Since OFA can be so unreliable what do people think about Pennhip? Just curious.

I feel that the PennHip is more objective and consistent. I have heard many cases of individuals who have had inconsistent results from OFA.
On the flip side though, don't expect your local vet to give an accurate rating, especially if they're not a board cert. radiologist.
PennHip results are drawn from actual measurements, not subjective eyeballing.

John H.

I wouldn't mind doing the PennHip but all
the vets that I have talked to that do it
are twice as expensive to do the Penn Hip
vs. regular x-rays. Has anyone else found
this to be true. Maybe it's the area I live in.

At the University of PA where it was developed the charge $150 for Penn Hip. I paid my vet $165 for OFA xray of elbows and hips. I did not think $150 was bad.

I found Penn-hip method to be the most unreliable method. I tried Penn-hip on several young dogs, Penn-hip gave poor scores to all, every one ended up with OFA-Good and a-stamps...to date, none has produced displasia, nor had any radiographic changes (bony changes). (One of the dogs Penn-hip frowned on is a male who has sired over 200 pups, and only has produced one case of displasia...this one case is thought to be injury related.)

Penn-hips claims to measure joint laxity, a supposed predictor of future hip problems. The theory is that if a dog has joint laxity, there is a greater chance for tiny fractures that lead to bony changes.

In all the dogs I did, all had great laxity and all ended up with normal hips. It appears from my data that Penn-hip theory is WAY off the mark...at least in the bloodlines I work with.

So far, from my experience, I am most impressed with the German a-stamp. Unfortunately, I don't necessarilly agree with the SV's claim that environment plays a greater role than genetics in determining future hip status. Certainly injuries, nutrition as well as level of excerise do factor into the equation...my belief is that genetics weighs heaviest in this equation.

Just my opinion, based on my own experiences <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I have to assume that the Germans have something on this. I mean, I have had the HD conversation a lot. And nothing makes any sense. The general assumption is that it is genetic. OK, so that would mean that 2 OFA excellent dogs, should produce OFA excellent pups. But it doesn't work that way. Most agree that you get more pups with OFA excellent ratings by breeding an OFA good, with an OFA fair. Every vet and breeder agrees that nutrition plays a role, and that activity as a pup may or may not play a role. And then of course, there's the wonderful OFA itself. According to the stories I've heard, they've sent the same Xrays on different occassions, and gotten different readings, and the same vets read the same Xrays without realizing it and giving them different ratings. So that isn't an exact science to start with. I would think Penn Hipp is a more exact science, but that doesn't mean it's better, just different, but I do like that it isn't just a person's opinion, but an actual measurement that matters. But, until it is widely accepted, OFA is the only way to go, even though I do agree, it's very unreliable.

Tina