Incidence of osteochondrosis in dogs and its late diagnosis

An incidence of osteochondrosis in dogs from the total number of 38 126 pat ients treated in the Clinic of Surgery and Orthopedics at University of Vet erinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno from 1989 till the end of Octob er 1998 is reviewed. A total of 112 dogs (i.e., 0.3% of the patients) were diagnosed and treated surgically for osteochondrosis. The incidence of oste ochondrosis in individual joints was as follows: 85 dogs with osteochondros is in the shoulder joint (i.e., 75.9% of patients suffering from osteochond rosis), 18 dogs (16.1%) with osteochondrosis in the stifle joint, 5 cases ( 4.4%) in the hock and 4 cases (3.6%) in the elbow joint. Bilateral affectio ns of the shoulder, hock, and stifle joints were found in 24.7%, 20.0% and 16.7% of patients, respectively. There were no cases of bilateral affection s in the elbow joint. Special attention has been given to the age of patien ts at the time of disease diagnosis. An alarming percentage of late diagnos is of affections in the stifle joint (55.6% of patients older than 12 month s) and the shoulder (20.0% of dogs older than 1 year) was found, as well. T he highest age, at which osteochondrosis had been diagnosed, was 90 months. The most frequently affected breeds in our study were: Bouvier des Flandre s (15.8%), Irish Wolfhound (8.9%), English Setter (7.1%), Retriever (4.7%), Rottweiler (4.4%), Brazilian Fila (3.7%), Bernese Mountain Dog (3.6%), Dal matian (2.2%), Boxer (1.7%) and Great Dane (1.7%). The breed predisposition was confirmed statistically using chi(2)-test (p < 0.01). In contrast to p ublished data, breed predisposition of German Shepherd to osteochondrosis h as not been confirmed at 5% level of significance (chi(2)-test).