Bone and Joint

Disease
In Young Dogs
Are we Barking up the Wrong Tree?
Dr Ian Billinghurst
Bone And Joint Disease In Young Dogs
Are We Barking Up The Wrong Tree?
The following article is copyrighted to Ian Billinghurst
Introduction
Since the middle of the twentieth century,veterinarians, breeders and dog
owners have struggled with a growing problem in young dogs. According to
renowned Australian veterinarian Dr Tom Hungerford, problems such as Hip
and Elbow Dysplasia frst came to the attention of the veterinary profession
in 1935. Interestingly, it was at this time that processed pet foods for dogs,
most particularly the dry foods were becoming the nutritional mainstay for
many dog breeders. Tis was particularly so in the case of the large and giant
breeds. Ten as now, economic considerations pushed breeders towards these
products.
At the time, it was observed that particular breeds and particular individuals
within those breeds were more likely to develop bone and joint problems as
they grew. Te obvious conclusion was that these orthopaedic problems had
a genetic basis. Logically therefore, those individuals and those breeds that
displayed these problems must carry the unwanted genes. Given that the dogs
with these genes were generally crippled for life, the way forward seemed
obvious.
All young dogs would have their hips and/or elbows radio-graphed. Tese
radiographs would then be assessed by a panel of experts. Tose animals with
the unwanted genes would be readily identifed and they would be neutered.
Problem solved.
Problem NOT Solved!
After six decades of attempting to remove the genes involved in skeletal
disease in young pups, almost zero success has been achieved. Despite
enormous eforts using radiography and culling, Hip Dysplasia, Elbow
Dysplasia and other related conditions regularly appear in individuals from
supposedly sound lines. Tis battle against bone and joint disease in young
dogs is a war that is not being won. Te question is - why not?
Heads Firmly Buried in the Sand
By 1950 it had become standard truth that because the underlying cause
of problems such as Hip Dysplasia is genetic, seeking solutions to these
problems elsewhere would be a futile exercise. Tat basic truth has never
been questioned despite the fact that all methods to eliminate skeletal disease
which have relied on that truth, have failed utterly! Tese problems are as
prevalent and as bad as they have ever been, if not worse, particularly in breeds
such as the Newfoundland, the Labrador Retriever, the Rottweiler, German
Shepherd etc, where they remain, as serious and as prevalent and as seemingly
impossible to eliminate as ever.
Our Basic Premise - is it Correct?
If the original hypothesis, that problems such as hip and elbow dysplasia have
a heritable basis is correct, why are we not winning this war. Could it be that
our basic premise or hypothesis is incorrect or maybe only partially correct?
Radiographs Presented a Confusing Picture
When frst attempting to identify individuals carrying the genes for hip
and elbow dysplasia, the veterinary imaging experts quickly discovered that
radiographs were not going to give easy answers. Teir radiographs did not
necessarily correlate with the clinical picture.
Tere were dogs that were clinically normal and yet radiographs of their hips
revealed extreme dysplasia. On the other hand there were dogs that could
hardly walk because of severe hip problems and yet radiographs revealed what
appeared to be perfectly normal hips.
Another problem was the lack of a clear cut-of point. Instead of a yes or a
no, there is a problem or there is not a problem, what they observed was
a gradation from ultra-normal joints to ultra-abnormal and everything in
between. It was clear that skeletal disease in young dogs is not an all or
nothing situation.
More than one Gene?
Geneticists attempted to explain all this with the possibility that the
development of Hip and Elbow Dysplasia was dependent upon the interplay
of numerous genes. In other words, to eliminate these problems entirely
involves eliminating numerous genes from the dog population. However, it
soon became clear that the problem was even more complex. Tese problems
involved a lot more than a set of bad genes.
Beyond Genes
It was eventually realised that the problem also involved environmental
factors; things such as the diet and the exercise a young dog is subjected to
during those critical days, months and years of its growth. In other words
there are numerous factors other than genes, which can infuence the degree of
health or ill health existing in any given joint.
