hip score eyes tested and heart check for my gsp before maybe breeding

hi all im looking for advice,i want to hip score get her eyes tested and heart check my gsp before maybe breeding.can all good vets do all of this or only specialist vets.what would the costs for this roughly be.what would a good hip score for a gsp bitch be.i think doing all this before breeding would be best obviously,but i know a lot of people breed and not do it properly and just think of the profit and churn out poor litters.any help would be great,many thanks
 
For the hips the breed mean score is 10. You want to be lower than this to breed the dog.

http://www.bva.co.uk/public/documents/Breed_Specific_Statistics.pdf

Unless I skimmed the list wrong there is no need for eye testing in pointers

http://www.bva.co.uk/public/documents/Schedule_A_Jan_2011.pdf

Although a genetic test does exist

http://www.optigen.com/opt9_test_cd.html

The cost will vary for a number of factors, but practically all vets would be able to take the hip x-rays. If there is no obvious murmur then chances are that would be ok. Ring your own vets and see what they can do for you
 
apache thanks for your reply.fair enough its good to hip score the dam and sire but it does not make the pups certain to be fine,unless you have hip scores of both parents going back generations.that would be a lot better but impossible to do that.so only a small percentage it would help a litter checking both parents first.
 
Hips scores should be traceable on both sides of the pedigree for many generations,

you might need to check for a disease you can get in GWP's its Von willebrands disease, doon't know if gsp's get it thogh
 
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Hip scoring - any vet can do as the xrays are submitted to a specialist panel of scrutineers
Eye testing - needs to be a specialist veterinary ophthalmologist who has been invited to join and has passed the exam to be on the eye panel
 
any vet can do the xray,but id try and get a recomendation of someboby who uses a vet for hip tests regualy,it can make all the difference to the scores.how old is your dog ? things like age and if shes been in season can all make a difference to the result.hpr website would be good for getting more advice.search hpr forun then look for "my fast forum" the best one imho
 
Eye testing - needs to be a specialist veterinary ophthalmologist who has been invited to join and has passed the exam to be on the eye panel
That is true of the ophthalmologists who look in the eyes. The problem is they issue a certificate that is valid for a year, and they can only find dogs showing clinical signs of a condition. The blood tests (DNA) are superior as they can identify all carrier animals.

Without going into genetics in too much detail a dog can be a carrier of the condition but have a good copy of the gene so doesn't get the condition and passes the examination. If both the dog and the bitch were carriers 1 in 4 pups would be born with 2 bad copies of the gene and potentially go on and get the inherited condition. If that makes sense?
 
looking into this with hip scoring and heart testing of course it helps if both parents are in great health.with producing pups it seems a lot is down to luck as well.my brother bought a working springer last year it had a heart attack and died when out a walk it was only 10 months old and both parents had all the tests done,by the sound of things people get more checks done on their dogs than women do before and during pregnancy.
 
Without a doubt the DNA test is superior as you are assessing genotype not phenotype. With regards to shopping around to find a vet for the hip score xrays, to be honest if you are going to look for someone who is going to try to make the hips look better than they are by careful positioning of the dog I would steer clear. All this will do is allow more affected dogs to be used for breeding purposes. Might be good for the breeders to earn a bit more cash in the short term but hardly a good idea in the long term. The problem with the hip scoring scheme is that it implies that any dog with below average hip scores is OK for breeding. This is clearly not the case as dogs are either genetic carriers (ie affected) or not. Really only those dogs with scores dramatically below the breed mean score should be considered as suitable for breeding purposes. The problem with this is that the gene pool would become far smaller and whilst the hips may improve, other problems such as elbow dysplasia or PRA may go on to develop.Currently the canine genome has been mapped and there are groups in the UK working out of Edinburgh that are trying to identify genetic markers associated with hip dysplasia. Hopefully this will lead to a genetic test in time which will undoubtedly supercede the fundamentaly flawed hip scoring scheme. Flawed though it may be it is currently the most accepted method wordwide. There is a better system of xrays to identify hip laxity which has been positively linked to the development of hip dysplasia called Penn Hip. Due to radiation safety regulations, this has not been available in the UK until recently. Currently there are relatively few people accredited to do Penn Hip in the UK unfortunately.

S
 
Just one further comment regarding the eye testing... the genetic test for PRA is ONLY for PRA whereas the eye panellists will detect a far greater range of problems.

S
 
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