Laura's thread on the prelims on a Beagle made me think of a question I have been meaning to ask :-)

For those experienced breeders/owners, how often have you found a dog that prelim'd fine turn around and fail at 2 years? Here is my situation -

I have dog that will turn 2 at the end of July. Long story short he came from a breeder who did absolutely no testing. However, I wanted the lines, own a full brother to the sire (fully tested) and know the full brother to the dam (also fully tested), and was willing to take a chance on buying a pig in a poke so to speak.

At 10 months I had him Pennhip'd (90%) and prelim'd the elbows (normal). Was than going to wait until 2 to OFA the hips and elbows. All was muddling along fine until I hear that my male's full sister from a previous litter (18 mos older) was OFA'd at the age of 3 and came back with bi-lateral Grade I elbows. Now, this bitch had been rode hard and put away wet since she had two litters by the age of three. Yeah, don't even get me started. Said she wanted to "experiment with breeding before she became a professional breeder." Arrggghhh! With that said, just because she did not do right by this bitch does not mean that this is not a genetic issue. In fact, all my information leans towards it being genetic.

So being the truly neurotic person that I am, I prelim my male AGAIN at 20 months :-) Came back normal again and my vet told me that I need to chill as they look fine :-p Due to the aforementioned neurosis I am sweating the official reading though. How often does it happen in your experiences that they come back bad after prelim'ing good (twice to boot). I have a pictures of the elbows I can post on this message when I get home from work.

Thanks all for listening :-)

we have found that roughly 85%-90% of the pups that we prelim at 6 months old maintain their readings when re-xrayed at 2.

Sometimes they look "iffy" at 6 months and we just sit tight and keep em lean and muscled, and occasionally find that the hips look better at 2.

We never prelim elbows on a dog less than 2 years old, unless we suspect a problem or we are purchasing a young dog from someone else

We are rarely surprised by the hip results when it's time to certify at 2.....

I am not convinced that OFA knows squat about elbows though, I would trust most orthopedic specialists opinions on elbow rads. I have seen and heard of more than one dog failing OFA elbows and later being taken to board certified orthopods and being told the elbows are perfect... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnn.....

Just breathe, Ingrid.

Thanks Cindy for the info!

I will try to breathe between now and July 27th, perhaps I will managed even to breathe without a paper bag :-)

Just an update on this thread :-)

Sinjin's results came back from OFA with Normal elbows and Good hips. Big relief!

good news!