Is it normal for 5 month old German Shepard puppys hip joints to be slightly out of place?
One of the reasons dogs cannot be hip scored before they are 12 months is because they haven’t finished developiing – their bones are still soft, their muscles and ligaments not fully developed so an xray cannot show a true picture. I presume he was xrayed because of some lameness – what did the vet say? Although HD is inherited, dogs from low hip scores can produce dogs with high hip scores and dogs from high hip scores can produce dogs with low hip scores because a certain amount of the cause is also environmental (exercise, diet, growth rates etc.) If the vet wasn’t overly concerned, he may well improve as he matures, especially if you take care not to over exercise – no loose running, regular walks on the lead (little and often). If he’s on a high protein puppy diet – take him off it and put him on a good quality adult food. Many puppy formulae encourage rapid growth which is not good for balanced development. You could also put him on glucosamine and chondroitin which will help st
