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ORTHOPEDIC PROBLEMS IN HOCKS - Revised 2007
by Fred Lanting
Copyright August, 2007 -
(as printed in Mastiff Reporter, 1995; revised 2007 for SiriusDog.com and other media)
Osteochondrosis is a term applied to a number of similar disorders of the joints where bone (osteo-) and cartilage (chondro-) are involved. If they are inflamed we use the term osteochondritis. It is now a fairly common diagnosis in young limping dogs, the defects being found in one or more of those joints I named above. The hock joint is what corresponds to our ankle and first short bones in the foot, though the dog does not walk on the heel as we do. In the hock, the large bone of the lower thigh (tibia) rests mainly on the tibial tarsal bone, also known as the talus. The common specific expression of osteochondrosis in the hock is OCD (osteochondritis dissecans), which means, as it does in the shoulder and the elbow, a small piece of cartilage or bone has come loose in the joint of a young dog and is causing irritation and inflammation.
INCIDENCE OF OCD
Sweden's Dr. S.E. Olsson reported on 51 dogs with hock ailments, 48 of which had a diagnosis of OCD of the hock, and the other 3 having osteoarthritis in the joint but no real sign of OCD. In all but one of the 48, the site of this osteochondrosis defect was associated with the rear part of the medial (toward the middle) ridge of this bone. Labrador Retrievers made up 23 of these dogs in Olsson's 1984 group, with 10 Rottweilers, 6 Golden Retrievers, and smaller numbers of Beagle, Newfoundland, Schnauzer, GSD, Bouvier, and Welsh Springer also being included. Ten had lesions in both hocks. About half the flaps or mice were all cartilage, and 25% each were bone or both, the bone sometimes being formed by ossification rather than being pulled off. As in OCD of the other joints, this one begins with a defect in cartilage rather than a fissure in bone.
In Australia, OCD of the hock is also seen in Bull Terriers.In conversations with radiologists at Auburn University, I was told that they see tibial-tarsal OCD most predominantly in Rottweilers, a breed they also connect frequently with OCD of the humeral head and even panosteitis.
In a later study of 89 dogs, Olsson concluded that “osteochondrosis of the hock does not show the same preponderance for the male sex” as seen in other joints. He surmised that this difference was connected with the fact that hock lesions are much more associated with a history of trauma. Heritability, therefore, may be lower for this ailment than for others. However, before you get confused between heritability and inheritance, you may want to read my new book on orthopedic disorders, unfortunately not yet in print as of the time of this article's publication. For now, suffice it to say that they are not the same: heritability is a description of how environment can influence the expression of genes, and inheritance refers to the actual chemical structures we call genes being replicated and passed along in the formation of sperm and egg cells.
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Fred Lanting is an internationally respected show judge, approved by many registries as an all-breed judge, has judged numerous countries’ Sieger Shows and Landesgruppen events, and has many years experience with SV. He presents seminars and consults worldwide on such topics as Gait-&-Structure, HD and Other Orthopedic Disorders, Anatomy, Training Techniques, and The GSD. He conducts annual non-profit sightseeing tours of Europe, centered on the Sieger Show (biggest breed show in the world) and BSP.
All Things Canine -- consulting division, Willow Wood Services Phone: 256-498-3319 Fax: 256-498-3311 E-mail mr.gsd@netscape.com
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