Since the age of 12 my dreams had always included being surrounded by the Afghan Hound. Fast forward many moons and after our homework was completed in the form of research, discussion, dog shows, visits, and phone conversations we were blessed with our first. Kahlua came into our lives when she was around 6 months old. She totally embraced that aloof Afghan attitude and it took us some time to convince and educated our older children that, "No!.... She isn't retarded!....Thats the way Afghans are supposed to act!"

As we pursued our dream slowly and ventured into the dog show arena with her, we proudly finished her ourselves ending with a BOB from the classes over a special along with our first Group placement. During this time she also ventured onto the coursing field which she approached with a vengeance and beauty, the likes of which we had never seen. To watch her run was simply breathtaking and her passion for such was beyond words.

Besides stealing our hearts she had proven herself beyond our expectations and we journeyed into searching for that perfect mate that would compliment her quality and soundness. It was during this time that we took Kahlua in for her screening tests to prove and assure us that our venture was on the right path. We held little doubt she will fail these tests from what she had shown us in four years coupled with her parents being healthy and passing all the prerequisites.

As soon as she came out of the anesthesia the vet brought her into us and had the x-rays in hand. In viewing them the vet commented that she had read at least 250 x-rays sent off to the OFA and to date had never been wrong and she felt Kahlua would get at least a Good if not Excellent rating. We were thrilled and not surprised at the news.

A few weeks later we opened the envelope from OFA and had to sit down. Kahlua results had come back with the mildly dysplastic box checked along with subluxation, remodeling of femoral head/neck and unilateral pathology on the left side. Well, naturally we thought they must have mixed Kahlua's x-rays up with another dogs or the three professionals that read them had been out on an all night binge the night before. It just wasn't possible!

After calling and questioning Dr Keller at the OFA about their suspected binge (just joking.... for those that don't know me) and while still in a state of huge denial, I made another appointment with yet another vet an hour away that was certified to do PennHip. This vet confirmed that Kahlua's xray results would indeed not pass with the OFA and we decided to send the results into PennHip anyway. As I wiped away the tears the vet shared his sermon of "not throwing the baby out with the bathwater" and I listened between the sniffles. After he finished I told him that these tests were initially done for what I felt were ethical breeding practices, however my concern had now turned into gutwrenching fear that this bitch that had given us so much, would live out her life in constant pain and agony. He assured us that it was a possibility that she may never have any pain associated with these results.

Kahlua's PennHip rankings came back with her passive hip laxity in the10th percentile. Which meant to my understanding, of the 61 Afghans that had been radiographed since 1986, that 90 percent of the group had tighter hips than Kahlua. It also showed her Distraction Index (DI) at 0.64. Results stated DI is greater than 0.30 with no radiographic evidence of DJD. There is an increasing risk of developing DJD as the DI increases; low risk when DI is close to 0.30, high risk when DI is close to 0.70 or above.

With our limited understanding, the bottom line of the two different screening results somewhat conflicted each other, however we coupled that information with the additional knowledge that a littermate had come back fair and sadly made the choice we could best live with by not breeding on from these results. I am happy to report that at 9 years of age Kahlua can still run like the wind and shows no signs of pain at this time. We hold very stringent in her diet and exersise program.

COPYRIGHT (C) 2005-SHOW DOG DESIGNS