Genotype X Environment = Phenotype
Tere is no question that modern veterinary science fully understands that
diet and exercise play a vital role in bone production. Despite this, the experts
involved in the hip and elbow dysplasia eradication schemes continue to
work on the hypothesis that any deviation from normal (as observed on the
radiographs), is one hundred percent due to faulty genes. In fact basic high
school biology and frst year university genetics tell us this cannot be so. To use
standard geneticists jargon: Phenotype does not necessarily equal genotype.
In other words, what you see (the so-called phenotype) either in the
dog or as demonstrated radio-graphically, does not necessarily refect
a genetic cause only.
What is the Role of Diet and Exercise?
Given our understanding of the role of environment (diet and exercise) and
given the abysmal failure of these schemes, it is clear that we are not asking
a very obvious question: How much infuence did diet and exercise and how
much infuence did the genes have in producing this dogs skeletal system?
And this should be a question that we ask, not only of dogs with poorly
developed skeletal systems, but also of those with sound bones and joints.
Not a single breeder involved in these schemes is ever asked to produce a
record of exactly what food and how much of it was eaten during the period
the pups bones were developing. Te other vital question being ignored is:
How was this pup exercised while its bones were developing? Tese two
vital factors in bone development are not even considered an issue by
authorities attempting to deal with Hip and Elbow Dysplasia.
We also need to ask: Which Genes?
Another aspect of the dilemma surrounding the origins of Hip and Elbow
Dysplasia is that the genes causing these skeletal diseases have never been
identifed. In fact nobody is even looking for them. Tis is a question we shall
return to shortly.
Getting back to First Principles
If we take ourselves back to when these bone diseases frst appeared, or were
frst recognized, we fnd they have only been with us a short time. Tey are
a product of the twentieth century. Hip Dysplasia appeared suddenly in the
1930s. It was virtually unknown before that time. However, by 1965, Hip
Dysplasia was regarded as exceedingly common and had been identifed in 55
breeds of dogs worldwide. During that very short period of time we also saw
the appearance and rapid spread of a multitude of other skeletal problems.
Tese included shoulder, elbow, hock and stife dysplasia, all of which in
just a few decades went from rare or previously non-existent, to exceedingly
common.
If these problems did not exist before the 1930s,
where did they come from?
High school biology says it unlikely a mass of bone and joint wrecking genes
should suddenly appear in the dog population in the 1930s and then spread
like wild-fre through almost all breeds of dogs.
Clearly, the genes responsible for these bone and joint problems in our young
dogs must have always been present. Present, but not expressing themselves as
disease until the 1930s.
Why did these genes choose to begin expressing themselves
in the 1930s?
Tis is a question we vets are not asking. Instead of seeking and eliminating
the factor or factors which have allowed these genes to express themselves
as skeletal disease since that time, we have concentrated on getting rid of the
genes.
It is about Time we Asked the Question
What calamitous environmental change occurred during the 1930s that
allowed previously dormant genes to suddenly wreak joint and skeletal havoc in
practically all breeds of dogs?
Fortunately, we do not have to look very far to discover the answer to this
canine conundrum.
Dietary Change Solves the Puzzle
It was during the 1930s that the diet our dogs evolved to eat was drastically
changed. Until that time, the food people fed their dogs had remained
substantially unchanged for thousands of years. With local and temporal
variations, this was a diet based on the scraps from the masters table,
together with the dogs instinctive ability to hunt and scavenge.
Tis meant that the canine diet up to the mid 1930s had consisted of
whatever scraps fell from the masters table together with and including
bones, rats and mice, scraps of meat and vegetables and other delicacies such
as organ meat, carrion, ingesta, vomit, feces, soil and so on.
