Health Schemes & Clinical Studies

Below are a list of helpful links concerning the health & wellbeing of the Labrador Retriever

VETERINARY CLINICAL STUDIES 02 - 07

DIVISION OF SMALL ANIMAL CLINICAL STUDIES - 2002

The Small Animal Orthopaedic department of Glasgow University Veterinary School currently sees a large number of dogs with orthopaedic conditions. A sizable proportion of our current caseload involves treating young and old Labradors with debilitating conditions such as cranial cruciate ligament rupture, and elbow and hip dysplasia's.

We have advanced imaging modalities, such as computerised tomography, nuclear scintgraphy and arthroscopy to aid in the diagnoses and treatment of these conditions. However, we are aware that the current treatments for many of these conditions do not result in complete return to normal function for the affected dog.

To characterise the effects of these conditions, we are currently investigating the gait of normal and lame dogs using a motorised treadmill, which allows video analysis of the joint angle and speed of joint movement in dogs at walk and trot, and a force plate, which allows the measurement of the forces transmitted by the limb during walk and trot. We have already successfully characterised the gait of normal Greyhounds using this equipment and are currently doing the same assessments of the healthy Labrador.

Once this work is completed, we hope to assess our current standard treatments in Labradors with orthopaedic disease, and use these techniques to compare new treatments as they become available. This research should significantly improve the general health and welfare of Labradors both in Scotland, and the rest of the world.

Professor Stuart Carmichael BVMS, MVM, DSAO, MRCVSHead of the Small Animal Hospital
RCVS Specialist & Diplomat in Small Animal Orthopaedics

Dylan Neil Clements BSc, BVSc, CertSAS MRCVS Resident in Small Animal Orthopaedics

No matter how much we study pedigrees, carefully select our Stud dogs and take time and care when rearing our puppies, we can unfortunately still find ourselves as the breeders of a puppy with Hip or Elbow Dysplasia or perhaps Cranial Cruciate Ligament Rupture. Most cases can be helped or eased by surgery but many will never gain complete soundness of movement. Dylan Neil Clements of the Glasgow University Clinical Studies department approached our Club for test subjects who had never in their life been treated for any form of lameness. The main objectives of our Club has always been to promote and encourage the well being and interests of the Labrador Retriever and we were delighted to be of assistance in this study.

DIVISION OF SMALL ANIMAL CLINICAL STUDIES - 2003

Following the kind help provided by the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, Forfar and Mairi Brown of Ramsayville Labradors, we have recently be able to characterise the gait of young, healthy Labrador retrievers during treadmill locomotion. The results of our studies showed that Labradors do not run with a repeatable gait pattern during treadmill locomotion, and thus the treadmill has limited value for the investigation of lameness within this breed. This was a significant finding, as it means that we must now concentrate on other methods of gait analysis to assess the outcome of Labradors following treatment for orthopaedic problems.

For our next study, we would like your help! The incidence of elbow dysplasia (elbow arthritis/elbow osteochondrosis/coranoid disease), cruciate ligament (knee ligament damage) disease and hip dysplasia (hip arthritis) with the Labrador breed is high. Unfortunately, nobody knows the exact proportion of the Labrador population who get these diseases, at which age's dogs are most susceptible to these diseases, or how completely dogs recover from these diseases. Unless we can get answers to these questions, reducing the incidence these debilitating conditions will be impossible.

With your assistance, we could become the first veterinary-breeder partnership to provide answers to these questions, setting an example for other breed societies. We have designed a single page, anonymous questionnaire, enclosed with your yearbook or available by contacting us at the above address. If you could take the time to fill this in and return it to us in the postage paid envelope we would greatly appreciate it, even if your dogs are healthy and have not suffered any of the diseases listed. We hope to present the results to you in the near future. Together, we can improve the welfare of Labradors in Scotland.

Professor Stuart Carmichael BVMS, MVM, DSAO, MRCVS Head of the Small Animal Hospital RCVS Specialist & Diplomat in Small Animal Orthopaedics

Dylan Neil Clements BSc, BVSc, Cert SAS, MRCVS
Resident in Small Animal Orthopaedics

DIVISION OF SMALL ANIMAL CLINICAL STUDIES - 2004

First of all may we thank the many members of the Labrador club of Scotland who took the time and trouble to reply to last years study. The response rate (29%) was exceptional, and provided us with a large amount of data.

In total, we gathered information about 551 dogs. Of these: 18 dogs had elbow dysplasia or arthritis, 19 dogs had hip dysplasia or arthritis and 30 dogs had knee ligament problems or arthritis. Operations were performed on 7 dogs with elbow disease, 24 dogs with knee disease and 1 dog with hip disease. Continuous medication was required in 8 dogs with elbows affected, 3 dogs with knees affected and 12 dogs with hips affected. The overall risk that your dog could have any of the diseases we recorded was 11%.

We concluded that requirement for continuous medication was greatest with hip disease and elbow disease and lowest with knee disease. Our results imply that elbow and hip disease are more debilitating to dogs in the long term (as assessed by the requirement for continuous medication), compared to surgically treated knee disease.

