Association between UK assistance dogs’ British Veterinary Association/Kennel Club hip scores and their risk of clinical hip disease in later life

Abstract

Background: Screening schemes for hip dysplasia have long been used to guide breeding. However, the risks of clinical disease for dogs with high versus low scores are not well documented. Methods: Longitudinal data were used to quantify the risk of clinical hip disease in dogs with ‘low’ and ‘high’ hip scores, as determined by radiographic examination at 10‒14 months of age, using survival and risk analysis. Results: Survival probabilities indicate that diagnoses of hip disease occurred throughout the lifespan of dogs, but the ‘high’ hip score cohort was 2.1‒3.0 times more likely than the ‘low’ hip score cohort to have a diagnosis of hip arthritis. This pattern was repeated in breed-specific analyses of Labradors and Golden Retrievers, with a possible breed influence on hip score and risk of arthritis at comparable scores. Limitations: Diagnoses may include both false positives and negatives, and the threshold for the determination of ‘clear’ dogs at 12 years of age used in the risk analysis may have had an influence on the results. Conclusions: This study provides empirical evidence that dogs with a high hip score at about 1 year of age are at greater risk of being diagnosed with arthritis of the hip later in life than dogs with a low hip score at the same age.