Tat traditional diet was totally lost to our dog population and virtually
replaced over-night during the 1930s. Te new diet that took its place was
cooked and grain based, it contained added calcium and protein in a form
totally foreign to the canine digestive system - blood and bone meal. It totally
lacked the raw meaty bones, the organ meat, the ingesta, the crushed and
fermenting vegetable material and all the other raw whole elements dogs had
eaten for millions of years. Clearly, this new diet, suddenly thrust upon them,
was a radical departure from what our canine friends were designed to eat.
The Great Depression
Tis diet change was a consequence of the great depression of the 1930s. At
this time dog owners were seeking cheaper alternatives to the fresh food, the
bones and the scraps they normally fed their dogs. All of this had been diverted
to become part of the human food chain. Teir search led many dog owners to
grain based stock feed - material designed for cattle, pigs and poultry.
Astute businessmen working in the grain and stock-feed world began adding
crushed bone meal and/or calcium carbonate and meat meal to stock foods,
changed the label, and called them dog foods. Grain waste, worthless rubbish
from the production of human food became the major component of pet
food and to this day there has been little change in that basic composition of
commercial pet foods.
A Sudden and Dramatic Change in Diet
For the frst time in millions of years, dogs were deprived of fresh whole raw
foods and began eating masses of cooked grain together with heat damaged
fat and protein, plus artifcial calcium. A cooked and grain based diet, high in
carbohydrates and low in protein is completely foreign to a species designed to
thrive on fresh whole raw foods with plenty of meat and bones.
Dogs were being fed a high carbohydrate diet designed to support the rapid
growth and fattening of livestock. Tis diet allowed the larger breeds of dogs to
grow more rapidly and at the same time produced subtle changes in their bone
growth. Te bones were softer and more easily damaged.
Exercise
Fast growth, combined with excessive exercise to traumatize and re-shape soft
poor quality bones has the potential to produce skeletal disease, particularly
in the larger, faster growing, more poorly muscled, more obese, and poorly
engineered breeds.
Veterinary Profession Asleep
Because this drastic change of diet has wreaked such havoc on the bones and
joints of our dogs, it would seem sensible to get rid of the new diet rather than
the genes. Particularly as our attempts to remove those genes has been an
utter failure. Unfortunately, the veterinary profession has not recognized any
of this.
Nor has the veterinary profession specifed the genes which need to be
eliminated and yet most of those genes are well known.
And the Genes Responsible?
Tey are the genes coding for large size, fast growth rate, small muscles, great
obesity and poor engineering. Unfortunately, these genes which predispose an
animal to skeletal disease, also code for the distinctive characteristics of each
and every breed prone to skeletal diseases.
Tese are the genes we continually select for as we maintain the
characteristics of each breed.
It makes little sense to both select for and eliminate the same genes within
the one breeding programme. To eliminate skeletal problems such as Hip
and Elbow Dysplasia, it would make much more sense to remove the modern
skeleton damaging programme of diet and exercise and replace it with the
dogs evolutionary programme of diet and exercise.
To Mimic The Evolutionary Diet Is Very Simple.
Pups require a diet with 60 to 70 percent raw meaty bones (with the bones
being approximately half of the bone/meat portion), 20 percent - low glycaemic
index - crushed green leafy vegetables and fruit (with the vegetables being at
least 80 percent of this part of the mix), 10 percent ofal, no added artifcial
calcium, together with simple additives such as kelp, alfalfa, yogurt, eggs, cod
liver oil and garlic.
Te additives should make up no more than about 10 and preferably only 5
percent of the diet. Tis diet is not to be fed in enormous amounts. Enough is
fed to ensure that the pups grow at about 60 to 70 percent of their maximum
growth rate. In other words, we grow the pups slowly, and we keep them SLIM
as nature intended.
Evolutionary Exercise
Te evolutionary programme of exercise is simple the pups should play with
age and size matched pups. Play allows the pup to stop whenever it becomes
tired or sore; preferably BEFORE it becomes tired or sore.
