I am consistenly amazed at people- in general. Not always in a good way, mind you!
The end of last week, we x-rayed Splash, in preparation for the breeding to that Southern Gentleman; a breeding I had been looking forward to! I kind of got suspicious that all was not well when Hubby didn't call me and tell me how wonderful the x-rays looked by mid-day. When he didn't answer my text at 4:00, I started to get concerned- and my fears were realized when he came home and put the x-rays up to the light.
Yep- Splash is Dysplastic. Not your Very Typical Cardigan Chondrodysplastic Subluxated but no signs of DJD kind of Dysplastic-- Not even the shallow Acetabulum that we are seeing more and more of in our breed... Splash is bilaterally subluxated with marked orthapedic changes at 31 months of age.
Well SHIT!! Mom {Wednesday} has been spayed... Sis {Tosia- the dog that was SUPPOSED to be bred to Southern Gentleman} is dead... NOW what do I do???
Of Course, Splash is an incredibly Agile dog. She has never had a moments lameness- she runs and jumps and plays and sits up to beg! She has as much stamina in the back yard as Jitterbug- flies up the steps in nothing flat- and has the most fun jumping the obedience jumps in the yard! No muscle atrophy- not even any irregular muscle development. She is not a great moving dog- but she is straight in the stifle so her movement is quite stilted. Never ever did I or any of her co-owners hear any popping or snapping or any of those "typical" sounds of dysplastic dog.
But, being ethical, after many phone calls, emails, and sleepless nights, I decide that Splash is to be spayed and go to a forever home...
MEANWHILE... I recieve an email from a puppy person, who has a puppy from my March litter- puppy is just 8 1/2 months old:
"It is with much distress that I write to you today to let you know about our XXX. She has been diagnosed with moderate to severe bilateral hip dysplasia"
WTF??? Wait a minute!!! So I continued to read on-- popping sound--- no lameness--- original xrays by local Vet-- Sent to Cornell---
WAIT--- Vet is recommending :
TPO surgery IMMEDIATELY-- on both hips at 6 week intervals--- to give this dog ANY kind of normal mobility into adulthood???
To the tune of almost $8,000 bucks!!!!????
HOLD ON!!!
So- when I got done with my initial panic- and after talking to hubby AND pulling their contract {since naturally they are requesting a full refund of their purchase price etc. etc.} I sent them an email that said we would require a second opinion at our expense, and copies of all of their medical records to date on the dog.
The records came and so did the xrays. Now- if you aren't used to looking at chondrodysplastic hips, you may look at these and say- well- ok. But let me tell you- I WISH Splash's hips looked that good!!! Hell-- I wish MOST of my dogs hips looked that good!!! Yes, she is slightly subluxated!! There is absolutely NO evidence of DJD- the hips are well seated; the acetabula are well formed; these are good xrays!
I was fully expecting to see xrays MUCH WORSE than Splash's!
The medical records have NO MENTION of any lameness at any time in the dogs life. There is one reference to a slight popping noise in one rear leg on manipulation, which is why the owners brought the dog in to be seen.
Thats IT!!! Nothing Else!! No lameness at any time... No dislocation... No pain on palpation... No muscle atrophy... No irregular muscle development... No irregulararities in gait... NOTHING! Except a healthy young Cardigan with very typical, slightly subluxated hips and an over reactive owner, a Local Vet that isn't comfortable with orthapedics and Surgery Happy Cornell-God-Vets.
Now... Why would any ETHICAL Veterinarian suggest cutting up a perfectly functional hip, on a spayed, companion animal? What would make them jump to surgery FIRST, without ever recommending nutritional supplements, dietary management, exercise considerations, etc.?
Or more importantly, why would anyone consider putting this puppy through the pain of the surgery, the risk from the anesthesia- and the increased risk of osteosarcoma; the possibility of permanent lameness; the risk of nerve/muscle damage; the possibility of incontinence for the remainder of the dogs life-- if the dogs is not now- nor has it ever been- in any pain?
Had this puppy's xrays proven to show evidence of coxo-femoral dysplasia; had this puppy's records shown that the puppy was in pain; had suffered hip dislocation; had difficulty with mobility- anything at all that would have suggested that this puppy was not going to be able to live a normal COMPANION life- Gus would have done whatever treatments or surgeries were necessary to make this dog comfortable- at our cost.
