Hips Scores; an interesting article

[vicky payne]

Interesting article on the use and interpretation of hip scores in the months In Practice vet magazine. Lots of stuff on positioning, what is looked like etc and then how best to use the resulting scores to improve dogs hips. There was a nice summary at the end which I thought i'd share:

Ensure all potential parents are hip scored.
Evaluate the scores of parents, grandparents, siblings and previous offspring whenever possible.
Consider the score of the worse hip (on a totally symmetrical xray) to be more representative of the dog's hip status.
Compare the dog's total score with the breed MEDIAN (and compare the score of the worse hip to half the median) to assess the dog relative to others in it's breed.
Take age at radiography into account.
The first three parameters are the those that describe the underlying dysplasia and are predictive of subsequent arthritis.
Do not breed from any dog with evidence of arthritis (scores lower in the grid)
Breed only from dogs with low hip scores; certainly below the median.

The author considered breed Median to be the more important statistic to compare to than the commonly used breed Mean (google them if you've forgotten your O-level/GCSE maths!)

Total Scores (assuming both sides are similar).

0-4 Near perfect hips
5-10 Borderline changes,unlikely to worsen with age
11-20 Mild changes which will probably worsen with age, may develop arthritis
21-50 Moderate to marked dysplasia with arthritic changes or severe dysplasia before arthritic changes (look at age of dog)
51+ severe to very severe arthritis secondary to dysplasia