I have a beautiful boy that was OFA Moderate pre lime elbows normal. One hip looked good and one not so good but my Vet thought he would come back fair.
I have never done Penn hip. Do they grade both hips together for a score or would the outcome be the same as I already have?
In going through OFAs on this bloodline it looks like this has cropped up every few generations on the same hip for a few generations. I'm sure some of you will know which line it is. Should I just walk away because this could be a genetic defect?
TIA
I don't have an answer to your question, but do have another.
What's the arthritis like in that line as they get older? Are they arthritic/painful or non-symptomatic? How long does the line live? Are they PTS due to arthritic pain?
(Actually, the answers to those questions, may help with yours. Remember how many pups go into pet homes and the heartache you can put them through).
I don't particularly care about who the line is. I'm more interested in longevity in the breed what quality of life is in our guys as they get older.
Having dogs that work until after 10, I'm interested in the orthopedic issue we deal with. I have a hard time calling a 7 year old a 'veteran'. :-)
PennHIP grades each hip sepearately. It will give you a laxity number- how loose the joint is. Of course, the tighter the better. It will also tell you if they believe the dog shows signs of DJD (dysplasia) for each hip. If OFA says moderate, in my experience, the PennHIP results will agree with that. I had a girl with mild bilateral per OFA. Did PennHIP with a different vet- came back as pretty lax and with signs of DJD in both hips. Look at the PennHIP website for examples of a report and you can see how it will look and the info you will get. Though I don't remember seeing an example of a dog with DJD on there. It would be out to the side following the laxity for each hip.
I was hoping that they would be scored together but I see that it's not and it does seem to be genetic and I don't want to pass it on. Well this is hard but he will have to be a beautiful pet. I'm sure there are a lot out there.
The Pennhip website says that 80% of the dogs that passed on regular OFA will have dysplasia of some type in their lives.
Cost is a big issue. OFA hips and elbows, medicine and the data base cost, cost me about $200.00. The most reasonable price I could get for Pennhip in Southern California was $720.00. This doesn't even include the elbows.
Does over three times the cost seem normal?
Penn Hip always seems to cost more to do, so I think that the price you quoted is probably about right. The last one I did was about $500 and that was in an area that has a lot lower prices than yours
PennHIP is expensive. The one thing to keep in mind is their recommendation is to breed only the top half. OFA is not that tough. They certainly do not "flunk" half the hips.
