A Study Of Dogs-A Study of Man

A STUDY OF DOGS-A STUDY OF MAN

The time has come when even the O.F.A. is starting to look at hip dysplasia in another light. I am writing this for the dog's sake and for no other reason. In the beginning of a dog's life, a pup is somewhat like an infant or toddler. Normally I do not like comparing dogs to people but I will do so here simply to get a point across. A pup is very flexible and yielding, His joints have not fully calcified and his body requires a balanced amount of nourishment and exercise. Today people are taking their dogs at a younger and younger age for x-rays to see if their hips are good. Needlessly the young animal is heavily sedated or under full anesthesia in order for the vet to easily manipulate his limbs. The reason for this is no creature man nor beast would lie still while his legs are unnaturally contorted. In this way the head of the femur can literally be pulled out of joint, especially on a young and not fully developed animal. The damage to the surrounding joint is not even taken into consideration. This damage can often be permanent.

The majority of veterinarians do not know how to properly position to x-ray the hips. They are responsible for much of the damage that is done to a young dog that undergoes this procedure. Here you have a group of people who no longer want to crop a tail or dock an ear, yet they have no problem subjecting a young dogs limbs to such extreme stress and unnatural positioning. Many in fact only take one x-ray, despite the fact they know duplicates are required to submit to OFA or Penn Hip.

We over feed treats and scraps to our dogs. Fat pups structures cannot support such weight as they are forced to grow much more quickly than their structure can handle.

I am not saying that genetics do not play a role in dysplasia and certainly I believe a breeder should strive to breed genetically healthy pups. Saying environment plays no role is dysplasia is like saying smoking does not cause cancer. Consider a pup whose father at full growth weighs 75/80 pounds and whose mother weights 70/75 pounds. Now consider this pup at 5 - 6 months of age weighing 80 pounds. This pup has attained what should have been his normal growth and even perhaps a little more than his normal growth by 5 1/2 months of age. How can this be normal or healthy? How can this pup possibly have the exercise or movement that a young animal should with his obese size? I look at a x-ray and I see the two hind legs being bowed out at the joint to force a poor dog's limbs into an unnatural position. The actual femur has such actual pressure on it, that it is bent and bowed. Tell me that this is normal procedure. Tell me this does not cause trauma to a dog's structure, especially to a young growing dog. Tell me it is not possible to pull the head of the femur out just a little too much especially on a young flexible body of a pup.

There is an awful lot of money in x-rays and the treatment of dysplasia. Many people take x-rays on young dogs for no reason but to "just check". They then are advised their dog needs major surgery which must be completed before the dog reaches 14 months of age. This just happens to be before he can be O.F.A'd. These people then spend large amounts of money and have major surgery done on a dog that has never shown any clinical symptoms of disease.

I once received a 9-week-old female German Shepherd's Dog pup, which had been diagnosed by a vet as having a torn cruciate ligament in her front leg. I saw the corresponding paperwork. The owner brought the pup back to us after she had been injured. Their vet wanted to operate at the cost of about $1,300.00. Due to the difficulty of keeping such a young dog immobilized after surgery the vet could not guarantee the successful outcome of the surgery. The owners decided that if fact the dog was injured to euthanize the pup but could not bring themselves to do so. They returned the pup to me, asking me to get a second opinion from my vet and if necessary have her euthanized. I was unable to get her into the vet for a couple of days. In the meantime she was receiving cortisone pills for her condition. This pup was extremely active and agile and did not seem to be showing any pain. Her medication was discontinued and she was taken to a vet for a check up. The vet could find nothing wrong with her and stated that this kind of injury is extremely difficult to attain in a pup because they are as toddlers extremely flexible and their joints have not yet calcified so additional movement is permitted. This pup is now alive and working well as a service dog. This could have ended in the senseless death or surgery of a young pup.

This has led me to be cautious of today's veterinarians and their diagnosis. In my opinion a young dog is not physically developed enough to undergo the type of procedure required to check for hip dysplasia. The veterinarian community is responsible for doing more damage in the x-raying of hips on young dogs than good. How does one dog x-ray good and show clinical symptoms while another x-rays with sever dysplasia and show no clinical symptoms? Do we take into consideration human error of those assessing the x-rays? Do we take into consideration the feeding of the pups? How can this method of assessment possibly bring our dogs on the road to being dysplasia free? We need to look at all of the factors at work

I have opinions on the x-ray, the positioning and the leg bowing because of stress. I believe it is important to put to practical application all theory. I have never hidden from my responsibility and during my lifetime find solutions to the problems these working dogs face. It is important to the welfare of the dogs and to the education of a public.

Environment plays a large role in how puppies turn out. I want to take a closer look at what causes hip dysplasia and do what I believe will completely eliminate the problem because I believe a great part of the problem is man- made. I believe obesity and lifestyle as well as genetics play role in dysplasia. I believe improper positioning and a lack of consideration on the stress put on the legs of a young dog as well as the desire to do surgery is also a problem here.

I hope other breeders read this and realize that the responsibility for every dog we breed lies with with the breeder but the responsibility to maintain a healthy environment and growing environment rests on the handler. A dog is not meant to digest processed high protein food. Two cups of dog food doesn't make an obese dog.

My life is a study of dogs in so being it has become a study of human nature. How simple it would be if I could just stick with the dogs.

E-mail Mike with questions or comments.