. I have a 13 week old puppy and my vet said they can do a prelim penn hip at 16 wks. My reasoning for wanting a test this early is that if the dog has any hip displasia i will fix her before she has any heat cycles (My vet said that after the second heat cycle, chances of cancer go way high). Does anyone know how accurate the test would be at this age? The penn hip site says that is a pretty good indicator.

[YardleyLabs]

I was wondering the same thing. I have a 13 week old puppy and my vet said they can do a prelim penn hip at 16 wks. My reasoning for wanting a test this early is that if the dog has any hip displasia i will fix her before she has any heat cycles (My vet said that after the second heat cycle, chances of cancer go way high). Does anyone know how accurate the test would be at this age? The penn hip site says that is a pretty good indicator.

I believe that you are better off waiting until your dog has finished the bulk of its growth before spaying. Most vets will recommend spaying at six months, but that's more because they don't trust their clients to manage a dog in heat than because that is the best time for spaying (as my vets admit). I usually don't spay until the dog is one year old which is generally before the second heat. Do the PennHIP at 20-24 weeks and there is nothing "preliminary" about it. That said, unless you are serious about breeding, have your dog spayed regardless of its hips.

[HiRollerlabs]

There was a thread awhile back about waiting to spay/neuter to allow for proper bone growth/maturation. I'm sure someone can elaborate.

[ybrlabs]

I just attended a seminar given by Dr Chris Zink about the effects of early spay/neuter and the evidence is compelling. She has an article available at this site http://www.tiarapoodles.com/neutering.html I for one will recommend that all of my puppy buyers wait until at least 12 months prior to spaying or neutering their dog.

Sandy A.