Hip Dysplasia and diet

[Gina Heitz <brier@oregonsbest.com>]

HI All,

I am on a Book Reading Group and this month Dr. Billinghurst is the guest 
author.  So I am sharing this with you:

Copyright Ian Billinghurst.

Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia, Osteochondritis. These diseases continue to
mount their attacks on young dogs, particularly the larger breeds, despite
mass radiography and culling. What are we doing wrong? Why do these problems
appear and reappear in supposedly disease free lines? Our failure to
eliminate Hip and Elbow Dysplasia compels us to ask . "Are our efforts
entirely misdirected?" Should we be looking elsewhere for a solution?
Are we barking up the wrong tree?

The answer is yes, most definitely. Most dogs that develop Hip and Elbow
Dysplasia, [or other juvenile skeletal diseases] are suffering from
completely avoidable problems. Most of the blame for these problems should
be laid at the door of incorrect nutrition and poor exercise regimes, rather
than 'bad' genes. Let me explain.

Unfortunately, what we vets DO NOT KNOW about Hip and Elbow Dysplasia,
far outweighs what we do know! Fortunately, there ARE answers. They are
found in the history of these diseases. Understanding that history allows
the basic causes of Hip and Elbow Dysplasia to leap out at us, making
solutions crystal clear. Ironically, those causes and those solutions have
stared us in the face for decades.

It is accepted "truth" that bad genes cause Hip and Elbow Dysplasia. We
assume that schemes to remove those genes shall produce dogs that will not
develop these diseases. Unfortunately, all attempts to remove these genes
have proved impossible. Yet nobody has asked - "exactly which genes are we
trying to eliminate?" Those genes have never been identified because nobody
is looking for them. And if we don't know which genes we are looking for,
what chance do we have of getting rid of them? And even if we could get rid
of them, would their elimination remove traits we actually wanted to keep?
DIET and EXERCISE play a vital role in bone development. In all the Hip
and Elbow Dysplasia schemes, nobody is asking what and how much did each dog
eat and how was each dog exercised while its bones were developing? Diet and
exercise are ignored as we assume they play no role in bone health. As we
assume that all radiographic abnormalities are caused only, by faulty
genes. We ignore basic biology and genetics which tell us this cannot be.
The role of diet and exercise in bone production is crucial. Diet and
exercise interact with genes, producing either sound or unsound bones
and joints. For any dog with skeletal disease, we must ask "what was the
relative contribution of genes, poor diet and inappropriate exercise?" If
diet and exercise were the major contributors, logic would dictate that
these must be the first areas we should look to when seeking a solution.
There is a more fundamental question. How long have these problems plagued
our dogs? Tens, hundreds or thousands of years? Are these diseases a new
phenomenon? The surprising answer is that these bone and joint abnormalities
are a product of the twentieth century. The story begins with the sudden
appearance of Hip Dysplasia in the 1930's when it was considered a rare
disease, unknown before that time!

By 1965, Hip and Elbow Dysplasia had been identified in 55 breeds of dogs
worldwide. They were now common problems. In just thirty years, the dog
world had experienced the sudden appearance and rapid spread of these and a
multitude of other skeletal problems, including shoulder, elbow, hock and
stifle dysplasia, all having gone from rare or non-existent, to exceedingly
common.

By 1950 it was standard "truth" that the causes of Hip and Elbow Dysplasia
were genetic. That "truth" has never been questioned despite all Hip and
Elbow Dysplasia elimination schemes [which rely on that "truth"], having
failed utterly! Both these problems remain, as serious and as prevalent and
as seemingly impossible to eliminate as ever.

If these diseases did not exist before the 1930's, where did they come from?
What caused them to appear and spread rapidly? Why are they now so common?
Basic biology dictates that a mass of bone wrecking genes, can not
suddenly appear in the dog population and spread like wild-fire - in two or
three decades - through most breeds of dogs, specifically targeting the
larger breeds. Those genes must always have been present, but not causing
any problems until the 1930's, when some environmental change occurred which
allowed these genes to express themselves.
We vets are not willing to face this possibility because we have developed,
[in conjunction with breeders], an enormous emotional and professional
investment in believing that the bone and joint problems in our young dogs
are caused by genes - alone - and can therefore ONLY be eliminated by
breeding.

We have produced a gargantuan juggernaut of an elimination scheme which
depends on mass radiography, highly questionable interpretations of same,
and wholesale culling to eliminate the genes which produce Hip and Elbow
Dysplasia. Unfortunately, this machine is making very little headway after
many decades of rolling roughshod over countless canine corpses which lie
strewn in its wake.

This begs the question. Does the failure of these schemes rule out genes as
the basic cause of these bone and joint problems? Not at all. Our fifty
years of futility clearly points to a major environmental change which
occured in the 1930's. This change allowed the genes which cause these
problems to express themselves. But what was that environmental change?
Fortunately, we do not have to look very far to discover the answer.
During the 1930's, the diet our dogs evolved to eat was drastically
changed. Until that time, most people fed their dogs an evolutionary type
diet of raw foods, whole foods and not a lot of grain. In the 1930's this
was replaced with masses of cooked grain plus meat and bone meal and
calcium supplements. The new diet lacked the raw whole animals - including
bones and organ meat - fish, birds and plants, feces and soil, dogs had
eaten for millions of years.

This change occurred during the depression of the 1930's. Dog owners were
looking for cheap alternatives to the fresh food they normally fed their
dogs. Astute businessmen of the day realising the enormous money-making
potential in the pet food market, obliged by changing the labels on
commercially produced pig, calf and poultry feeds and throwing in some extra
calcium.

