HIP DYSPLASIA IN
THE BORDER COLLIE

by Janet E. Larson

USBCC Newsletter, Summer 1994

Katie

My Katie was from the best working bloodlines in Great Britain. Her pedigree read like "who's who" in Border Collies: her sire was Reserve Scottish National Champion, grandsire on her dam's side was Scottish National Champion. Her breeder was a top trial handler, well known nationally. I felt honored to have the privilege of owning a dog like Katie. She was a dream come true. At nine weeks she circled my ducks and brought them to me like a miniature trial champion. She was a natural tracker, loved to play ball and tug-o-war, and was very "up." She was doing the entire Open Obedience routine, minus the jumping, by six months, and doing excellent herding work on my ducks.

I did notice she ran a little funny, her hind legs staying close together instead of striding out, and she never trotted. She moved at a full run or lope, and lay down a lot in between. I thought it was just her style, "full speed ahead" or "off." I also heard a clicking or popping noise when she went up and down the stairs, but didn't think anything of it. She was also not as agile as my other dogs, but I thought it was just her age.

December snow and ice came. One day as she ran across the yard she slipped. She got up with difficulty, but seemed OK. The next day she was so lame she could hardly walk, so I took her to the vet, thinking she had pulled a muscle. He palpated her hips, and they made the popping noise I had been hearing. He then X-rayed her, and said they were the worst hips he had ever seen on a seven month old dog of ANY breed! I was devastated, and felt like I had been hit by a train. Prior to Katie, I had believed hip dysplasia was an AKC show breed problem, and not a Border Collie problem.

The Hill Dog Border Collie people have a saying "Let the hill prove the dog," and they say that an unsound dog wouldn't last a day in the hills of Scotland, Wales and Northern England. Scottish hill shepherds estimate that their flocks of several hundred ewes must cover at least five or six miles a day grazing the sparse mountainsides and moors in order to survive. The dogs must run at least ten miles for every mile the sheep cover. This totals at least 50-60 miles a day! R. B. Robertson says "Another estimate, backed by pedometer readings and quoted in an official British Government publication on sheepdogs, goes higher, and claims that during the lambing season a hill collie covers up to or over one hundred miles a day for nearly six weeks."(1) In the old days, a dog who couldn't put in a day's work on the hills was not used for breeding.

Today, with the huge popularity of sheepdog trials, many shepherds now have practical hill dogs and competition dogs. The competition dog is "worked" (trained) every day and fine tuned for trials, but is only used sparingly for practical work for fear of injury or undoing its training. To quote well-known trainer and handler, John Holmes, "Trial men are no exception and although they have not altered the appearance of the Border Collie, they have exaggerated certain characteristics to just as great an extent as the show enthusiasts (fanatics I call them!) have altered the head of the show collie."(2)

Statistics

According to OFA statistics, 14.6% of all Border Collie hip X-rays submitted are dysplastic or borderline. As a comparison, only 2.9% of Belgian Sheepdogs are dysplastic, 3.7% of Collies have dysplasia, 5.6% of Shetland Sheepdogs, 7.9 % of Australian Shepherds, 9.4% of Bearded Collies, 16. 2 % of Australian Cattle Dogs, 20.1% of Pembroke Welsh Corgies, and 21.9% of German Shepherd dogs are dysplastic. The breakdown on the hip ratings for Border Collies is as follows: Excellent 7.0%, Good 61.2 %, Fair 15. 9%, Borderline 1.3%, Mild Dysplasia 8 .0%, Moderate 5.5%, Severe 1.1%.(3) OFA statistics can be misleading however. Many people don't X-ray their dogs unless they are showing symptoms, or they are a conscientious breeder.

As one old farmer and top herding trial handler told me, "My dogs work just fine. If it ain't broke, why look under the hood." He also informed me I was a "trouble maker," and "hip X-rays are a scam by veterinarians to make money." A hip X-ray today costs about $100 to $200, and OFA charges $25 to evaluate an X-ray, so it is not cheap. There is also the risk of anesthesia. Border Collies appear to be sensitive to thiobarbituates such as Surital, which require body fat to be metabolized. The working Border Collie is a lean, low-fat running dog like the sighthound breeds, which may account for this problem.(4)

A possibly more representative study of hip dysplasia in the Border Collie took place in Germany with 244 Border Collies evaluated on March 30, 1992. Due to the high numbers of reported cases of hip dysplasia, Border Collies are now required to pass a hip X-ray before breeding, so this study covered most of the breeding population in British lines. The show lines are primarily based on Australian and more recently British show lines. Only 127 dogs were rated Hip Dysplasia Free, which corresponds to OFA Fair through Excellent. 76 were Indeterminate (Borderline), 27 were Light (Mild Dysplasia), 11 were Middle (Moderate) and 3 were Severe. In Germany, Dysplasia Free dogs are not broken down into Excellent, Good or Fair as they are in the United States. The dog either has hip dysplasia, or it doesn't. Anything else is a judgment call. This means 52% were Normal, 31% Borderline, 11% Mild, 4.5% Moderate, and 1.2% Severe.(5)

What Is It?

Hip dysplasia is a malformation of the hip joint where the "ball" (head of the femur) doesn't fit properly into the "socket" (acetabulum). All puppies are born with normal hips, but until the dog is six months old, the joint is made up of soft cartilage. The key to developing the disease appears to be laxity or looseness of the ligaments and muscles that hold the joint together. If the joint becomes loose or "subluxed," the "ball" will slip in and out of the "socket" during play, while running and even walking. Since the joint is made of soft cartilage until six months of age, it causes the ball and socket to flatten out. "The most critical time in the development of the coxofemoral joint is from birth to 60 days of age . . . At 6 months of age, function, tissue strength, and ossification have progressed sufficiently to prevent the disease under usual circumstances."(6) Once flattened, it will harden that way, and the joint will never fit properly again. The improper fit will cause the joint to wear unevenly, which damages the smooth cartilage lining of the joint which allows smooth movement. When this natural lubricating surface is worn away, scar tissue builds up. Sooner or later calcium deposits and even bony spurs (arthritis) develop, depending on the severity. Many dogs show no problems until they are six to eight years old or older.

