I just want to preface this by saying that when I have a gut feeling
about something, I'm always right. I knew and have known for quite some
time that there is something just not right about Nikon.
There's good new, and bad news, and like I said I'm not really surprised....
The
GOOD news: hips (as far as sockets and femoral heads go) are fine,
elbows fine/normal. He does not have hip dysplasia, spondylosis, or
DM. He does not have to "retire" or restrict any activity.
The bad news is that his pelvis is malformed. The vet believes
he was crushed as a puppy, possibly during his birth or having been
stepped on by the dam. The former is possible, the dam delivers large
puppies and sometimes has a little trouble. The malformation is evident
on his prelims from 7 months. When you look at those original films,
you see nice/normal hips and might think the positioning is not perfect,
but it doesn't matter because there's no evidence of dysplasia, and
then you might not really think any more about it. What those films
show along with today's films is that it's not physically possible for
Nikon to be positioned correctly because his pelvis is not symmetrical,
and his spine is not properly attached. The new films show this more.
Basically
it went like this...the vet walks up to me and says straight up the dog
is not normal (OK, I figured as much). He said he had an impossible
time positioning him and asks me if I'm familiar with hip x-rays. I say
yes, so he puts up Nikon's next to a really nice one. We both agree
that what the OFA is looking for is not a problem, probably not
"excellent" hips but not dysplastic. But he points out several areas
where the pelvis is not symmetrical and explains is not just an issue of
bad positioning because the knees are positioned correctly, the spine
is correct, the femur heads are symmetrical. He asks me more about the
symptoms I've noticed, how long, etc and I mention I've got Nikon's
prelims in the van, and he says that would be good for him to see.
Immediately he says he can see they have the same problem, the right
side of the pelvis looks almost caved in, and the spine is not attached
in the correct spot on the left side. He said if I'd just plopped this
dog on his table, he would have said the dog was hit by a car. The
pelvis is now healed, but the conformation is not correct and never will
be.
Then we talked about OFA and decided not to submit. The
problem is that the OFA might not accept the films for their database
because there is clearly a problem, which means the rating really has no
value, if that makes sense. The positioning is actually better than
many I've seen that have been rated, but there's a difference between
slightly bad positioning and a malformed pelvis. I said I don't mind
spending the money to submit them, but he recommended I not submit if
for no other reason than I can keep my films for further comparison
later if needed. In the end, I liked that because I would like to keep
them. It's possible that if I submitted them, the OFA would accept
them, rate them, but also make a notation about the pelvis (for example
they often find spondylosis on hip x-rays and note this even if the hips
are deemed fair/good/ex).
The elbows are fine, spinal x-ray (which he did do) is fine.
The
implications...we don't really know. Since Nikon has never shown pain, the vet didn't see any reason to limit his activity. Limiting activity becomes a quality of life issue for Nikon! The vet had also pulled and
stretched him every which-way and got no pain response (and I took Nikon to the vet a year ago for this very reason and was told he either pulled a muscle playing to hard or had pano). He said I
should keep him thin and I said, "thinner than he already is?" (because I
just struggled to have him GAIN weight since he was looking like a
skeleton) and he said, "No, you shepherd people really like your dogs
thin!" By thin he means normal. 
He said no supplements or anything are necessary because there's
no arthritis yet. No point in having him adjusted since
he's always going to be off and if not done correctly could do more harm than good. So really I don't have to do anything, not
even limit jumping. When he is older he may develop some spondylosis
in that area but we don't really know. At this point he is clear for
Schutzhund, agility, and being his hyper active self. I might even finish showing him...wouldn't that be something, a V-rated UKC champion with a crushed pelvis! (I'm trying to stay positive here!)
*sigh*
I'm working
on getting images of the new films, I'm waiting for it to get dark so I
can backlight a window and take a picture....
In the mean time, Nikon turned two recently (and I turn 26 on Sat, the peace of mind with this diagnosis is my present to myself) so here's some recent pics of my main man:
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4147/4961984955_155f8b7461.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4086/4961014463_c9b55e6262.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/4958093895_c619df560e.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/4952846166_929a5cbb8f.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/4952255179_1cfd6fe1ba.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/4917421693_073da6c828.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4143/4882416841_2985cb45fd.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4073/4750747552_30738a1acf.jpg[/img]
[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4750887246_d58949b5db.jpg[/img]