Monday, 5 November 2012

Hips and Elbows

Well it's that time, I hate it .. but it needs doing and I couldn't afford to do both together. So about 4 weeks ago I tossed a coin and took Jezi to have her hips and elbows scored. Her elbows looked great, apparently, but I had big doubts over her left hip. It looked really poor to me.(But what do I know??) I sent a photo of the hips in a MMM to a friend in the know and she immediately replied saying Jezi had not been positioned correctly...In the mean time the vet had seen the plates and came to the conclusion that the positioning was wrong!!! A small sigh of relief. The next plate was much better but the left hip still looked poor in comparisom to the right. Even I could seen the ball was smaller and not placed as comfortably in the socket.... but you pay your money and take your chance .. crossing everything the plates were sent off!
Today we have the results .. Elbows 0-0, the best score possible. Hips 6-12. the right hip being 6 and the left 12. I have mixed feelings, I hoped they would be better but after seeing the plates feared they would be much worse. The total of 18 pleases me tremendously but I'd be much happier if they were, say 9 -9.  (or something similar) I must admit I expected the left hip to be around 16, so I need to stop thinking about it and be happy with the score, especially considering she still fits into the criteria for a Breed Survey Class 1 Certificate....the top survey cetificate available. (53-53 is the max score and this is Hip displaysia  0-0 is H.D completly free)

But I have to just throw this into the mix.... Nikki's hips 7-7, Dexi's hips 2-3. Seffe's hips 6-5, Jay 7-9, Kai 3-4 all pretty even with Dexi's hips being pretty damn close to perfect. But then it starts to go wrong, Kiri hips 6-16, Krizzie 8-15, Tali 6-11, Asha 6-11, Mikey 5-9 and now Jezi 6-12. So always the left hip is poorer than the right hip, why? It can't be hereditory as Kiri, though bought up here was not bred here and H.D is now concluded to be 40-50 hereditory .. so it must be enviromental? What have I done differently? One thing comes straight to my mind. The top field. The pups have free access to this field, a field on a hill which is uneven and sloppes badly. Could this be a consideration, my friend certainaly believes it could! The older generation had no free accsess to this field as Mr S wasn't here when they were pups and it wasn't safely fenced off. My conclusion ... well honestly I don't know, but it's something I must consider and when the "I" litter arrive the top field will not be available for free running until the majority of the fast growing is done!
I'll now be saving my pennies to take Ziva for her screeing and hopefully to get Asha spayed in January. Depending on Ziva's results I will then decide who will be the damn of the Blanik "I" litter which will hopefuly join us in 2014 ....