Orin has had a big day. It was hips and elbows day. The staff at the vet said his behaviour was immaculate, a model patient, neither nervous or aggressive. Proud of my lockdown boy. The photos are not clear as they are a mobile phone photo of the Xray and not the image sent up for scoring, which will obviously be clearer. Though everyone knew this day was close, I had not discussed the actual date with anyone outside the veterinary practice, not even Katrina. It's not because I was being secretive, it was simply easier to get it over with, breath and then discuss it. Denise and Katrina knew it was imminent as I needed their help, I am sending the images to Australia to be scored and not bothering with the BVA. Following covid they have a waiting list of 4 - 6 months on scoring, the Australian system has a much shorter turn around .. and guess what? It's also cheaper! The scheme was set up there by Malcolm Willis, as it was in the UK, so it is to the same standard, though of course they have a different panel doing the scoring..
I've no idea what his elbows are like, I haven't got a clue what I'm looking for, so I never take a photo. I do have a layperson's idea of what a good set of hips should look like and what a bad set of hips look like, though of course there is a lot more to the scoring than I understand. To me these look Ok, pretty even really ... here's hoping!
This afternoon I've sat and compared them to Ziva and Jezi's hip plates. Ziva has a super score of 4+5 and Jezi has a score of 6+12. Even I can see that the 12 scored hip is poorer than the others.
Ziva - 4+5
Jezi - 6+12
Can you see how the left hip doesn't fit as comfortably into the socket? Her right hip (Labelled R) is good, the lefts is obviously not as good, though with the score going up to 53 per hip it is not a major catastrophe and will not affect her life. Saying that with 2 sisters to choose from, I obviously continued my line from the bitch with the lower score. Looking at these hips and comparing them to Orin's I'm hopeful - but of course as I said theres a lot more to it then I see.