I have a dog here, Chase, who the OFA failed at 2 years. He is this puppies great Uncle. His 2 year xrays are not nearly as nice as this puppies are. We never did a thing to Chase's hips, surgically. As are all of my dogs, he is on GlycoFlex. He was never allowed to get fat; he always gets lots of free run exercise. It's kind of ironic- he has never had a dislocation- or any hip lameness-or any major lameness at all. {Except when he jumped off the deck and went down in the back... but thats another story...} He has a little bit of trouble getting up and down stairs these days... but then... He will be 15 in a few weeks.
I think he's plenty of proof that just because a dog- particularily a chondrodysplastic breed, such as a Cardigan, is radiographically "dysplastic"- it doesn't require surgery to have normal mobility and a great quality of life- well into their senior years!
Chase- at 14.5 years-
Another great example of the fact that people do NOT understand these hips, and that in almost all cases leaving well enough alone is the better course. TPO (even in long-legged breeds) has VERY questionable long-term benefits, since the damage from the surgery itself seems to be a lot more likely to cause pain than the dysplasia!
ReplyDeleteAs you know, I agree with you on all counts - eliminate (spay/neuter) the true outliers, work toward a tighter hip where possible (and where the breeding doesn't hurt the structure of the dog - owners are a lot more likely to see pain from a poor front than from hips!), but stop waving our hands around and screeching.
I swear, the focus on hip scores has done far more harm (and I mean across the entire realm of dogdom, not just Cardigans) than it has good. No real change in dysplasia incidence, and now passing the hips means your dog is automatically good enough to breed, no matter how unsound he is everywhere else, but having them be even a tiny bit questionable on an obviously sound and pain-free dog means you're "unethical."
Oh Joanna-you are so right on this!! You and I could talk for HOURS on this subject!! I was almost lynched for posting on SC-L a few years ago about "not throwing the baby out with the bathwater"!!
ReplyDeleteSeriously?? Lets take a look at some of the dogs we see in the average entry at any dog show...any weekend... How many of those would you REALLY want to add to your breeding program?
I'll keep the dogs I have here; those with less-than-OFA Excellent hips; Thank-you-very-much! They are sound; they can move; they are pain-free; they look and act like Cardigans should- they are certainly not an embarrasment to the breed!
I think we have FAR bigger issues to deal with in our breed.
As a breed-- no-- as a BODY STYLE of dog-- we have BRED them to be "dysplastic" in a sense. The very definition of Chondrodysplastic is Chondro- pertaining to the bone; Dys- difficult/poor/bad; Plasia- development Plastic- condition of development.
It is absolutely insane to think that any chondrodysplastic dog is not going to exhibit DIFFERENT changes in their coxo-femoral joint to compensate in some fashion for the shortened limbs that make them what they are. Its PHYSICS. It is commen sense! Naturally their hips are not going to look the same as a Greyhound. Have they not noticed that the dogs don't look like Greyhounds, either?
I have always said, when they prove to me that CHD is Genetic- 100%- and that by breeding OFA Excellent to OFA Excellent I will only get dogs that pass OFA- I will gladly submit every single puppy I breed to OFA! But since years and years of research has proven JUST the opposite- and I know far too many dogs that are OFA Good and Excellent that can't move to save their poor little souls- and have produced just as many radiographically dysplastic dogs as their non-certified siblings and cousins- I don't see the point! Not in our breed!!
I x-ray everything before its bred- to be sure! I have far more faith in PennHip's process than I do OFA! I won't breed a dog that has obvious DJD- like Splash! I won't breed to a dog thats not been x-rayed. But will I toss a dog who is radiographically declared "subluxated" or mildly dysplastic that has never shown any clinical signs? That excels in breed type and movement?
Of course not- I am not that narrow minded or ignorant! You have to be able to look at the big picture!
Ok- jumping off my soap box now!!!
I'm just going to say SIGH... I get so sick of "pet vets". Of course I do xray and have probably seen more hips than many pet vets. I've bred to a non passing dog, and I've bred a non passing bitch (slight sublex) who produced a couple puppies with wonderful tight hips. We just do what we can. (Still sad I never used your boy, btw...too bad his accident happened before the girl I wanted to use him on was old enough...)
ReplyDelete