Incidence of osteochondrosis in dogs and its late diagnosis

Abstract

An incidence of osteochondrosis in dogs from the total number of 38 126 patients treated in the Clinic of Surgery and Orthopedics at University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno from 1989 till the end of October 1998 is reviewed. A total of 112 dogs (i.e., 0.3% of the patients) were diagnosed and treated surgically for osteochondrosis. The incidence of osteochondrosis in individual joints was as follows: 85 dogs with osteochondrosis in the shoulder joint (i.e., 75.9% of patients suffering from osteochondrosis), 18 dogs (16.1%) with osteochondrosis in the stifle joint, 5 cases (4.4%) in the hock and 4 cases (3.6%) in the elbow joint. Bilateral affections of the shoulder, hock, and stifle joints were found in 24.7%, 20.0% and 16.7% of patients, respectively. There were no cases of bilateral affections in the elbow joint. Special attention has been given to the age of patients at the time of disease diagnosis. An alarming percentage of late diagnosis of affections in the stifle joint (55.6% of patients older than 12 months) and the shoulder (20.0% of dogs older than 1 year) was found, as well. The highest age, at which osteochondrosis had been diagnosed, was 90 months. The most frequently affected breeds in our study were: Bouvier des Flandres (15.8%), Irish Wolfhound (8.9%), English Setter (7.1%), Retriever (4.7%), Rottweiler (4.4%), Brazilian Fila (3.7%), Bernese Mountain Dog (3.6%), Dalmatian (2.2%), Boxer (1.7%) and Great Dane (1.7%). The breed predisposition was confirmed statistically using χ2-test (p < 0.01). In contrast to published data, breed predisposition of German Shepherd to osteochondrosis has not been confirmed at 5% level of significance (χ2-test).