My Journey Learning about Hip Dysplasia

35 years ago, I was lacking sufficient breeder’s knowledge to arrive at a sound conclusion about the causes of hip and elbow dysplasia. For a while, I followed breeders that had gone before us. Having our breed dogs certified free of dysplasia through x-rays was supposed to result in puppies with good joints. It always bothered me that our testing program resulted in the same numbers of dysplastic offspring than doing nothing. That said, our rate of good hips to bad hips were amongst the best in the country. One in 25 of our pups would have an issue. But relying on testing always made me feel uneasy. There had to be more to the condition. On top of that, we lost two mothers and a dad to anesthesia that was administered to take those x-rays. Three entire lineages had been wiped out on the doctors table for uncertain procedures.

As far as the vet saying your dog has dysplasia, that is not always a detrimental finding. For example, most dogs that have a slight abnormality in their hips will never be negatively impacted. The word dysplasia refers to both the best and worst cases, and everything in between. In most cases, doing absolutely nothing to treat dysplasia is preferred.

Updated Information

I was open to finding updated Information regarding hip and elbow dysplasia. And then it appeared. Dr. Tom Willard, a leading carnivore nutritionist, taught us the truth. My boys and I flew to Denver for many weekends to attend his private instruction in canine nutrition and diseases. He taught us to never feed a Labrador puppy a puppy food, as those products had been engineered for smaller dogs. Puppy foods cause rapid bone growth. This can shear or splinter the cartilage in the front shoulder, creating an irritation, sometimes called Elbow Dysplasia, or OCD. He also taught us that if the dog did not have adequate amounts of vitamin C, the hips would not form correctly, as C is the molecular glue for calcium. Dr. Willard said the next time a veterinarian claimed dysplasia was genetic, just ask him for the specific genes that caused it. He said in all the millions of dollars and years of testing spent, no responsible genes had been located. Could it really be that simple? I asked myself why breeders had been testing for a supposedly genetic condition, when it had little to do with genetics. I was skeptical, but open.

Gun Dog Magazine

Then an article appeared in Gun Dog Magazine entitled “An End to Dysplasia” by Dr. William Belfield. As I recall, he took many arrows from the medical community, but now I know he was right on. Dysplasia was in most instances simple Scurvy – the same condition early sailors died from. For dogs, hot spots, itchy ears, bad breath and bad hips are all signs of scurvy. Here is a link to some very interesting articles by Dr. Belfield. https://molosserdogs.com/view-article/dysplasia-s-end

Dr. Willard produced a formula for Labpups that would allow adequate production of vitamin C in the dog’s body. Unlike humans, dogs produce their own C, depending on what they have for dinner. It was vitally important to have specific ingredients in our product, while keeping it chemical free. (Some chemicals stop the production of vitamin C, even if the food is adequate). During the fifteen years we produced JaxMax, I do not recall a single case of dysplasia where the dogs were eating our product.