I have just had a 3.5 year old boy diagnosed with OCD of the hock ( one hock only) I am told by the Veterinary Radiologist that this is an inherited condition, which it may be. However I am having a great deal of trouble find anything about the inheritablity or lack there of, of this condition. The radiologist said not to breed from him, which at 3 .5 years old the horse has already bolted, there has to date been no problems with his puppies. As I don't live in America, I have never heard of OCD of the hock and certainly have never seen it. Any coments would be great.

I have a veteran bitch with unilateral OCD of the hock. None of her offspring have inherited this condition. My non expert opinion is its a multi-factor condition.

If you have x-rayed both hocks and the other one is normal, then it's less likely to be genetic. If you are going to use him best not to breed to a line that has produced hock problems. Keep track of his pups and investigate his siblings and parents. Be sure to disclose all of this to anyone wanting to breed to him, including your research. Good luck!

Thank you for your reply, yes it is only one hock, the veterinary radiologist insists that an injury is unlikely. Of course he is a radioligist, not an expert in joint problems in dogs, so I e-mail an vet in Europe who specialises in and by all accounts is one of the leading Vets to consult regarding joint issues and below is his reply.

There are only a few breeds affected with OCD of the tibiotarsal (hock) joint. The Labrador is one of those. In a survey we found that there is a good indication for hereditary aspects of this disease. There are no publications about it. We are waiting for the request of the Labrador world to perform DNA-studies in this disease.
Please do not breed with your boy, sincerely yours, HH

http://www.dogstuff.info/orthopedic_problems_in_hocks.html

I have found other articles that state that OCD of the hock can be due to trauma and uneven growth.

What I've heard about OCD is that there is no reliable source about it being hereditary. One of my puppies was diagnosed with OCD in both hocks. Dam and sire are both normal as where the other siblings of this boy. The vet said that is is more likely to have come from some kind of injury and/or from growing too fast. The vet said that it is most likely to be multi-factors that trigger this condition.

be careful before stating absolute truths, and scrutinize your source:
from:
Hereditary Skeletal Diseases in Companion Animal Practice
World Small Animal Veterinary Association World Congress Proceedings, 2004
Herman A.W. Hazewinkel, DVM, PhD, DECVS, DECVCN
Dept. Clinical Sciences of Companion Animals, Utrecht University
The Netherlands

(and the Netherlands, Sweden, etc do a much better job of tracking hereditary bone diseases)

OCD of the hock joint
In young dogs of medium breeds, in particular Labradors and Rottweilers, lameness of one or both hind legs can be seen starting at the age of 6 months. The tibiotarsal joint is swollen, crepitation on passive movements and painful on hyperextension. On the radiograph, an indentation can be noticed on the mediolateral view of the ridge of the talus. At the AP view, the skyline of the ridge can make a cartilage flap visible. In Rottweilers this can be the medial or lateral ridge, in Labradors this is almost without exception the medial ridge. Computerized cluster analysis of pedigree of Labrador retrievers demonstrated the heritability of the disease in this breed (Hazewinkel & Ubbink, 2004).

References

I had one bitch in a litter about 8 years ago that had OCD in one hock and I had it repaired. It turned out great. She would only have soreness in the winter if she ran around in the snow to much and that didn't happen more than once or twice a year.

I asked the orth. vet about it and told him I would like to breed her, but was concerned about the OCD. He said to be sure to breed away from it and that it would likely happen in 10% of the puppies. Well, she was bred once and had 8 puppies. I kept 3 girls and a boy from the litter and the boy came down with OCD at 5 months. Had the surgery and he is okay, but not as great as his mom's surgery. We don't have him, but see him often and his hock is much larger where the surgery was. His OCD was in a longer bone and that is why the surgery was tougher.

So, I would not go and breed her again, she is retired to a fabulous home.

I think that it is hereditary.

I purchased a pup before as a show potential. Came down with OCD in the hock. The specialist said it was hereditary and to not breed. After talking with a few long time lab friends I was shown on the pedigree of where it was passed from. This is something I want to pass on. Its not something a pet buyer will understand if you know you have it and still breed it.

