#XRAY OF NORMAL PUPPY HIPS HOW TO#

Balanced simply means that the hips are similar to one another, rather than one poor one and one good one giving an OK average.Īt the time of writing the BMS for Labradors is 12 This is the total for the two hips added together. The breed mean score for each breed is published each year by the Kennel Club. What is a good hip score for a Labrador?Ī good score is one that is lower than the breed mean score, and balanced. The dog needs to be sedated because this is not a natural position for the dog and because the joint must be absolutely still to give a clear picture. Your veterinary surgeon will put your dog under a general anaesthetic or heavy sedation so that he can stretch out the dog’s rear legs and x-ray each hip joint. What happens to my dog during hip scoring? The total score for this dog would be eleven. The higher the score, the worse the hips.Įach hip has its own score and the two are often expressed like this: 5/6 or this 5:6. Each aspect measured is given a score from zero (perfect) upwards. Specialist vets at the British Veterinary Association take measurements of several different aspects of your dog’s hips as seen on an x-ray.

So, unless your vet is concerned about your dog’s hips, you only need to have your Labrador hip scored if you wish to breed from him or her, or if you think you may want to do so in the future.ĭogs must be a minimum of one year to be eligible for scoring and if you decide to have it done, it makes sense to have this done earlier rather than later because all hips deteriorate to some extent over time. But this is quite an involved and expensive procedure. You may be tempted to have your apparently healthy dog hip scored just to make sure that his hips are OK.

because the owner of the dog wants to breed from him or her.

because there are concerns about the health of the dog’s hips, or.

The main reasons that dogs are hip scored are And does this affect you? Should I get my Labrador hip scored? Then select dogs for breeding that are less likely to pass on the serious disease of hip dysplasia.īut which dogs need hip scoring. By giving the joint a ‘score’ we can compare Labradors with one another. A score of zero is perfect and the further the dog’s hips are from perfect, the higher the score. The term ‘hip score’ means the score or ‘rating’ given to your dog’s hip joints. And we’ll tell you what a ‘good’ score looks like, and help you decide what to do if your dog gets poor scores.

#XRAY OF NORMAL PUPPY HIPS HOW TO#

We’ll take you through what hip scores mean, why breeders should have their dogs hip scored, and how to interpret the results. This article contains all the information you need to understand your puppy’s hip scores, and maximise your chance of bringing home a pup with healthy hips.

Xray of normal puppy hips