We hope to present the full results of this study to the British Small Animal Veterinary Association in April. This is study has given us vitally important information regarding each of these diseases which will benefit countless Labradors in times to come. The next stage of our research is to completely assess dogs with hip dysplasia or hip osteoarthritis with a more thorough questionnaire. If your Labrador has had hip dysplasia, and you would be interested in participating in this study, please contact us at the addresses above and we will send you out the information. Once again, many thanks for all your help, and best wishes to you and your dogs for 2004.

DIVISION OF SMALL ANIMAL CLINICAL STUDIES - 2006

Our studies into the development and management of hip dysplasia in Labrador retrievers have progressed well this year. We are now focussing on the outcome of dogs (primarily Labrador retrievers) who have been managed medically for this debilitating condition.

It is believed worldwide that dogs with severe hip dysplasia which are managed using exercise restriction, painkilling medication and weight optimisation have a good outcome. But what is a good outcome? Is it just your dog not being in pain? Or is the amount of exercise your dog does and how your dog behaves just as important? No studies to date have addressed these questions.

At the University of Glasgow Veterinary School we have contacted the owner of every dog presented to us with hip dysplasia in the last 13 years. Using a questionnaire, we have identified that many of these dogs still experience pain, cannot do normal amounts of exercise, and require daily medication for the treatment of their condition. Thanks to the help of dedicated owners, we are examining as many of these dogs as we can to try and confirm dog owners' observations with those of veterinary surgeons. This study will allow us to develop an accurate questionnaire and clinical examination to assess dogs with hip dysplasia, so that we may optimise their medical management, or determine when surgery is most likely to be beneficial. Mouth swabs from many of these dogs are also being taken for storage in the UK DNA Archive for Companion Animals, so that in the future, analysis of possible genes that may cause of hip dysplasia can be performed.

If your dog has hip dysplasia, and you would be interested in taking part in this study, please contact your veterinary surgeon who can arrange for your dog to be seen by us.

Professor Stuart Carmichael BVMS, MVM, DSAO, MRCVS Head of the Small Animal Hospital RCVS Specialist & Diplomat in Small Animal Orthopaedics

Luke Arnott BVSc, CertSAS, MRCVS
Resident in Small Animal Orthopaedics

Dylan Neil Clements BSc, BVSc, DSAS(Orth), DipECVS, MRCVS Research Assistant in canine genomics, The Universityof Manchester

DIVISION OF SMALL ANIMAL CLINICAL STUDIES - 2007

Another year passes and we are finally seeing progress in our understanding of why dogs develop orthopaedic diseases and the long term effects of these diseases on clinically affected dogs. Thanks to research completed by Mike Farrell at Glasgow University, we now know that nearly all dogs diagnosed with hip dysplasia when young still have painful hips later in life, and many of these dogs will also develop other orthopaedic conditions in addition to their hip problems. Nearly half of the dogs diagnosed with and affected by hip dysplasia will require continuous medication later in life because they show signs of pain. Contrary to what we previously understood, hip dysplasia is a condition which affects dogs for their lifetime.

At the other end of the research spectrum, research performed by Dylan Clements at the University of Liverpool has helped characterise which molecules are changed in canine osteoarthritis. He has discovered that a number of molecules which are changed in cartilage from dogs with hip dysplasia are the same as those changed in cartilage from humans with osteoarthritis. Hence there is a real chance that by finding out the cause hip osteoarthritis in dogs, we can also help their owners!

Sadly, however, many questions remain unanswered. For example, does exercise affect the likelihood that your Labrador will develop elbow dysplasia, hip dysplasia or cranial cruciate ligament disease and if so, how much exercise is good or bad? How is diet related to these conditions? Can we predict which dogs will develop hip or elbow problems from the way they walk? To date, no studies have addressed these questions, which is why we would invite you to participate in our latest study. We would like to follow a group of Labrador Retrievers from the moment they are born to the end of their lives to try and understand what lifestyle factors will affect whether they develop diseases or not. If we can recruit enough participants we may be able to answer some of these important questions which will again help us understand why dogs develop many of these diseases. We hope to commence the study in early 2008, so if you are interested in participating, please contact us by e-mail; dylan.clements@ed.ac.uk

Dylan Neil Clements BSc, BVSc, DSAS(Orth), DipECVS, MRCVS BBSRC Scholar in Canine Genomics, The University of Liverpool ECVS Specialist in Small Animal Surgery

Professor Stuart Carmichael BVMS, MVM, DSAO, MRCVS Associate Dean of Clinical Services RCVS Specialist & Diplomat in Small Animal Orthopaedics

Mike Farrell BVetMed CertVACertSAS MRCVS Registrar in Small Animal Orthopaedics

DIVISION OF SMALL ANIMAL CLINICAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF VETERINARY CLINICAL STUDIES

University of Glasgow Veterinary School, Bearsden Road, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 1QH

Telephone: 0141-330 -5700 Fax: 0141-330-3663 E-mail: I.Ramsey@vet.gla.ac.uk