HEALTH ISSUES WITH LABRADORS
HEALTH ISSUES WITH LABRADORS
There are 3 main inherrited health issues with Labradors, these are Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia and eye disease.
HIP DYSPLASIA
It was realised long ago that just as people can suffer from hip problems so can dogs. It was noticed that the problems tended to run in families, ie puppies from parents with good hips tended to have good hips and those from parents with bad hips tended to inherrit these defects.
In order to identify those dogs with poorer hips a system of scoring was introduced as far back as 1965 and last updated in 1984.
When a dog is hip scored an xray is taken of the joint and it is examined by a board of experts and 8 areas of the joint are scored out of 6 and one area scored out of 5 with 0 being the optimum thus the best score is 0 and the worst being 53. However as dogs have two hips scores can be shown as 0/0 the best and 53/53 the worst. Sometimes total scores are shown ie 0 being the best and 106 being the worst.
The British Vetinary Association have issued guidelines for the various breeds, and for Labradors this is a total of 15, and should scores be above this level then the BVA recommend that the dog is not used for breeding.
Dogs can not be hip scored until they are 12 months old.
For Assured Breeders the Kennel Club state that hip scoring must be undertaken.
ALL OF OUR DOGS WHERE APPROPRIATE HAVE BEEN HIP SCORED AND THOSE USED FOR BREEDING ARE BELOW THE BVA GUIDELINES
The BVA / KC Hip Dysplasia Scheme
ELBOW DYSPLASIA
Elbow Dysplasia is similar to hip dysplasia but it affects the front elbow joint rather than the rear hip joint.
Again an xray of the joint is taken and scored by a board of experts but this time each joint is scored out of 3, again with 0 being the best and 3 being the worst.
The BVA state that any dogs showing a total elbow score above 0 should not be used for beeding.
Dogs can not be elbow scored until they are 12 months old.
For Assureded Breeders the Kennel Club only recommend that elbow scoring be undertaken.
ALL OF OUR DOGS WHERE APPROPRIATE HAVE BEEN ELBOW SCORED AND THOSE USED FOR BREEDING COMPLY WITH THE BVA GUIDELINES
The BVA / KC Elbow Dysplasia Scheme
EYE DISEASE
Labradors suffer from inherrited eye disese. In a bid to eliminate inherrited eye disease The BVA along with the Kennel Club state that breeding stock should have an eye examination when 1 year old and annually there after.
For Assured Breeders the Kennel Club state that all breeding stock must have a current clear eye certificate.
ALL OF OUR DOGS WHERE APPROPRIATE HAVE CURRENT CLEAR EYE CERTIFICATES.