2 ladies started coming to class with their 2  Golden Ret puppies which are litter brothers and living in nearby but different homes. 2 ladies did their research jointly to try and ensure they got pups from a good breeder.
Both have been fed a good diet and excercised appropriatly for their age.
1st pup stopped class aged 7 months as he developed a worsening limp and has since had surgery for Elbow displacia at a specialist orthopod referral centre, but owner has been told it was severe and he will almost certainly always have limp.
phone call yesterday from 2nd owner, her pup now aged 9 months has started limping, been to vet, being referred to same orthopod centre with probable Elbow displacia. she is now chewing her fingernails up to her elbows
Both parents had below breed mean hip scores, sire had elbow score of 0 but dam has not been scored........

my thought was 1 in litter = bad luck but 2 in same litter ?
any thoughts anyone?
Chris

Could even be something to do with the pregnancy or puppies early care?
I have heard it quite a few times that especially elbow dysplacia is often caused by external factors, not sure how true this is though...
saying this, I would be looking to see if the sire or dam have other relatives with high scores...or if the breeder has bred dogs with high scores before?
At least in my breed it seems to pop up pretty randomly but then elbow scoring has not been done for very long time now, and has only recently become a more of a norm... So not much history to look back yet.

My 2 Chows are litter brothers and I had only had them a month when I noticed their gait was not right.  They both had severe elbow displacia and were both operated on both legs each at 5 months. 

At the time I lived in a bungalow so had no stairs and had barely started walking them. 

I went back the the breeder and he tested the Dam, who although had no symptoms, was just as severe as my boys. 

The breeder spayed the Dam and PTS the 2 he had kept for showing as they were both affected as well. 

The Dams breeder couldn't care less, she had the Dams father who was an Australian Grand Champion and the Dams litter brother was top Chow in NZ.

Although very stressfull at the time my boys have recovered well and although they had intermittant lameness up to the age of 2, once they were fully adult they had no further problems (with their elbows) and are now nearly 6.

> The breeder spayed the Dam and PTS the 2 he had kept for showing as they were both affected as well.

Why didnt the breeder try to get them both fixed, seeing as he bred them?

Easier and cheaper to PTS, dont like the sound of that im afraid!

> Easier and cheaper to PTS, dont like the sound of that im afraid!

but more responsible than passing them to someone else.

> Why didnt the breeder try to get them both fixed, seeing as he bred them?
>

The breeder had only kept them on for showing, they were not fit for that and he knew that no-one else would take them on.   Things are a bit different in NZ, pet insurance is barely heard of, I'd had my 2 for around a year before I found out there was a company that did it by which time of course it was too late.  The operations cost thousands of dollars for my 2, the breeder had 3 dogs affected, he kept the bitch but thought it best to PTS the pups.

> Easier and cheaper to PTS, dont like the sound of that im afraid!

I can assure you that it was not 'easier', the poor man was devastated and in tears as he told me.  He was so crushed by the experience that he gave up breeding alltogether.

Each to their own opinion, but i had a dog with ED and would never of pts so thats my own opinion, i operated to fix the problem then spayed. They could of gone to pet homes. JMO

> Each to their own opinion

Indeed, but assuming the decision was made because it was easier and cheaper is not nessessary.  You don't know the severity of the disease in these cases and there is a big difference in looking after 1 recovering dog and looking after 3.

Many people are faced with these difficult decisions and choose to PTS rather than let their animal suffer any further pain.  IMO they should be treated with the same compassion as we would want ourselves if in similar circumstances.

> assuming the decision was made because it was easier and cheaper is not nessessary.

fair point...just read the pts part and showing and didnt really read on to be honest, i just hate dogs that are discarded simply because they dont make the show ring, but if thats not the case then i stand corrected

This is why I think that elbow scoring is essential in our breed. At least then you have done as much as possible to not produce ED. However, in saying all that, did they have pups overweight?, did they allow them to run silly together?. I do believe that outside factors can make a difference.

Both have been fed a good diet and excercised appropriatly for their age.

Both seemed to be right sort of 'feel' for age, not too plump/chubby and not ribby.........I tend to go on how dog 'feels' not how it looks.
They did play together but as far as I know not 'riot mad' play they only met out on walks same as meeting anyone with a sociable dog for a pup to meet with.
I have a promise from 2nd owner to ring me and let me know how it goes as it is a fantastic pup, really happy and eager to learn.

As AlisonGold says - elbow scoring is essential in my opinion.  I know of many so called 'good breeders' who fail to test their dogs as they do not believe there is a problem within the breed.  It would be interesting to know if these pups came from lines who have elbow scored for some while now.

