HD - Not a common test-issue?

[dagdrivarn]

I have been surfing on pages around Europe and realized that i see a lot of breeders testing for SMA, PKD and PL which is quit uncommon in MC's. But HD which is quit a big problem is not a common test-issue at all? Why is that?

I do test my cats and I follow the Healthprogram, but i did ONE really stupid mating two years ago, i took a risk. I had a female with pyo that was to be mated at next heat.
Well ofcourse she got in heat between Christmas and New Years Eve

I hade a male at home that i had planned to mate with her, but he was'nt tested yeat, he was to be tested in four weeks! Both his parents was ok, and their parents and they both got offsprings that had been tested ok!

So i decided it was a risk worth taking

Krafla (the female) had 1+1 on her hips and was ok to mated to a male that was Normal+Normal. Well Triton (the male) had degree 2 and 3 on his hips.

For comparison i also add a picture of one of the most beautiful hips i have ever seen
(Yes I'm damaged )


As you can see it does NOT look good and as you can imagin this hurts!

Today i got the answer from one of the offsprings (of course ALL of them is sold as pets),
she has degree 3 and 2 and have problems with her hips

So why is it so many people don't do the HD test but do all the other tests?
Is it that many breeders maybe don't know that it actually is a problem?

What do you all think?

[WoodsideMaineCoons]

I haven't heard of many breeders over here that have had a problem with it in their cats or in their offspring (although many breeders would keep such things to themselves anyway)

I think if you do the research into the lines that your breeding cats have come from and there are no problems present then the testing seems unnecessary.

Having said that, we are looking at a testing program this year on all of our cats for HD, ultrasound scanning for HCM and also testing for SMA & PKD. This is because once we have brought in 2-3 new cats this year, we are hoping to then keep back from our lines only so if we test our foundation cats here then we should be safe with all of their offspring.

[jckkerrison]

It looks to me as if above are lots of reasons not to become a breeder ..! We will just continue to buy our babies from all of you who take a lot of care & pride in your breeding lines. I knew about HCM but not the hips.
Strangely though I have one boy who does have problems with his hips but he goes regular to see one of our vets who is a chiropractor & a couple of clicks later & like this time because they were really fixed a follow up appointment & then he is on his way again.
Will think about an xray at some point though now just as a matter of interest.
Thanks for posting the two different ones its great to be able to compare,not sad at all,I would say interesting.

[Scrapdragon]

I'd heard about hip displaysia and had asked my breeder about it.
Hers are free of it. I don't think it is common in Australia.

[mcguy]

Many USA MC breeders claim to check HD, so certainly a well known issue here. The breeder of three of ours actually has the HD reports online for some of her cats. I am not certain how much of an issue it actually is here, but I would expect that to be one of the factors that was tested for in the parents, or I would be reluctant to buy a kitten from that breeder.

I see that our breeder used to mention OFA tests (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) but now mentions PennHIP (PennHIP Home).

[dagdrivarn]

Many USA MC breeders claim to check HD, so certainly a well known issue here. The breeder of three of ours actually has the HD reports online for some of her cats. I am not certain how much of an issue it actually is here, but I would expect that to be one of the factors that was tested for in the parents, or I would be reluctant to buy a kitten from that breeder.

I see that our breeder used to mention OFA tests (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) but now mentions PennHIP (PennHIP Home).

I know some Swedish breeders do test in OFA but most breeders are testing in the healthprogram and a lot of European and even New Zealand breeders test their cats in the health program. One of the major differences are that when you test in OFA you take the X-ray and send it in your self, when you test in the health program your veterinarian send in the form and the X-ray to Mr. Lars Audell that evaluates the x-ray. He have been doing this since 2004 so you can say he has some experience
And then the results is sent to the registrator (me) and then i register the result and send the answer to the owner. So no possibility to darken any bad results!
In OFA you dont get an official result until the age of 2 but in the health program you can test at an age of 10 month and still got an official and good reading.

I think this is really interesting to and thats why i ask

More about the healthprogram for those interested can be read here:
PawPeds

[dagdrivarn]

It looks to me as if above are lots of reasons not to become a breeder ..! We will just continue to buy our babies from all of you who take a lot of care & pride in your breeding lines. I knew about HCM but not the hips.
Strangely though I have one boy who does have problems with his hips but he goes regular to see one of our vets who is a chiropractor & a couple of clicks later & like this time because they were really fixed a follow up appointment & then he is on his way again.
Will think about an xray at some point though now just as a matter of interest.
Thanks for posting the two different ones its great to be able to compare,not sad at all,I would say interesting.

Well i know that some think this is a MC issue but it's really about all cats both cats and all kinds of breeds are affected but some more then others. I know that Susan Little had made a studie where it had been discovered that Devon Rex actually was one of the most affected breeds.

Studies done in the United States show some breed predispositions:
o Devon Rex (about 40% affected)
o Persian/Himalayan (about 20% affected)
o Maine Coon (about 23%)
o Non-pedigreed cats (about 5.8% affected)
http://catvet.homestead.com/inherited_diseases_2004.pdf

I just realize also the Health Program now have 2416 Hipresults in the database
And it becomes more and more common so I'm very pleased it makes it sooo much easier for me to find new interesting breeders for my breedingprogram

[Louie-Louie]

Im very interested in this subject one of our dogs has HD but that isnt to bad its the damage he has done to his back & other legs compensating for his hip that is the problem. Both his parents were hip scored & none of his litter mates have it. We think possible life style even though we were careful not to over excersise him, let him go up & down stairs or jump in & out of the car etc. Just our luck

I do worry about Louie with the speed he is growing & we have tryed not to let him leap around to much but it is very hard with a kitten, I did opt not to get a floor to ceiling cat tree though. I think the RC food is very good with it haveing glucosomine & chondroitin for healthy joints & other ingrediants for healthy heart but I think the more breeding cats that are screened for health problems the better. Louie is haveing this food already as well as his kitten food & anyother food he can get his paws on I also feed it to our eldest who has arthritus & was unable to jump up to where we have the food, even with a step system we sorted for him, he has been on it for 3 weeks now & is much better & rushing around like a kitten again so I think it does work & much better than metacam.

http://www.royalcanin.co.uk/PDF/maine_coon_pdf.pdf