This is the person I had e-mailed, if it is inherited does anyone know the mode of inheritence, or is it just like hips or elbows in that you can have two clear parents and still produce an affect puppy. If this is the case why then do we bother to do cleearences on dogs. I was actually told the other day by my vet that with all the hip and elbow scoring we are doing the average hip score isn't an awful lot better than 20 years ago.
Interesting replies.

absolutely amazing still, at how ignorant so many general vets are. We have made GREAT strides in ortho soundness through the years in our breed as well as others!!

Learn about polygenic genes, then you'll understand why it can't totally be erradicated.

Of course it is hereditary. I know of a litter of 8 several years ago, that 7 out of the 8 had OCD hocks before 4 mos. of age. And of course this novice breeder kept the only sound puppy, a male , and campaigned him all over the state . [Neither parent affected, but lots of history behind]

Of cour$e, people will breed OCD of the hock and call it an injury. Ye$, there i$ a genetic component. But, $ince "we" all know that the dog or bitch that "we" breed is *perfect*, whether or not they have final clearance$, whether or not their parent$, other relative$ or $ibling$ are affected by $evere orthopedic i$$ues, cardiac i$$ues, temperament i$$ue$, that ha$ nothing to do at all with "our" *perfect* breeding dog. I get the picture,...do you?

Can OCD be in elbows as well as hocks?
I found this:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+1569&aid=464

Of course it can. The common affliction for our breed is FCP but there are three issues that can happen, FCP, OCD, UAP.

Some breeders don't know. I've never had it in any of my breedings yet thank God so I know less than the average breeder. Call it sheer luck.

It's better to educate and explain things than to speak down to others.

I sure hope you are not inferring that it is all about the money for me. Yes this dog is an imported dog, and yes basically I have just kissed $10,000 good bye, and you know what I may very well use him again at some point in time over one of my own bitches. What upsets me the most is every one is saying it is inherited and it most like is, but as far as I can see there is no history of this problem in these lines, unless someone can enlighten me to something I am not seeing, a little more digging into this is something I need to do, I am still waiting to hear back from his breeder. I don't expect anything from them as far as I am concerned crap happens but it would be nice for some feed back from them.

I think the poster is inferring to some breeders, maybe not you. There are many breedings done where the dogs have known orthopedic problems or lack of clearances because of the reasons that poster stated. It happens all the time with orthopedics and other health problems within Labradors.

If you're not confident in your veterinary radiologists opinion then go for a 2nd opinion. Speaking to a forum full of partially anon breeders and others that may not know what they're talking about, you're going to get a mixed bag of answers.

Talk to a vet, either trust the one that discovered the OCD or go to another that specializes in these types of orthopedic problems.

As for pedigree research, you have alot of work ahead of you. I would want to know what's in the background going back many generations if I were you. I don't mean 1, 2 or 3, even more.

Did you recieve a guarantee when you purchased the dog that he would be free of orthopedic and other problems? $10,000 is alot to spend without any guarantee.

If so, at what age did you purchase him and would the guarantee still hold up at 3.5 years of age? You should be speaking to his breeder before coming here but that's just my opinion. The breeder might be one of the posters for all you know. If not, someone may have made contact instead of you doing it.

This is the busiest conformation dog board around and it's a mighty small world sometimes.

Good luck with your boy.

I have no issue with the breeder at all. The price tag also included some pretty large freight charges, in fact the shipping is way more than the pup, ( he was 4 months old when he arrived) the price of the pup was the smallest part of the total cost. All I wanted to know was Hock OCD was an inherited disorder, I guess I pretty much have my answer based on the replies I have got. The radiologist thinks an injury is unlikely. If it is inherited as most are saying it is then he just becomes a much love family pet and he will be here for life. Thanks for all the replies.

When it comes to something such as OCD, which is polygenic and can also be environmentally influenced as well as nutritionally influenced, I think it is important to look at the big picture... if you get a random OCD on occasion then I wouldn't consider this "genetic" but rather that mother nature dealt you with a bad hand; however, if you get multiple dogs from similar lines with the same problem then you can probably start getting an idea of where your troubles lie and know there is some genetic influence and congruity in those lines.