Canine hip dysplasia is a complicated and serious problem for dogs. It results in minor to severe crippling of the animal due to excessive looseness between the ball and socket joints in the hips. The bone forming the socket apparently fails to develop sufficiently to form a good joint. Also the ball part of the joint may be poorly formed, resulting in a joint that doesn’t work properly.

Studies of hip dysplasia indicate that the problem often occurs in large breeds more often and more seriously than in smaller breeds. However, there is probably some incidence of hip dysplasia in nearly all breeds.

Hip dysplasia is thought to have a genetic component. It also, is believed to have a nutritional cause, which may be aggravated by mistaken ideas of what is considered good feeding practices. The genetic part cannot be overcome entirely by nutrition treatment, but poor nutrition can further complicate matters. Good balanced feeds that help reduce the effects of the genetic weakness may cover up the genetic problem so that dogs are bred that will retain this tendency. Good breeders are aware of this situation and are doing their best to select for breeding only those animals, which do not exhibit hip dysplasia regardless of the diets they have been fed.

Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) is a complicated and serious problem for dogs. It results in minor to severe crippling of the animal due to excessive looseness between the ball and socket joints in the hips. The bone forming the socket apparently fails to develop sufficiently to form a good joint. Also the ball part of the joint may be poorly formed, resulting in a joint that doesn’t work properly.

Studies of hip dysplasia indicate that the problem occurs in large breeds more often and more seriously than in smaller breeds. However, there is probably some incidence of hip dysplasia in nearly all breeds.

Hip dysplasia is thought to have a genetic component. It also, is believed to have a nutritional cause, which may be aggravated by mistaken ideas of what is considered good feeding practices. The genetic part cannot be overcome entirely by nutrition treatment, but poor nutrition can further complicate matters. Good, balanced feeds that help reduce the effects of the genetic weakness may cover up the genetic problem so that dogs are bred that may retain this tendency. Good breeders are aware of this situation and are doing their best to select for breeding only those animals that do not exhibit hip dysplasia regardless of the diets they have been fed. A requirement of the Small Munsterlander Club’s breed council is a prerequisite that a dog will not be allowed to breed if it exhibits a tendency to hip dysplasia.

The dog foods that are available today for puppies all contain the good bone building nutrients, calcium, phosphorous, vitamins and trace elements that pups need.

Over-consumption of puppy food and rapid growth of large breeds of dogs has been found by researchers at Cornell University to increase the severity of hip dysplasia. The pups should not put on more weight than their skeletal development is ready for. This can aggravate the problem of a poorly developed joint. If you are raising puppies, it is better to keep them a bit hungry rather than letting them eat too much. Letting a pup grow a bit more slowly won’t hurt anything and it may help your dog enjoy a better, longer life.

A dog needs to be X-rayed to ensure that it doesn’t have canine hip dysplasia (CHD). Years ago there was only one organization that would qualify a dog’s lack of evidence for hip dysplasia. It was the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals, Inc. (OFA). OFA required that the X-rays not be taken earlier than two years of age for certification. Veterinarians would perform the X-ray examination and mail the result to OFA to certify the dog employing the expertise of 3 trained veterinary radiologists. When an agreement was found among the radiologists subjectively reviewing the photos, a certificate would be issued with an excellent, good or fair rating for the hips if it were determined that hip dysplasia was not evident.

Since 1993 another method has gained prominence. It is the PennHIP examination and certification, which can be carried out with greater accuracy. PennHIP exams can be used for dogs as young as 6 months of age. Dr. Gail Smith at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine conceived the PennHIP method in 1983. After about ten years of laboratory tests PennHIP was developed as a cooperative scientific initiative to serve as a multi-center clinical trial of the new hip dysplasia diagnostic technology. The PennHIP certification is a quantitative method that relies on actual measurement of the hip joints’ distraction index (DI) as a determination of the joint’s laxity. The interpretation of laxity is breed dependent and the values are therefore compared to other dogs of the same breed to determine where in the distribution a particular dog falls. The lower the distraction index, the lower the chances of the dog developing arthritis. This is often called degenerative joint disease (DJD) because of excessive wear on the hips’ cartilage. The idea behind this method is to keep breeding on dogs with low distraction numbers to ensure that hip dysplasia does not show up in your breeding. Several studies have shown that dogs with tighter hips are less likely to develop CHD. To learn more about the two methods please check out www.offa.org and www.PennHIP.org.