Give dog disease the elbow

ONE of the roles that we undertake at Donaldson’s is to work with our dog breeding clients to encourage healthy breeding to safeguard the welfare of future generations of dogs.

We work actively with a number of health schemes and one of the most successful schemes is the BVA / Kennel Club Elbow Dysplasia Scheme.

Elbow Dysplasia (ED) simply means ‘abnormal development of the elbow’. The term includes a number of specific abnormalities that affect different sites within the joint. These cause problems by affecting the growth of the cartilage which forms the surface of the joint or the structures around it.

Elbow Dysplasia has been identified as a significant problem in many breeds. Some of the most commonly affected breeds include German Shepherd Dogs, Great Danes, Labrador Retrievers, Rottweilers and Golden Retrievers. It begins in puppyhood, and can affect the dog for the rest of its life.

Dogs in which Elbow Dysplasia caused lameness are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’. Their lameness makes their condition obvious.

Elbow dysplasia has a strong genetic component and therefore our role is to undertake screening of dogs’ elbows by radiography (x-ray). The elbows need to be positioned with absolute precision so that the view achieved is absolutely standardised and the X rays are then sent to the BVA/ Kennel Club scoring panel for grading.

Many dogs from breeds that can suffer from elbow dysplasia can also suffer from hip dysplasia so commonly we X ray hips and elbows at the same time and both sets of radiographs are submitted for grading.

Unfortunately the inheritance of hip and elbow dysplasia are complex and breeding from animals with good hip and elbow conformation does not guarantee that the puppies will not have problems however the schemes are proving to be successful.