It is only when a dogs bones are mature that it should become involved in
rough play with larger dogs, to hunt or to chase or to be involved in exercises
which involve jumping or extended running etc. In other words our young dogs
should be protected from any exercise that will traumatize young, growing,
soft and vulnerable bones and joints. Tat can mean being barred from
continual stair climbing, particularly the large heavy breeds.
When these simple ideas of diet and exercise are followed, most
juvenile orthopedic problems in our dogs, including Hip and Elbow
Dysplasia completely disappear.
We Need a Fresh Start
If the western world could faithfully follow such a simple regime as designed
by evolution and built into their genetic profle vast numbers of dogs, quite
capable of developing skeletal disease, would grow sound and strong, as they
did before we fed them with growth food for livestock, and exercised them as if
they were adults.
The Genes that Must Go!
If we faithfully follow the above regime and individuals do develop skeletal
problems, such dogs have genes that cause skeletal problems no matter what
the diet or the exercise regime. Tese genes are not predisposing genes, they
are directly acting genes and as such they have to go. Te animals carrying
these directly acting genes should be eliminated from the breeding programme.
In a Nutshell ...
... To avoid most forms of skeletal disease in our young pups, puppies must
be grown slowly, kept slim, without artifcial calcium supplements, on an
evolutionary type diet, high in raw meaty bones, ofal and vegetables. Teir
exercise must consist only of play, not rough play, but play where the puppy
stops as soon as it becomes tired.
Tese are the simple but powerful tools which have kept dogs
skeletons sound for millions of years.
Tese tools are available today to any dog owner or breeder who cares to use
them. Tey have the power to make most Juvenile Bone Disease in young dogs
of any breed a thing of the past.
How To Wreck your Pups Bones ...
It must be stressed that pet owners and breeders can distort this simple
scheme of diet and exercise and they usually do so in the following ways
1) Tey feed some form of artifcial grain based junk food just to
be sure. If that is the case all bets are of. Te simple answer is: Stop the
artifcial food!
2) Tey concentrate on feeding the additives, which then become a major
part of the diet. Tey have not realized that the additives can mostly be left
out. In fact when pet owners strike problems, the frst advice they receive is to
stop feeding all additives. Get the dog back to basics, a diet based on raw meaty
bones!
3) Tey feed plenty of raw meaty bones, but for a number of reasons
this becomes mostly meat and not enough bone. Tis can happen when
the raw meaty bones are mostly chicken necks. Chicken necks, very often,
do not have much substantial bone, being mostly unmineralized cartilage.
Another cause of too much meat and not enough bone is where the owner
simply adds heaps of meat to the diet.
No matter how it is done, these dogs are sufering
a calcium defciency.
The Simple Rule Of Thumb ...
... Is that the bulk of the diet MUST be composed of raw meaty bones where
at least ffty percent and up to seventy percent of the meat and bone mix is
composed of substantial bone.
Troubleshooting
Tere are two common problems encountered by BARF feeders with large and
giant breed pups.
1) Te pup begins to splay its feet, drop its hocks or become cow-
hocked etc. Tere are two common possibilities as to the cause and the
solution.
Firstly, the dog may require a chiropractic adjustment. Do have this possibility
checked out by a competent animal chiropractor.
Te other common possibility is that the dog is calcium defcient. In either case
the diet should be thoroughly scrutinized to see whether the bulk of the diet
does consist of raw meaty bones. If not, adjust the diet accordingly. Te type
of bone is also important. Te bone portion of the diet must be composed of
actual substantial bone. If not, adjust the mix accordingly.
Make sure that excessive supplements are not being fed. If they are, reduce the
supplements to no more than fve percent of the diet.
Finally, make sure the dog is actually eating the bone and not just the meat.
2) Te pup which looks fantastic except perhaps it appears slightly
over weight begins to limp. Usually on a front leg as these carry more
weight than the hind legs.
