Unfortunately, OFA is the gold standard still for both hips and elbows, and subjective by the evaluators. However, that being said, I have also lost faith as well in their readings.

The following final reports are from one of my older bitches, 8 years old now, who was radiographed at 2 years and 3 months, mid cycle in her season initially. I redid her elbows again (hips are OFA Good), at 5 years and 2 months, again mid cycle. Apparently, OFA reported her RIGHT elbow healed!!!

I didn't call to find out why. It was just weird. She has been asymptomatic her whole life so far.

I tried to copy the text from the PDF file, but here are the results, both initial and redone.

1/25/08::
LEFT: Grade I ED, DJD
RIGHT: Grade I ED, DJD

3/4/2011:
LEFT: Grade II ED, DJD
RIGHT: NORMAL

Yep Mary Ann i've got a bitch here too that they graded with borderline hips and ED (can't remember if it was both or one) and she is now almost 8 no symptoms at all, moves like a dream, should have bred her anyway, screw OFA i'll go with what my vet says from now on and submit them to a board certified radiologists

Biggest surprise came when I got back a Fair rating on a dog. I really expected better, so I called the OFA and asked what the 3 individual rating were. Dog got a good, a fair, and a moderately dysplastic. Sure does not instill confidence.

I never do prelims. That said, if I did a prelim at 22 months and then 9 months later my dog didn't pass, the first thing I would look at is the quality of the x-rays. Positioning is so important and can mean the difference between passing or not. I always look at the x-rays before they are submitted and my vet has quite an ego so he makes sure to do his very best. I've referred several breeders to him after their dogs (some labs and some other breeds) didn't pass with x-rays from other vets. Every one of them was upgraded to at least a fair but most came back good. IF you haven't already, I suggest you look at both sets of x-rays. Unfortunately, I have never heard of OFA sending them back if they aren't good enough - they just get a poor rating - which may not be accurate.