starplott
UKC Forum Member
Registered: Oct 2003
Location: SW Missouri
Posts: 1405 |
I worked for a vet a while ago and
was outraged at the HD issues I saw. 7/8 dogs under the age of one year that had been diagnosed as HD had perfect x-rays at 2 or younger.
according to my vet the culprit at causing the hysteria, DOG FOOD. Purina puppy chow being the most noted. layman's terms according to several vets I have talked to about the issue over the last 3-4 years (which seems to be growing) is that commercial puppy food is growing our pups like livestock to be butchered, by producing rapid growth at young ages. basically in a nut shell larger breeds (seen this in labs, rotts, goldens, malinois, mastiffs to name a few) are growing too fast for their joints. I have been told there's nothing you can feed a dog to make the joints grow rapidly like you can muscle and bones. feeding food that grows larger breeds too fast at a young age put on the muscle and rapidly grow the bones weakening the hips/shoulders as a common symptom.
Since glycoflex, msm/gluc, and chondrotin have appeared a lot of people quit putting their pups down due to dysplastic joints and some of these diagnosed with dysplastic joints seemed to miraculously heal themselves and produce clean x-rays in a matter of months. now there are many vets that are still quick to diagnos HD in young dogs, my malinois breeder that produced most the malinois I get for police dogs had a similar issue with a littermate of one of my dogs at just under a year. He was sold to a service home and the vet tending to the dog took his prelims and discovered HD and rendered the dog unsound and told the owner that he'd be crippled. the breeder called me and I sent her to a specific specialist and told her to wait a month or two after he was back on his normal food (we feed the same food).
Less than 2 months the dog was taken to the specialist and the results were definitely NOT the same. she brought in her x-rays from the original vet and had another set taken. The specialist told her there were no crippling issues in the hips of the dog and confirmed what I had told her. he did notice some minor issues and told her that they looked to be fixing themselves with age and proper nutrition. he also told her that the dog would have issues with his hips being a working dog, but it would be way beyond the working age of the dog, he figured about 10 years of age. the pup was given a clean bill of health and hips cleared at just under a year of age. unfortunately the pup was pulled from working by the first diagnosis and was set to go to a pet home based on the first vet's recomendations before the specialist saw the dog and cleared it.
A friend had similar issue with a lab pup that was about 6 mos old. vet gave him remadyl and told him to take him off purina puppy chow and get him on decent food. I had him switch to what I feed and within a month and a half there was no tenderness, soreness and the pup could swim, run, and jump without limping and pain (by 9 mos of age).
My cousin had a golden retriever that was diagnosed at 5 mos with severe HD. The breeder refunded the money and left her to deal with the dog. By the time the dog was a year of age he had CLEAN x-rays and she didn't change his food.
as one vet told me, our dogs are not going to be butchered at 6-9 months old and do not need to be full size by then so we need to quit feeding them as such and let them grow evenly and slowly. rapid growth puts a lot of pressure on joints and there's nothing you can do to promote full sized joints in this age and just as with children joint issues arise when the joints cannot keep up and support the bones.
I honestly cannot count how many people I know have had pups diagnosed with HD the last 4 years and had their pups pull out by a year and a half with clean x-rays. I can only think of three dogs that did not pull out of HD. a specialist I talked to told me that HD IS STILL a very real issue, but it is one of the most common misdiagnosed and not as prevelant as when the general public thinks. she told me it makes her sick to think about the hundreds of young dogs put down every year due to HD that were not true HD cases and would have turned out perfectly healthy.
__________________
It ain't the bark, it ain't the growl, it's the bite that hurts!
Report this post to a moderator | IP: Logged
|
06-07-2004 09:05 PM