Veterinary examination will reveal pain on pressure to the anconeal process
(part of the elbow joint), possibly on fexion of the carpus (wrist), and possibly
on pressure applied to the point of the shoulder. Tis pup is developing
osteochondrosis.
When a dog exhibits these symptoms it is an emergency situation.
If the following regime of treatment is not instituted immediately, and then
strictly adhered too, disaster will almost certainly follow for the bones and
joints in question, and therefore the dog. On the other hand, if the programme
is instituted immediately, followed rigorously, and in its entirety, success is
almost completely assured. Let me re-emphasize that success will not be the
case if the dog is allowed to limp for weeks.
Te following treatment regime must be set in place immediately.
No one: Complete Cage/Crate Rest
Tis must be instituted immediately. Te only circumstance where the dog is
allowed out of the cage is to go to the bathroom. And even then the dog must
be walked on a lead.
No Two: Complete Cessation Of The Previous Diet
No matter what it was!
No three: feed crushed green leafy vegetables
Tese will be the only food that you feed this pup for the next indeterminate
period!
Doubtless the dog will not eat for two or three days. Tis is not a worry
because all of these dogs have been overfed. Overfeeding is always part of the
cause of this problem. Once that pup starts to eat it may eat as much crushed
green leafy vegetable material as it likes. Feed as wide a variety of vegetables as
possible together with small amounts of low glycaemic fruit.
Tese pups are going to lose weight. However, this will take longer than
you think. Te vast majority of these pups will become sound usually
within a week to ten days if the owner is prepared to ruthlessly follow the
programme. However, even if the pup appears sound after ten days on this
vegetable only diet, it is not yet fxed. Te problem is still there. If a puppy in
this state is exercised at this point in time it will become lame once again.
It may take up to three months to create a sound pup. Even then,
excessive weight gain, excessive exercise or the addition of too much
bone or fat or meat could create problems.
Once the pup is sound, and has remained sound for at least two weeks,
tiny amounts of raw meaty bones can be added back into the diet. From this
point onwards, rigorous attention must be paid to keeping the diet at around
seventy fve to ninety percent green leafy vegetables and low glycaemic index
fruit. Tis is a programme that is best carried out with the aid of a BARF
friendly vet who fully understands this programme of treatment.
Radiographs are Important!
It is important to keep radio-graphing our dogs for soundness! By combining a
radiographic programme with sound management, we will not only maximize
the chance of raising sound pups, we will also eliminate any genes which
directly cause skeletal problems as opposed to those that merely predispose to
skeletal problems.
Attention Breeders and Puppy Buyers
Let me encourage readers who are involved with breeding, rearing and
owning young dogs, particularly the giant breeds, to think seriously about
the information presented in this article. It is my hope that you will decide
to take your dogs forward to a healthy future by feeding yesterdays diet, the
evolutionary diet; the only diet that dogs were designed to eat.
Te evolutionary diet is the only diet that ensures skeletal health while
simultaneously producing a lifetime that is free of most other health problems.
Learn More
If you would like more information about feeding and exercising your dog
according to evolutionary principles, may I suggest you read my two books:
Give Your Dog a Bone and Grow Your Pups With Bones. Te latter book
explains in much greater detail the story I have briefy outlined in this article
concerning the causes of skeletal disease(s) in young dogs.
A Trouble Free Approach
For a trouble free approach to rearing pups,
why not take advantage of the Dr Bs range
of prepared foods for dogs.
All foods in the range
are suitable for puppies.
However, if the pup is growing too rapidly,
think about Dr Bs Roo or Dr Bs BARF Lite.
If the situation has progressed to the point
where the dog is lame and in pain, then
please follow the treatment regime as
explained earlier in the article.
Consultancy Service
If you would like personalised assistance with a growth problem in your pup,
please go to the consultancy drop-down panel on the home page and follow the
prompts.

Suitable
For
Puppies!
Dr Bs BARF
The Original Genuine and Best