
Originally Posted by
The Reverend Floater
There is more than one kind of displaysia, me thinks. The one above and then one that is more relevant to the ligaments, if I remember correctly.
The OFA list two kinds -- hip and elbow. Both are an incorrectly formed joint.
On another note -- puppy food is higher in protein because the puppy is growing fast but the current thinking is that too much protein is bad for larger dogs -- they grow too fast and the joints are under a lot of stress because they're not fully formed yet. That's why there's "small breed puppy" and "large breed puppy" foods now. We used to go straight to adult food to keep the protein down and slow the development a little.
Samthaman mentioned it, but a general rule of thumb is:
The more popular a breed is, the more health problems they have.
The more popular, the more indescriminate (aka backyard) breeding goes on. Serious breeders check bloodlines, get OFA certificates for their breeding stock and generally try to avoid lines with known problems.
If you have a problem & think that someone else is going to solve it for you then you have two problems.
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