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Archive for the 'Dog Health' Category

It’s a dogs life!

Monday, March 4th, 2013

It’s a dogs life!

When people consider a new dog they think about the best breed for their lifestyle. They think about how much exercise a dog needs and whether they can commit to their exercise routine within their working lives.

If truth be known dogs don’t need exercise like we think they do, I’m sure you have heard so many people say ” I have to let him have a good run to get rid of that excess energy”. There are things you can do with a dog to help stretch his legs without letting him run wild. Lets take a look at wild animals, the only time you normally see a wild animal run is when they are hunting for food or about to become food!

The quickest way to tire any animal out is no different to ourselves, brain activity which makes them think.

The only time I exercise their legs is if I’m trying to build up their stamina to make them fitter. If you need to run your dog for 1 hour everyday to make him settle he will need longer and further exercise to keep him happy as time and age progresses.

A dog should be happy to go out for exercise as much as he should be willing to stay in the garden with the family with out demanding attention.

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover!

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover!

I think the important thing to most people is they like what they see!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so we all may be looking for something different in what we think is a nice looking pup.

Things to consider

Breed
Colour
Health screening
Sex
Big or small
Can you see mother of the puppies

When I look at a litter, I would have done my home work regards health screening to parents before hand. I’m looking for a bold pup not scared and willing to be handled, but also a nice looking puppy!

If you are looking to buy a puppy to breed from you should check to see if there are any breeding restrictions on the puppy, and whether these can be lifted.

You can’t buy your dog’s health!

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013

You can’t buy your dog’s health!

When looking at different breeds one of the first things you should consider is what health issue’s that breed suffers from and whether there are current health tests which can be obtained from governing bodies such as the British veterinary association.

There are now D.N.A test’s that can be obtained before breeding which can guarantee the offspring would be clear of the said disease which had been tested for.

Clear x clear = clear
Clear x carrier = clear and carriers
Clear x affected = carriers

Carrier x carrier = normal, carrier and affected
Carrier x affected = carrier and affected.
Affected x affected = affected

So the main note is that as long as one of the parents is clear the offspring will never be affected by the disease. If your dog is a carrier please remember this isn’t a health risk your dog still can’t become affected.

However, there are health tests out there which can be obtained in certain breeds which should be obtained but doesn’t clear the next generation even though both parents can be clear.

Hereditary cataract is one of the biggest eye diseases which affects a few breeds which we have little control over. As there isn’t a D.N.A test available for this disease we cant be sure if our breeding stock is clear, carrier or affected.

There is an eye test which can be obtained from a B.V.A eye panelist for hereditary cataract this test will tell you if your dog is clear or affected at the time of the test. I can hear you say so what is the problem?? Well, your dog can be unaffected and obtain a clear eye certificate but your dog could be a carrier of the gene.

As we have already noted a carrier to carrier mating can produce clear, carrier and affected dogs. So the affected dogs keep creeping in to our dog population and keeping the disease alive!

Even though the disease then affect’s more puppies I must stress this hasn’t been done knowingly.

The same thing happens with hips and elbow score’s.
Hips are scored out of 106 in most breeds allowing 53 points on each hip. 53 being the worst score you can get and 0 being the best. We know from past results a 0/0 hip score on both parents won’t produce 0/0 hip score’s on every puppy born.
Unfortunately if truth be known if your dog score’s even 1 point it has hip dysplasia as this is a scoring system to score the onset of hip dysplasia.
There is a huge amount of stress put on dogs from environmental factors such as exercise, food and living conditions. There are breed average hip score’s available to monitor potential dogs for breeding stock.

Elbows are very similar however, do have a different scoring system. Elbows are scored in grades 0,1,2,3
If your dog score’s 0 / 0 it becomes a grade 0. If your dog scores a 1 / 2 it then becomes grade 2. Your dog takes the grade from the highest point on either elbow. The B.V.A have a leaflet explaining elbow scores and what they mean and the B.V.A do stress that dogs with the elbow grades 2 and 3 should be avoided for breeding if possible.

Fox Red Labrador standing at stud with complete health checks.

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

This week we have recieved DNA results for Chip our Fox Red Labrador stud dog. We have had Chip tested for prcd – PRA and CNM.

Both results have come back Normal/Clear which means his off spring can never be affected by these line’s of inherited diseases.

So our Fox Red Labrador Stud dog now has health results of

Hips 2/2 = 4.

Elbows = 0.

Current clear BVA eye certificate.

DNA tested Normal / Clear for prcd-PRA.

DNA tested Normal / Clear for CNM.

Chips stud fee is £350.

Fox Red Labrador Stud Dog Now available in Nottinghamshire.

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

We now have a Fox Red Labrador available at stud. We received Chips Hip and elbow results this week so are happy to allow him to stand at stud.

Chip is a stunning Fox Red Labrador with a hip score of 2/2 = 4 and elbow score of 0.

If you would like any further information on our fox red Labrador please feel free to contact ourselves.

Optigen testing.

Monday, May 26th, 2008

Optigen is the name of an company in America which have recently managed to find and isolate the gene that causes hereditary diasess in dogs, one of the most promanent being pracd-PRA. This means that even in pups, it is now 100% possible to tell if the pup is likely to suffer form pracd-PRA later on in life. The DNA test can be done either from a blood sample or mouth swap from the dog and you’ll recieve the result within 2-6 weeks.

The test will give you one of these three results:

Normal \ Clear The dog doesn’t have the gene and will never get pracd-PRA nor is it not possible for the dog to pass on pracd-PRA to any of it’s offspring.

Carrier The dog carries one pracd-PRA gene and will never develop pracd-PRA but will be able to pass on the gene to its offspring.

Affected The dog has pracd-PRA and is very likely to go blind. This also means that the dogs offspring will be either ‘carrier’ or ‘affected’. A dog needs to have the gene twice in order to be ‘affected’.

To find out of other tests and range of breeds they are suitable for click here.

Annual eye testing.

Monday, May 26th, 2008

The British Veterinary Association have a hereditary eye disease screening programme. The scoring system categorises the eyes as either ‘affected’ or ‘unaffected’ for a range of conditions. The test is only indicative of the state of the eyes at the time of screening. Some conditions may show no clinical signs until later on in life, so dogs used for breeding should be tested annually.

To read more on the eye testing click here.

Hip scoring.

Monday, May 26th, 2008

Hip scoring is a procedure used to determine the degree of hip dyplasia in dogs.The hip score is the sum of the points awarded for each of nine radiographic tures of both hip joints.The British Veterinary Association uses the following criteria to determine hip score:

  1. Norberg Angle
  2. Subluxation
  3. Cranial Acetabular Edge
  4. Dorsal Acetabular Edge
  5. Cranial Effective Acetabular Rim
  6. Acetabular Fossa
  7. Caudal Acetabular Edge
  8. Femoral Head \ Neck Exostosis
  9. Femoral Head Recontouring

The lower the score, the less the degree of dysplasia present. The minimum (best) score for each hip is zero and the maximum (worst) is 53, giving a range for the total of 0 to 106.

To find out the average score of your breed click here.
Xray of a dogs hips

Xray of a dogs hips

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