Posted by mjh
on 11/6/2009, 11:11 pm, in reply to "Hank"
Two problems and a recommendation.
First, it is possible for a dog to be radiographically dysplastic, even severely dysplastic, and to show no symptoms at all.
The second difficulty in eradicating hip dysplasia is that the disease is polygenic, and complicated by environmental factors as well. No one knows exactly which genes, or how many gene loci, are involved in the inheritance of hip dysplasia, and so it will be extremely difficult to isolate and eradicate the deleterious genes. We do know that dysplastic parents can produce puppies with strong hips, and that parents with excellent hips can produce dysplastic pups. Both scenarios can result in a range of hip status in a litter. But we also know that the percentage of dysplastic pups born to dysplastic parents is likely to be higher, and that parents with solid hips are more likely to produce a larger percentage of puppies with solid hips.
Many vets advocate a fairly low-protein, low-calorie diet for growing pups as well as adults. This reduces the rate of growth and lessens the stress put upon growing bone structures.
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