Baby Payton's OFA x-rays

Little Baby P turns TWO YEARS OLD tomorrow.
Since he will be two, we can now finally do his official OFA x-rays. I'm (really really) eager to see how they turn out so I've made the appointment for Saturday morning.
Of course then we have to wait for them to be sent off and graded... it's like two weeks after the rads get to OFA before we get our ratings...
*flail flail flail*

I'm really hoping for an excellent rating. Grandpa has excellent hips, his dad has excellent hips, uncle has excellent hips, a granny on the other side has excellent hips, AND dad has thrown excellent hips before... I'm really hoping Payton inherited the excellent hips! A good rating is fine, but I'm definitely gunning for excellent.



Question - they are going to put him under but it's only light sedation. He has never been put under before. I asked about doing bloodwork and they don't normally do bloodwork for light sedation, but could if I wanted to. Should I bother? I told them if it wasn't routine I probably wouldn't bother but now I'm wondering if I should.

If your vet has digital xrays they can email them, which shortens the wait time

Good luck!

If Goose ever needs put out for something I'm sending hers for funsies (she's spayed). Her dad as excellent hips and that particular line is having more and more excellents in younger generations. Exciting in the Chow world!

I would ask them to try with out putting him under. Im not a fan of vets who automatically put the dog under. Personally I prefer to try without first.

That depends on what put under means as well. As in sound asleep or the dog singing "I feel pretty" to him self in his head. lol

I wouldnt worry about the blood work if it is just sedation.

Ohhh exciting good luck!

If he's never had bloodwork before, I'd do it just because. I kind of wish I had with Jackson so that we had more of a baseline to go off of ... when I was thinking he had pancreatitis, and they were doing bloodwork that kept coming back kinda high on this one thing, I just didn't really have a base to go off of to know if it was his 'normal' or not, since he'd never had the bloodwork before.

So ANYWAY, if it were me, I'd probably do it just for the heck of it. I also just like to hear "everything looks good" It's peace of mind.

Ooohhh I am going to be doing the same thing with Kastle on Monday - I am also super excited/nervous. No need to be nervous, his pedigree is full of good hips. I just am! Ahhh!

I have no experience to draw on for advice, just wanted to wish him and you good luck!

For sedation, I wouldn't do blood work. Sedation doesn't usually mean knocking them out all the way. Just making them drunk enough to cooperate Some dogs don't need to be sedated, but in general it makes for better OFA films (for regular diagnostic xrays most dogs don't need to be sedated at all...but OFA needs to be as perfect as possible).

That said, I do yearly bloodwork on my dogs anyway (I had it done twice on Logan last year, since he had surgery...but I wouldn't have done the second one if it wasn't for surgery). If you haven't had a baseline panel done yet, you might as well.

Good for Payton to have a depth of pedigree for good hips. My girl is the same way; lots of OFA excellents. Alot of her family is overseas, but her breeder strives for health and temperament above all else.

When we got her done this past November, I didn't bother with the anesthesia blood work. It's such a very light anesthesia that I just wasn't too concerned. Maybe I should have been?

Anyway, she came back OFA good, which was pleasing but I also was hoping for an excellent. Thought about doing PennHip to see her distraction index, but they're so darned expensive and I was ok with the OFA Good that we got.

We also did a spinal xray to see if we could see any calcifications, which would potentially indicate IVDD, but that was clear. Knees and elbows normal. No transitional vertibrae (she's pretty long, so I was surprised that she didn't have one, and in a GOOD way!). Her cardiac came back good. She's PRA clear by pedigree. DM normal (thank God) and her CERF came back normal.

Her dad has extra eyelashes that he has some trouble with, but she has never had anything like that.

The only thing I didn't do was have her thyroid panel done. But, I didn't see the need for that- she's got plenty of good coat, nice skin, clear eyes, and her temperament is excellent for a Cardigan.

Are you going to have additional testing done for breeding or are you just seeing what you've got?

Good luck! Are you going to sportvet?

I asked Auggie's breeder her take last night and she was all "meh" about getting bloodwork done. I think I will wait and have it done at a different time - or more specifically, off a different paycheck, since Monday we had an eye exam, yesterday I paid for Auggie's chiro and more heartworm meds, the x-rays coming this weekend, and Pepper had total liquid poo last night so I am totally prepared for an ALL THE DOGS MUST GO TO THE VET THIS WEEK!
He'll be due for his annual in about three months, so I'll have it run then just so we have it.


About a million things depend on if he will be bred or not - this is just step one. He is a sport dog so I would do these anyway, I did them on Auggie as well.


Shai, yep, he did Auggie's too and I trust him to know what he's doing for the rads!

i probably wouldn't bother with bloodwork in a dog that young unless i were feeling especially rich.

Xrays done under sedation are going to be more accurate as the muscles will be relaxed. Even the most cooperative dog in the world is still going to be tense.

This. I wouldn't base OFA's off of a non-sedated dog. Being the one that restrains for rads, I can tell you that it's not easy taking one of the views that they need. Every dog struggles, no dog is relaxed.

Yeah, he did all three of mine Mira's were after we moved out of state...I scheduled her in "on my way" to our house to sign closing papers when we sold it. They did a nice job with all of them.

He was also right on with his eval of the rads for all three, so I'd say whatever he tells you is probably going to be right if that helps alleviate your tension while waiting for OFA results . He called Web's a good-normal, probably going good. Kim's a definite good. Mira's a good-excellent but probably going to go good. All three dogs came back...Good

X-rays taken! Elbows look great. He is mildly concerned about how the hips will come back because even though Payton was sedated they were having a hard time getting a shot he really liked. He's sending in two films and thinks they'll come back good. From one film it looks like part of the ball is flat on one side, from another film the ball looked perfectly round - the second film he said there's a tiny line on it that they might say is a Morgan's Line but he doesn't think it is (and after looking at some other x-rays online I don't think so either, but we aren't OFA experts so we shall see.) Otherwise hips look really great and he was pleased.

So I highly doubt we'll get an excellent rating, boooo! Oh well. I am trying not to freak out about this whole Morgan's Line thing because I doubt they're going to evaluate it that way but. well. The next few weeks need to go quickly.

Apparently he was not very... uh... well... he was on his back on the table and a dog started barking next door, so Payton is laying there, sedated, having his hips x-rayed, and trying to bark at the other dog. Payton.
He came barreling into the exam room when they were done like =D =D YAY NOW WHAT GAME ARE WE PLAYING. WTF? Auggie acted like he was drunk for almost an hour after his x-rays. *facepalm*

Welp, today I got the best birthday gift. Payton's OFA results were sitting in my mailbox when I went over to my house.

Elbows normal as expected, no signs of dysplasia.
Hips good - and no signs of dysplasia.


I didn't realize exactly how nervous I was over the results (and getting more anxious every day) until I opened them and started crying with relief.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOUR PUPPY HAS NO SIGNS OF DYSPLASIA

Yay!!

Congratulations!

Yay!!!!

Way to go, Pay!

Best Present