canine hip dysplasia – Hip and Joint Support For Dogs by Steven A Johnson
Arthritis is the inflammation of joints. It can occur in dogs in many different forms. Examples of arthritis in dogs are osteoarthritis, infective, immune related, and idiopathic. Arthritis in dogs can cause such problems like changes to joint cartilage, joint fluid, and even the bones.
Some of the signs your dog may have arthritis are lameness in limbs, limping, Read more…
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What Causes Hip Dysplasia?
The primal reason of hip dysplasia is genetic but inheritance of this trait is not as simple as a dominance/recessive relationship like we study in high school biology.
Normal dogs can breed and yield dysplastic offspring as the condition may skip generations. Until a test based on the actual DNA can be developed, the best we can do to prevent this disease is to breed only dogs with normal hips (a challenge since often dogs are not apparently dysplastic until they have already started a breeding career.)
Nutritional factors are also essential in the development of hip dysplasia. For example, it has been popular to try to nutritionally “push” a large breed puppy to grow faster or larger by supplying extra protein, more calcium, or even just extra food.
Practises such as these have been disastrous, leading to bones and muscle developing at different rates and producing assorted joint diseases of which hip dysplasia is one.
One study showed that when puppies of hip dysplasia prone breeds were allowed to free feed, two thirds went on to develop hip dysplasia while only one third developed hip dysplasia when the same diet was fed in meals.
Another study showed German Shepherds were almost twice as likely to develop hip dysplasia if their adult weights were above average.
Studies such as these have led to the development of puppy foods designed for large breed puppies, where the optimal nutritional plane is lower than for small breed puppies.
Read more about the nutritional needs of labrador already having hip dysplasia
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