| Hip Dysplasia |
Hip dysplasia is a degenerative disease of the hip sockets.
There are seven different grades that The Orthopedic Foundation For Animals designates for
hip dysplasia. They are excellent, good, fair, borderline, mild, moderate and severe. The
excellent, good and fair scores are within normal ranges and these dogs are given an OFA number
as long as the dog has permanent identification such as a tattoo or microchip.
The owner of a dog with borderline, mild, moderate and severe hip dysplasia are not given an OFA
number and the information about this dog will only be available on the OFA site if the owner has
given permission for this information to be posted.
Excellent scores are given to the best conformation of the hip ball and socket, which has a tight fit
and the ball fits well inside the socket (like a tennis ball would fit inside your cupped hand) and
continues on to severely affected scoring for dogs that will have very little socket for the ball to fit
into.
There is no way to tell if a dog with hip dysplasia will ever show signs of this disease during his
lifetime. Some dogs with severe dysplasia, function as if they didn't have it at all, and some dogs
with mild dysplasia have difficulty getting around and are quite lame. The reason for this is
unknown.
Acceptable grades for breeding are excellent, good and fair. It is believed that breeding the best
scores together gives a breeder a better chance of producing dogs with good hip scores. Hip
dysplasia occurred more often in studies where excess feeding caused rapid weight gain than in
animals fed a restricted diet, and the severity of HD was less in dogs that were not overfed.
There are seven different grades that The Orthopedic Foundation For Animals designates for
hip dysplasia. They are excellent, good, fair, borderline, mild, moderate and severe. The
excellent, good and fair scores are within normal ranges and these dogs are given an OFA number
as long as the dog has permanent identification such as a tattoo or microchip.
The owner of a dog with borderline, mild, moderate and severe hip dysplasia are not given an OFA
number and the information about this dog will only be available on the OFA site if the owner has
given permission for this information to be posted.
Excellent scores are given to the best conformation of the hip ball and socket, which has a tight fit
and the ball fits well inside the socket (like a tennis ball would fit inside your cupped hand) and
continues on to severely affected scoring for dogs that will have very little socket for the ball to fit
into.
There is no way to tell if a dog with hip dysplasia will ever show signs of this disease during his
lifetime. Some dogs with severe dysplasia, function as if they didn't have it at all, and some dogs
with mild dysplasia have difficulty getting around and are quite lame. The reason for this is
unknown.
Acceptable grades for breeding are excellent, good and fair. It is believed that breeding the best
scores together gives a breeder a better chance of producing dogs with good hip scores. Hip
dysplasia occurred more often in studies where excess feeding caused rapid weight gain than in
animals fed a restricted diet, and the severity of HD was less in dogs that were not overfed.
