Preventive medicine in the veterinary field is carried out for infectious disease with vaccine prophylaxis and for general health conditions with haematological check-ups. In the field instead of orthopaedics, there is still no preventive medicine culture among veterinary surgeons that allows identification of orthopaedic pathologies at their beginning through scheduled screening. The current approach is still only of a therapeutic type, undertaken once the orthopaedic problem has manifested itself through persistent clinical signs. On the other hand, it is of fundamental importance to be able to intercept all orthopaedic diseases at their onset, before the arthritic degeneration that is their consequence has been established. Osteoarthritis can be defined as one-way street, since once established it can only progress and never regress. Treatments whether pharmacological, surgical or physiotherapeutic can reduce or at best stop this evolution, but never restore the original joint condition.

Since hip dysplasia is a progressive disease that develops as the puppy’s skeleton matures, evaluation of the hip joints during growth enables the condition to be picked up at its onset and to determine, therefore, whether or not the dog will have dysplasia. The first and foremost aim of early assessment of CHD is preventive: the detection of the first signs of hip dysplasia, prediction of its development and the possibility of, prompt preventive interventions to minimise or arrest expression of the disease.

Elbow dysplasia is a major cause of front limb lameness in medium to large breed dogs. Underlying causes of elbow dysplasia include ununited anconeal process (UAP), medial coronoid process disease (MCPD) and osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the medial humeral condyle.

In view of a preventive medicine approach for all developmental skeletal diseases, early diagnosis is critical for successful treatment. Later in life, the degenerative joint disease could become severe and invalidating with a very poor quality of life, with limited possibilities of treatment. Early diagnosis of elbow dysplasia allows prompt surgical treatment, which is aimed at restoring joint congruity. As well, the progression of the disease and osteoarthrosis may be prevented or reduced.

Patellar luxation is one of the most common orthopaedic problems in the dog. Medial patellar luxation is more common (80%) than lateral patellar luxation (20%). Small breeds are usually affected by medial patellar luxation, but large breed dogs like Labradors, Rottweilers, Boxers, Bullmastiffs and Pitbulls can be affected too. Other large and giant breeds (Newfoundlands, Great Danes, St. Bernards and Caucasian Shepherd dogs and others) are more predisposed to lateral patellar luxation. Surgical treatment of patellar luxation is a very common procedure but has a high percentage (20% or more) of failure and recurrence. Understanding the underlying predisposing factors for patellar luxation in each patient and addressing them with custom-made treatments can help in improving the success of the surgical treatment. Early treatment in puppies can be less invasive compared to surgical treatment in adult dogs and can affect the residual growth to correct predisposing skeletal deformities.