Hip dysplasia common in German Shepherd mix dogs?
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I know that canine hip dysplasia is common in German Shepherd dogs but what about in German Shepherd mixes?
Also, what does it look like?
December 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Yes, it can also happen in GSD mixes. It’s a genetic thing with any big dog.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:29 am
It can happen in mixes, too. For example, I know it’s common in Siberian Husky/German Shepherd mixes because it’s common with both Huskies and Shepherds.
My Shepherd mix is part Sheltie so I’m hoping she doesn’t get it.
It’s not something you can see without an xray. The dogs just start limping and eventually lose the use of their back legs.
December 9th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Sure is.. if your dog has GSD in there, what makes you think that because it’s a mix, the problem would disappear, it’s in the genes, no one has any control over what comes out, especially if you aren’t testing hips. A mutt isn’t going to be tested before being bred.. The odds are significantly higher that the mix would have hips problems than a well bred purebred who has been tested for hip dysplasia.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Resisting movements that require full extension of the rear legs, they run and it looks sort of like a bunny hop, they may show stiffness in the morning or after exercise, decrease in level of activity, and as it progresses they may need assistance getting up. CHD is common in breeds of large or extra large breeds, so whether or not he is a pure bred doesn’t make much of a difference at all!
Only a vet can diagnose this condition, and if your dog is showing signs, a vet appointment is in order. You may want to speak with your vet about adding a supplement such as Cosequin to help strengthen and lubricate the joints.
December 9th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Before you get too carried away with that “I know that canine hip dysplasia is common in German Shepherd dogs” idea I’ll point out that the last time I had any pups develop hip dysplasia was in a litter born in 1983 – and THAT litter wasn’t planned by me, it was a “present” from a young dog-pup who was allowed to run with his mother because he was too small to mate her and too young to be fertile anyway. Yeah, right……
Hip dysplasia is a problem in all largish breeds – I forget the figures, but something like all breeds where the pups weigh more than 15 lbs at 5 months old.
● It is worse in bloodlines where the breeders cannot be bothered using the xray & progeny testing schemes, so just go ahead and do matings.
And none of the OFA-like “category” schemes have been effective at seriously reducing HD – only the German ZWs (a “quotient” scheme where the risk is rated as more or less than 100) and the BIF-scoring (rating 9 aspects of each hip, with a final total from 0=perfect to 106) used in Britain, Australia & New Zealand are effective at providing early warning as to whether your own bloodline is improving or deteriorating in its hips – but the biggest thing about both schemes is that a dog’s OWN hips are not the main thing, what counts is the hips of the whole family for ZWs, the hips of the progeny for BIF Progeny Charts.
● It is worse in individuals that are fed to grow very quickly and be heavy at a young age.
● It is worse in individuals that spend most of their time restricted so that they cannot develop firm muscles & ligaments.
● It is worse in individuals that are required to undertake high impact exercise from a young age.
Next thing to accept is that, although there were thoughts (about 40 years ago) of HD being due to a single dominant with variable penetration, it is now accepted that it is polygenic, with every allele for HD being recessive. That means that a pooch can have one copy of every “bad” allele but be unaffected because it is protected by the “good” allele in each gene-pair; however, it will have a match for whatever “bad” allele its mating partners have, and so produce a relatively high proportion of dysplastics, some of which will be VERY badly affected.
Because the GSD is – deservedly – a highly popular breed, it is found in more homes than all except 2-4 other breeds. In places with inadequate dog control regulations (such as not encouraging neutering – the best such encouragement I can think of is to have a high licensing fee for “entires” but a minimal fee for “neuters”) many of those GSDs will be the result of “Oh look – our dogs LIKE each other!” matings and “I’ve got a dog and a b.itch, so I’m going to sell lots of pups” matings. Such litters do NOT come from parents with certificates to prove that they & the grandparents are of low risk for hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia, so naturally the “bad” alleles have a better chance of being passed on in them than they do in litters where the breeder has xrayed and uses only parents with certified-low-risk joints.
But don’t blame that on the BREED – it is the fault of the low-lifes who call themselves “breeders” and produce to satisfy a cheapskate market where buyers deserve every problem that turns up (sadly, in most cases it is the dogs that will suffer, not the easy-come-easy-go buyers).
If St.Bernards (BIF 17) and Bull Mastiffs (BIF 21) and Bulldogs (BIF 70) were as popular as GSDs (BIF 11) you would be accusing THEM re HD. Remembering that 0 is perfect, you might be interested in seeing breed averages for several breeds scored the BIF way: http://www.vets.org.nz/NZVA/QAPs/Dysplasia/hip/AveScores26Jan07.pdf
Okay, within a breed some individuals are better than others, but some worse. What do you think the odds are of the owner of a well-bred low-risk stud and the owner of a well-bred low-risk brood allowing their pooch to mate with a pooch of a different breed? Pretty low, eh!
So a GSD-crossbreed is unlikely to inherit the best genes from either parental breed, unlikely to have come from high-quality low-risk parents.
Of course, size as a puppy being important to how risky an individual is for HD, letting a GSD stud mate a Chihuahua brood should be pretty safe against HD. However, there is a thing called patella luxation that rarely affects large breeds but is very common in small breeds….. So you COULD be leaping from the frying pan into the stewpot, eh!
As for “what it looks like”… . Leave that for a trained radiologist. You can NOT “see” HD any more than you “see” panosteitis or lung cancer or bowel cancer. Even seeing its EFFECTS is chancy – our first brood turned out to have almost no hips, yet she passed all the physical tests that were being considered back in pre-HD-scheme days – she even leaped 7-8 feet vertically to come into the house through a window open above her pen. And there are other conditions that can mimic the effects of HD.
But if you want to learn about HD, click: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Diseases_001198817153/Hip_Dysplasia_001198817326/ and get stuck in – there is at least one xray photo in there, too.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
“In GSDs” as of 1967
December 23rd, 2010 at 10:49 am
I know that canine hip dysplasia is common in German Shepherd dogs but what about in German Shepherd mixes? Also, what does it look like?