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Hips and Elbows

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What is hip dysplasia?

Hip dysplasia is a condition where the hip joint does not develop correctly. As the dog gets older, the joint undergoes wear and tear and the joint deteriorates, leading to a loss of function. This can cause varying degrees of pain, discomfort, stiffness and lameness.

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How is hip dysplasia inherited?

Hip dysplasia is a complex inherited disorder, which is influenced by a number of different genes and by several environmental factors (e.g. diet, exercise or factors when in the womb before birth etc.). Each of the genes that help to make a dog’s hips may have different possible versions. Some versions increase the risk of hip dysplasia, while others decrease the risk.  Each dog will have a mix of these “good” and “bad” versions of genes, making it very difficult to predict to what extent a dog will be affected. The impact one version of a gene has might only be slight, but lots of genes having a small influence will have a combined additive effect. The way in which these conditions are inherited is not straight forward; hence the name complex inherited disorders. These complex diseases are usually seen across many different breeds and are also described in both cross breeds and mixed breeds (taken from KC page link below)

When breeding  a breeder will consider the scores for both sire and dam. The hips are scored individually then added together and the total is scored out of 106. (0 being the best and 106 the worst)

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The current breed Scores taken from BVA: (https://www.bva.co.uk/uploadedFiles/Content/Canine_Health_Schemes/Hip%20Dysplasia%20Breed%20Specific%20Statistics(1).pdf  

Breed dogs scored in 15 years  = 156 dogs

15 year  Range  2- 68 and Median Score 12

5 year Range Median Score 11

Breed Specific Statistics – 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2016

 

thekennelclub.org.uk/health/for-breeders/breeding-advice/estimated-breeding-values/