If NOT breeding, what reasons to do hips/elbows?

[Liesje]

I do prelims at 6 months, so that is well before I even consider whether a dog is going to be bred or not. It's not expensive here and my GSDs all do sports in some fashion.

I had Coke's hips x-rayed when he was 5 years old because he walks funny/stiff and I wanted to rule out HD. I suspected it's just his conformation (he's a mix and kind of a weird rear-end assembly, lol) but would have felt bad not taking it seriously if he really was in pain. He does not have HD. The heads of the femurs are not perfectly smooth so he may develop arthritis eventually. I'm glad I did it because now I don't have to worry about him being in pain, but if he stiffens even more with age we will assume it's arthritis.

[marshies]

I wanted to do mine when I spayed Puppy at 16 months. The vet, however, told me to wait until I saw any signs of discomfort since I don't need OFAs. I will probably do it when she is around 2 just to have a baseline for her development down the road. I also want to comply to my contract's timeframe.

[gmcwife1]

Originally Posted by Emoore

I did Kopper's when we were getting into agility. I wanted to make sure he was structurally sound before jumping.

This is why we will be doing Nita's when we have her spayed.

[trudy]

I did my dogs for the same reasons others have mentioned, the breeder needs to know what she is producing, and I need to know if I should alter any training/activities/fun stuff. Agility involves jumping and quick turns, good hips and elbows are a must!!! This also helps later for the vets to have a reference xray if anything else happens. I think everyone should do it

[huntergreen]

i would choose my breeder wisely. then i would only x-ray if i thought there was a problem. from some of the x-rays i have seen posted, i would only let an ortho vet do the x-rays.

[onyx'girl]

Originally Posted by huntergreen

i would choose my breeder wisely. then i would only x-ray if i thought there was a problem. from some of the x-rays i have seen posted, i would only let an ortho vet do the x-rays.

Choosing your breeder wisely is great, helping that breeder by having prelims done would benefit their program.
Your wisely chosen breeder hopefully would like to see what they produce and one of those important things is what the hips and elbows look like(6 months is when I'd do it and then again at 2).

It is IMO, showing responsibility and respect to the breeder you've so carefully chosen.

[huntergreen]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

Choosing your breeder wisely is great, helping that breeder by having prelims done would benefit their program.
Your wisely chosen breeder hopefully would like to see what they produce and one of those important things is what the hips and elbows look like(6 months is when I'd do it and then again at 2).

It is IMO, showing responsibility and respect to the breeder you've so carefully chosen.

never considered that, when i get my next pup, i will have to ask if she/he would want this done. tks.

[boscopup]

The puppy I got from a breeder, I did x-rays both to inform the breeder of that info (they were clear), and also so I would know, since we were planning to do some dog sports, such as agility.

My rescue dogs... Two have not been x-rayed, one was x-rayed when she started limping. Turned out to be a type of elbow dysplasia. She just had surgery Thursday to remove a piece of bone that was broken off. Except for that 2 days of limping, you'd have never known she had a marble sized piece of bone floating around. She was running, jumping, wrestling - all like normal. She has arthritic changes already. I'm glad she did the limp so I was able to find out now that she has this problem! I was originally planning to do agility with her (after she showed me how agile she was by jumping over 3 kids' chairs onto the coffee table ), but now I know that's out. We'll stick to flat work.