Such a shame for these pups but I hope they get on well.

Elbow scoring is becoming important in most large breeds now, but not until relatively recently.

I don't know just how random ED is going to be from scored dogs, the scores from the recorded (GSD) list I have seen do seem to be quite random with puppies from the same litter having different scores. It may be that ED is going to be similar to HD in it's appearance. In Germany dogs have been scored for HD for many, many generations and only dogs with good scores have been allowed to be bred from, and yet the incidence of HD is still around 20% and that has not changed significantly over many, many years. I think it is quite possible that more than 1 pup in a litter could be affected even from good scoring dogs if the 20% estimate is applied.

I didn't realise though that there was effective surgery available, so at least there is some hope to be had there.

elbow dysplasia is hereditary the rate of dysplasia increases dramatically if either parent is dysplastic and there is also probably a lack of depth you really want as many ''normals'' as possible in the pedigree.

   
AKC Gazette

Newly elected President of OFA and LRC, Inc. Director, Francis O. Smith, DVM, is our guest columnist for this issue.

Elbow Dysplasia
by Francis O. Smith, DVM

Elbow dysplasia is a condition of emerging concern in the Labrador Retriever. Elbow dysplasia is a disorder of the elbow joint resulting in degenerative joint disease (arthritis) and pain. The canine carries 60% of his body weight on his front assembly, so abnormalities of a forelimb joint can result in significant discomfort. Many dogs with elbow dysplasia are lame and have restricted forelimb stride. Some dogs toe out and bring their elbows inward in an attempt to relieve the discomfort caused by the medial arthritis. Many dogs are lame from about 7 - 12 months of age with the lameness improving temporarily in young adulthood. There are dogs with radiographic evidence of elbow dysplasia that are not lame.

There are three distinct conditions which result in the degenerative joint disease seen in elbow dysplasia. These conditions are: ununited anconeal process; fragmented medial coronoid process (FMCP), which is seen in many breeds and is common in the Labrador Retriever; and osteochondrosis, which occurs in many breeds and can occur in multiple joints. The three conditions may appear singly or in combination and can be inherited separately.

The diagnosis of elbow dysplasia requires a radiograph in an extreme flexed medial to lateral view of the elbow (inside to outside). This view allows good assessment of any degenerative joint disease, but does not allow for definitive diagnosis of FMCP. A definitive diagnosis of FMCP requires additional radiographic views, CAT scan, MRI or linear tomography. It should be noted that in 1998 a group known as the International Elbow Working Group (IEWG) defined the grading scheme for elbow dysplasia. They had previously determined the radiographic view needed for diagnosis. The grading scheme goes from 0, a normal joint, to 3 which involves severe arthritis with a large bone spur.

The OFA elbow database was established in 1990 and averages 1400 evaluations annually. This database provides a standard evaluation of the radiographs based on scientific knowledge and identifies phenotypically normal animals. The OFA maintains this database and disseminates information regarding elbow dysplasia. Use of the OFA web site at http://www.offa.org allows fanciers to obtain information on the elbow status of individual animals who have received elbow certification. Animals whose elbows are not normal are not listed unless their owners have given written permission to list them in the OPEN data base.

All of the OFA databases contain a bias towards normal due to prescreening at the time the radiograph is taken. Despite this selection process, 12.6% of the 16,831 Labrador Radiographs submitted for certification were evaluated as dysplastic. Breeding practices which pair normal elbows to normal elbows can greatly decrease the incidence of elbow dysplasia. Using elbow scores on more than 13,000 progeny from sires and dams with known elbow scores the following conclusions can be reached: breeding normal elbows to normal elbows results in 12.2% dysplastic offspring. Breeding a dysplastic sire to a normal dam resulted in 31.3% dysplastic offspring. Breeding a normal sire to a dysplastic dam resulted in 26.1% dysplastic offspring. A dysplastic sire to a dysplastic dam resulted in 41.5% dysplastic.

Let's use our resources to control this disease in the Labrador Retriever.

Thanks, Fran

(Labrador Retriever Breed Column for AKC Gazette October 2003 Vol 120, No 10, pp 55)


The Labrador Retriever Club, Inc., is the single organization officially recognized by the American Kennel Club as the national parent club of the Labrador Retriever. The Labrador Retriever Club, Inc., was incorporated in October 1931, in the state of New York, and is not affiliated with any other association titled or claiming to be the National Labrador Retriever Club. 
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