Today I took one of my dogs to the vet. He injured his right rear foot somehow late last week. I noticed him limping on it friday. By saturday morning he would not put any pressure on it and it was visibly swollen. I texted my friend who owns a veterinarian office and asked for advice and she said to let him rest for the weekend and if his foot is still bothering him on monday to take him in. This morning it was still swollen and painful so I took him in (to a different vet, my friend lives over 90 miles away) and asked for x-rays to see if there were any fractures. This is when it got slightly interesting. The vet suggested to go ahead and X-ray his hips as well. I said ok but if you are going to do his hips, I want OFA correct X-rays. Then the vet said she did not do OFAs and the individual that did the OFAs was off today and I would have to make an appointment for that. No problem so far. What she said next gave me pause. She actually said that we did not need to do the hips (she originally suggested it) because if they were not done properly we might get a false reading. Now that was interesting. It is Ok to do an x-ray that has no use as along as I am uninformed and willing to just pay for what ever they suggested.
I did let her X-ray him from the knee down and she said all was fine, no fractures were seen. I did not ask to look at them as I am not a doctor but maybe I should have because I did ask for them to be taken. I do kind of wish she could have done the OFAs though.
Interesting about the x-ray and the change when you mentioned OFA quality. I do think since you have concerns and may want to get a second opinion or may need it for a pet insurance claim to get a copy of the x-ray. You could also get the OFA hip x-ray done at that time. I hope your dog is feeling better.
There is a big difference in survey X-rays for information and OFA X-rays for a score. Poor positioning for an OFA, can cause a lower score. But a vet can usually tell if there is an issue with hips if they are not perfectly positioned. So, since you wanted OFA her recommendation makes sense. The hip films were going to be for "so you know". Not medically needed for the problem presented.
There is a big difference in survey X-rays for information and OFA X-rays for a score. Poor positioning for an OFA, can cause a lower score. But a vet can usually tell if there is an issue with hips if they are not perfectly positioned. So, since you wanted OFA her recommendation makes sense. The hip films were going to be for "so you know". Not medically needed for the problem presented.
When Riley had his elbow x-rayed they just did the hips too. They did not ask me or charge me for them. They were not ofa quality, but it did show decent hips.
I'd be happy she was honest about her ability to get good positioning (too many people have paid for crappy x-rays that don't prove anything) and she is correct, if you want an OFA rating you need x-rays that have the proper positioning for the most true rating. They can't make bad hips look good but they can certainly make good hips look worse or OFA will just reject the x-rays altogether.
robk, i understand where you are coming from. i would have asked why she needed or wanted to x ray hips.
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