Health

Hip Dysplasia

Canine Hip Dysplasia is a heritable disease that afflicts millions of dogs each year. It is caused by the the faulty development of the hip, causing excessive wear to joint cartilage. Excessive hip joint laxity can lead to osteoarthritis (OA), stiffness, and a diminished quality of life.  Screenings for Hip Dysplasia can be done through the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) or through a PennHip exam.

OFA Screening: OFA’s screening process involves sending x-rays taken by a veterinarian to OFA for grading and certification. These X-rays are used to classify hips into seven different categories: Excellent, Good, Fair (all within Normal limits), Borderline, and then Mild, Moderate, or Severe (the last three are considered Dysplastic). The hip grades of excellent, good and fair are within normal limits and are given OFA numbers. Radiographs of borderline, mild, moderate and severely dysplastic hip grades are not passed. OFA hip testing must be performed when the dog is 24 months of age or older.

PennHIP: PennHIP provides a numeric measure of how tight the hip joint is, which is predictive of future arthritis. For the PennHIP exam three radiographs are taken to measure the laxity of the hip joint. A score between 0-1 is assigned, with 0 being very tight hips and 1 being very loose. PennHIP testing is accurate in puppies as young as 16 weeks of age.

Elbow Dysplasia

Elbow dysplasia is a general term used to identify an inherited polygenic disease in the elbow. Elbow dysplasia develops from one or a combination of these abnormal conditions:

• Abnormalities involving the medial coronoid of the ulna (FCP). One of the two small bony protrusions on the end of the ulna develops a crack and separates from the rest of the bone.

• Osteochondritis of the medial humeral condyle in the elbow joint (OCD). OCD refers to an abnormal development of the cartilage on the end of a bone in the joint. It is an inflammatory condition that occurs when the diseased cartilage separates from the underlying bone.

• Ununited anconeal process (UAP). Growth plates are found at the ends of the bones. When a dog reaches puberty the growth plates close, fusing the parts of the bone together. If the anconeal projection of bone on the ulna doesn’t fuse to the rest of the ulna, it causes UAP.

Early diagnosis of elbow dysplasia in dogs is important because you want to treat the condition before it causes osteoarthritis in the dog’s joint. The lameness associated with elbow dysplasia can be intermittent and mild for quite some time, which makes it a difficult disease to diagnose promptly. This is why using X-rays to screen our breeding dogs at or after 24 months of age is so important.  Elbows are only passed if no signs of osteoarthritis are evident. Passing elbows are not given a grade, they are simply marked as “normal” in the OFA database. 

Cardiac Disease

Subaortic stenosis (SSA) is the most common congenital heart disease in larger breeds of dogs. The purpose of the OFA’s cardiac screening process is to identify dogs which are phenotypically normal prior to use in a breeding program. For the purposes of the registry, a phenotypically normal dog is defined as:

• One without a cardiac murmur.

• One with an innocent heart murmur that is found to be otherwise normal by virtue of an echocardiographic examination which includes Doppler studies.

Congenital heart conditions can be identified in young puppies, but dogs may not be certified by the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals as free of heart disease until after they are 12 months old. To receive a CHIC number, they must be screened after 24 months of age. Congenital heart disease in dogs is a malformation of the heart or great vessels. The lesions characterizing congenital heart defects are present at birth and may develop more fully during perinatal and growth periods. Many congenital heart defects are thought to be genetically transmitted from parents to offspring; however, the exact modes of inheritance have not been precisely determined for all cardiovascular malformations.

You can obtain two levels of OFA certification for your dog:

1. Detection of a heart murmur with a stethoscope (Auscultation) OR

2. Ultrasound study of the heart (Echocardiogram)

Option 1, listening for a heart murmur, has historically been the method of choice for detecting heart disease.  However, not all heart conditions are associated with heart murmurs. Therefore, with this method alone many dogs with heart disease go undetected. This obviously can impact the individual dog as their heart disease can’t be addressed appropriately. But, on a larger scale this can have a huge impact on a breeding program as genetic heart disease can continue to be passed on to offspring.

Option 2, an echocardiogram, is the gold standard for diagnosing heart disease, whether it is congenital or acquired, and is becoming the method of choice for certification by many breeders and individual pet owners. An echocardiogram is an ultrasound study of the heart that allows the cardiologist to look directly at the heart and determine if heart disease is present, even in the absence of a heart murmur.

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Cone Degeneration

Cone degeneration is an early onset, progressive disease of the retina resulting in loss of vision in day light (“day blindness”) typically beginning at about 8 to 12 weeks of age. Complete degeneration of retinal cone cells (and complete blindness in day light) is seen by the time affected dogs become adults. Typically, affected dogs become increasingly photophobic as exposure to bright light is irritating and painful. Though these dogs can still see in dim light conditions, it is easy to see how this disease could decrease an active dog’s overall quality of life. 

Cone Degeneration is screened for with a genetic test. Tests results will come back as clear, carrier, or affected. Cone degeneration is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner in dogs, meaning that they must receive two copies of the mutated gene (one from each parent) to develop the disease.

• Dogs with N/N genotype will not have these types of cone degeneration.

• Dogs with N/CD1 or N/CD2 genotype will not have these types of cone degeneration, but are carriers. They will transmit a cone degeneration variant to 50% of their offspring. Matings between two carriers are predicted to produce 25% cone degeneration-affected puppies.

• Dogs with CD1/CD2, CD1/CD1, or CD2/CD2 genotype will have cone degeneration, an inherited disease that causes day-blindness.

Eye Disease

OFA Companion Animal Eye Registry (CAER) exams are ophthalmic examinations performed by American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologist (ACVO) Diplomates, to assess dogs for the presence or absence of observable hereditary eye disease.  Dogs with normal exam results will receive OFA eye certification numbers that are valid for one year. Eye certifications are an important part of the routine health screenings practiced by responsible dog breeders to produce healthy puppies.

There are eye diseases in the dog for which there is evidence of a genetic or heritable cause. The American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists has listed ten of these diseases as automatic “fails” (this means the affected dog is ineligible to receive an eye certification) because of the significance of the condition to vision and/or the very strong evidence of heritability. Distichiasis, Entropion, and Persistent Pupillary Membranes (PPMs) are three conditions to be particularly mindful of in the German Shorthaired Pointer.  For a full list of eye diseases known to affect the breed, click here.