> who sent xrays to ofa. they came > back dysplastic - not even borderline. all the vets felt they should have > passed so they resubmitted them 6 months later and she came back good! i > have also seen xrays where the radiologist who used to be on the board of ofa > said they were excellent but ofa refused for some unknown reason to pass > them. go figure.
You want to know something--I am not a newbie--a babe in the woods so to speak. I have been sending in xrays to OFA for 20 years. I have submitted close to 90-100 xrays over those years--including both prelims and permanents. About 40 permanents are posted on the OFA list, the extras are dogs I prelim'd who didn't turn out good enough for show so I placed them in pet homes or pets that were done (I ask my pet buyers to do so). Each xray is taken by a vet. We put the xray up on the light and discuss it for a couple of minutes. Not once in those 20 years have I ever had an xray that looked good come back as dysplastic and not once have I ever had one that looked bad come back as okay. In fact in every single case they came back within one grade of what we rated them at--80% came back with the exact same rating. There were no surprises whatsoever. There have been xrays that looked like an obvious *good* to me but came back fair--but they were still not diagnosed with HD. To me it is not rocket science. You look at the xray, study the particulars and within a minute you know if HD is present or not. OFA/BVA whoever helps with being more precise, which will help in a breeding program, (plus you contribute to their database) but still it is not that hard to see hip dysplasia. Yes, in the year 2000 OFA was having difficulties, but even that year I did not have a single xray come back as dysplastic that we evaluated as free of HD. I have heard these urban legends about dogs with great hips being diagnosed with HD and vice-versa for as long as I have been in dogs. Funny thing is though, I do not have personal knowledge of a single individual documented case. I am certain these incidences do happen, but are VERY rare. I don't think anyone should hesitate to send xrays to OFA because of a tiny chance they will make an incorrect evaluation. I really wish someone would get these xrays back and document a poor diagnosis--I would love to see the actual name of a dog this happened to along with the actual xray that was submitted twice--failing once and passing the second time. Does anyone know the whereabouts of an article or website that documents such a happening? In this day of computer technology I would think something like that would be easy to find. People LOVE to exploit mistakes made by others! Also in 20 years I have never known OFA to send xrays back automatically. During the 80s and most of the 90s they kept all the xrays at their facility. If you wanted a copy, you could ask and they would make a copy of the xray they had in their files. A few years back they decided to save money by evaluating them, then throwing them out. They do make a copy that is is saved somewhere on computer or something like that. When I send in mine, I ask OFA to send them back, instead of throwing them out--and they do. I have the actual xrays that were evaluated by OFA right in my possession. As time goes by I can document the offspring's xrays with their parents. It should be interesting. Laura Lang Roycroft Cavaliers ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
