Thread: Very interesting food for thought.

Originally Posted by gsp follower

i dont know if the nz hunterway counts in all its forms but i never saw hd at all in literally hundreds or maybe even thousands of dogs.
most working pups were kept fat and in some exercised condition and usually started anytime fro 3 to 9 months depending on the dog or shepherd.
tendon problems occasionly and dislocation even more rarely for which rest ,at first, walking and swimming seemed to fix..
but i certainly dont remember a breed or line ever having it [hd]as a put off factor[boyntons ben aupouri,s wag sorensens fake to name 3 or even the concrete shepherd jim blinkhorne s bloke ]the only hip shoulder problems i saw were either accidental or from to much backing to young.
i trust ruff you still would want any genetic factor remove even tho its not the whole solution ie you wouldnt breed carriers/sufferers

it is in the huntaway. there has been plenty of work done on the subject and plenty of it with a shot behind the ear and down the offal hole.

Hughes (2001) surveyed 93 Huntaways and 48 Heading dogs that presented to his clinic for routine examination for problems other than lameness. The dogs were anesthetized for ventrodorsal extended-hip x-rays of the coxofemoral joints and subsequent hip scoring in accordance with the New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) guidelines. Hip scores greater than or equal to 10 were considered to be dysplastic. The prevalence of hip dysplasia was 24% in Huntaways and 6% in Heading dogs. Hughes calculated that Huntaways were nearly five times more likely to have evidence of hip dysplasia than Heading dogs. Cave et al. (2009) also found that more Huntaways were presenting with hip dysplasia than Heading dogs (n=16 Huntaways, n =5 Heading dogs). At the time of Hughes’ survey the average hip score of the Huntaways (10.8) ranked it the 5th worst of the breeds assessed by the NZVA scheme in New Zealand behind Bull mastiffs, German shepherds, Bernese Mountain dogs and Golden retrievers. Heading dogs fared much better at an average score of 5.9
51
Table 2-2).
Interestingly, few of the owners of dysplastic dogs noted any signs of lameness in their animals. Hughes (2001) postulated that radiological and physical signs may not correlate well in working dogs because they are typically lean, fit and highly motivated to work. Read (2003) also noted that dogs with greater hind-limb muscle mass to support the dysplastic joint, functioned better and with fewer signs of lameness, than less muscled dogs. If the surmises of Hughes and Read are accurate then it is likely that there may be many cases of hip dysplasia undiagnosed in the working dog population, with only the most severe cases diagnosed early. Without radiographing every dog prior to breeding, the trait can persist in the population, and will only be noticed in individual dogs when advanced joint degeneration occurs.

the first dog i seen with HD was a huntaway, a bloody nice bitch out of 'quinn' whole back end was a mess.