Stoic Dog

A Border Collie has a very high pain tolerance. I know of several who have literally suffered broken bones while working, and kept on going. The owner was unaware of the injury until that evening or the next morning. When working, a good Border Collie is so intent on its charges that it is oblivious to all else. This means a dog could have borderline or mild hip dysplasia and still win sheepdog trials, or do a decent day's work on a smaller farm or ranch. A true hill dog running 50 to 100 miles a day probably wouldn't last long with even borderline hips, but these dogs are not the majority of Border Collies being bred today.

Since it is no longer a case of "Let the hill prove the dog," many borderline or mildly dysplastic dogs are being bred since the owner never X-rayed. The buyer of the dysplastic pup you bred might rightfully demand their money back, and might even sue you for vet bills and emotional damages under some of the proposed "lemon laws" for dogs. Your reputation as a breeder could be ruined forever, not to mention the suffering of the crippled dog you caused to be brought into the world. As a responsible breeder, you should X-ray ALL of your breeding stock, and constantly strive to upgrade hips in your dogs.

The Hereditary Part

Studies of several breeds in Europe, where hips are required to be graded, indicate the problem is approximately 70% hereditary and 30% environmental. Hereditary traits include breadth and slope of the pelvis, angulation of the hip joint, ligamentation, and muscle mass. Dogs with a slightly sloped, broad pelvis, normal angulation, tight ligamentation, and good muscle mass seem to have the best hips. Dogs bred to have exaggerated angulation in the hindquarters, extreme pelvic slope, or are poorly muscled, poorly angulated, and narrow in the hips seem more predisposed.(7) Environmental factors seem to be overnutrition and physically overstressing the joints with early training and pIaying. Supplementation with calcium has also been implicated.(8)

Nutrition

Many conscientious dog breeders and pet owners may be bringing on some of the bone and joint problems seen today by overnutrition. "More recently studies with dogs have clearly demonstrated the adverse effects of high or unrestricted levels of nutrient intake on growth rate and on the development of degenerative skeletal diseases such as hip dysplasia and osteochondritis." Dr. George Lust and B. Sheff of Cornell did studies on sixty Labrador Retriever puppies. Half the pups were fed a restricted diet where they were kept 20% "underweight" by "normal" standards (most American breeders like "roly-poly" pups). The other half of the pups were fed ad libitum a "premium" quality puppy food. All of the restricted intake pups developed normal hips. The "roly-poly" pups all developed hip dysplasia.(9)

This study ties in well with related findings in other species. Joint problems are common in meat animals fed high nutrient diets for maximal gowth and weight gain. In the case of meat animals, they end up in the slaughter house, so it doesn't matter. Young horses shown in halter classes (conformation) are also fed "high nutrient" diets to push them to maturity faster. Many of these beautiful young animals suffer from bone and joint problems as a result, and are unsound by the time they reach the prime of life.

A 1979 study on wildlife energetics, supervised by Dr. William Mautz, a wildlife biologist, at the University of New Hampshire Wildlife Research facility in Brentwood, NH, using white tailed deer had similar results. Fawns fed an "optimal" diet grew rapidly, were sexually mature earlier, weighed more, and had more prongs on their antlers. They also suffered from bone and joint problems such as osteochondritis, hip and elbow dysplasia and stress fractures. The group fed marginally were smaller, took longer to reach sexual maturity, but suffered no bone or joint problems.(10)

The Border Collie may be impacted more than other breeds due to its history and development. In its native Scotland, the poor shepherds could not afford to feed premium foods, so a fuel efficient dog able to survive on a meager and low calorie ration evolved. It is likely that in the past, and in most working homes, Border Collie pups were kept 20% "underweight" by modern standards. In addition, most traditional shepherds did not start any serious training until the dog was a year old.

The working dog owner knows a working dog must be lean and athletic or risk heart attack or exhaustion when working. A canine athlete should have ribs and vertebrae that can be felt easily, but have a slight amount of flesh over them. In a short haired dog, you should just be able to see the last two ribs. In a long-haired dog, a better test is to be able to feel the hip bones, but not be able to feel the sacral vertebrae between them.(11) (12)

Another theory states that hip dysplasia is caused by a problem in the biosynthesis of collagen, the most important structural protein in the body, and major component of cartilage.

Prevention

Some guidelines on preventing environmental hip dysplasia and other joint and bone problems are:

1) Feed a good quality growth formula that meets standards of the Association of America Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), but feed half to two thirds of what the bag says to feed. Then monitor the pup's weight by feeling the ribs, backbone and hips. You should not be able to feel the sacral vertebrae between the hip bones. If the pup gets too heavy, cut the intake of food. If it gets too thin, increase the food intake. Remember dog food companies want to make money, so they always recommend feeding more than your dog needs.

2) Do not mess up the balance of nutrients by supplementation of "fad" vitamins. If you feel you must supplement, use a well balanced vitamin mineral supplement such as PET TABS GRANULES WITH ZINC, or LINATONE and use half of what they recommend. Remember, they also make money by encouraging over use of their products.

3) NEVER breed a dysplastic dog, no matter how good a worker or how wonderful a pet he or she is. Plenty of evidence exists to show that there is a genetic predisposition for hip dysplasia.

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HIP DYSPLASIA IN THE BORDER COLLIE