For the first time in millions of years of canine evolution, our dogs were
deprived of fresh whole raw foods and forced to eat a diet based on masses
of cooked grain, meat meal and bone meal together with artificial calcium
rather than raw bones. That massive dietary change occurred in conjunction
with a more aggressive approach to exercise.
These changes, and most especially the dietary change, proved to be the
ideal set of conditions to allow certain genes to express themselves in the
form of skeletal disease.

Modern commercial dog foods have changed very little. However, there is now
an enormous body of evidence that this catastrophic change in food [and
exercise] wreaked havoc on our dogs' bones and joints, particularly the
larger and giant breeds, whose genetic makeup renders them particularly
susceptible to these changes.

The new starchy diet, [designed to support the rapid growth and fattening
of livestock], produced accelerated growth rates and obesity in our pups.
Their rapidly increasing weight outstripped the ability of their soft
young bones to support them. High starch resulted in damaging hormonal
changes which wreaked further havoc on bone growth. Nutritional excesses and
deficiencies, together with a total loss of protective nutrients found only
in fresh whole raw foods added further insult to bone growth. Excessive
artificial calcium added further problems. Throw in excessive exercise to
traumatise and re-shape these soft badly growing bones, and we have the
perfect conditions for skeletal disease in young dogs.

These problems were particularly noted in the larger, faster growing, more
poorly muscled, more obese, and poorly engineered breeds.
As you can see, the causes behind Hip and Elbow Dysplasia are much more than
genetic! But what about the genes? If genes are the basis of the problem,
why has the attempted removal of these genes failed to fix the problem? The
answer is, simple. We have not fixed the problem because the genes have not
been removed.

Despite years of not breeding from dogs which demonstrated faulty skeletal
structure [according to radiographic evidence], and only breeding from dogs
with [relatively] sound bones and joints, [according to radiographic
evidence], the genes which cause those problems still remain. Why? because
nobody has asked- "which genes are we trying to eliminate?"
The genes we must eliminate are very well known. They appear in most
articles dealing with Hip and Elbow Dysplasia but nobody has recognised them
as such.

The genes which pre-dispose for skeletal problems in our young dogs are the
genes which code for large size, fast growth rate, small muscles, great
obesity, and finally genes that code for poor engineering.
Could it be that simple? Yes it could. That simple and that dificult. The
major difficulty is that these genes also happen to code for the very
distinctive characteristics of each and every breed.
The genes we want to eliminate to solve the bone and joint problems are
the exact same genes we want to keep! To retain our breeds in their
recognisable form, most of the genes which pre-dispose to skeletal disease
are the genes we must not remove!

This makes any attempt using a genetic solution, an exercise in futility.
To solve the problem of bone and joint disease in our young dogs, We have to
re-visist the basic underlying factors which caused these problems to
appear in the 1930's. These are the factors we must eliminate.
The key to eliminating skeletal disease in our dogs is found in diet and
exercise which [happily] are the two factors over which each breeder and
dog owner can have maximum control.

We must return our dogs to their evolutionary diet and their evolutionary
exercise regime. Of greatest importance is to find modern foods that are
equivalent in nutritional terms to the evolutionary diet. This is simple.
An evolutionary diet is based on 50 to 60 percent raw meaty bones, 20 to 30
percent raw crushed vegetables and fruit, ten percent offal, no artificial
calcium, together with simple additives such as kelp, flax meal, cod liver
oil and yoghurt. This diet is not to be fed in enormous amounts. Pups are
grown slowly, as nature intended. Enough is fed to ensure that the pups grow
at about 60 to 70 percent of their maximum growth rate.

Exercise along evolutionary lines is vital. Bones require normal stresses
for normal growth. Neither too much nor too little.
The only "bone healthy" exercise for juvenile dogs is PLAY. Plenty of play,
not rough play, but play where the puppy stops as soon as it becomes tired.
Until the bones are mature, that is the only exercise that should be
allowed - as Nature/God/Evolution intended.

Raised this way, no matter what genes they have inherited, the vast majority
of pups will grow sound and healthy with little or no trace of Hip and Elbow
Dysplasia. However, a few pups will still develop skeletal problems. These
pups have directly acting genes. Genes that express themselves no matter
what the diet or the exercise. Now is the time to kill or cull the animal
that carries them.

Should we still radiograph our dogs ? Yes! By combining a radiographic
programme with sound management, we will maximise the chance of raising
sound pups, and eliminate any genes directly responsible for causing
skeletal problems, while keeping most of our predisposing genes, so as to
maintain our breed characteristics.

In a nutshell, pups, must be grown slowly, kept slim, without artificial
calcium supplements, on an evolutionary type diet, high in raw meaty bones.
Until the pup's bones are mature, the only exercise that should be allowed
is play with age and size matched peers. This will produce normal stresses
allowing normal growth.

These are simple but powerful tools. They have kept dogs' skeletons sound
for millions of years. Employing them will eliminate most Juvenile Bone
Disease, no matter what "nasty" genes are present.

Are you barking up the wrong tree when it comes to producing sound skeletons
in young dogs? Think carefully before dismissing the ideas in this article.
To not use those simple but profoundly effective tools, can make breeding
and rearing dogs a difficult and painful exercise, and very costly from a
monetary, an emotional and a genetic loss point of view.

For more detailed information about feeding and exercising young dogs
according to evolutionary principles, may I suggest you read my book "Grow
Your Pups With Bones."