**Please Read** I love this article! Let me be the first to say that no breeder starts out and knows everything, even breeders that have bred 30 years learn something new everyday!! Some breeders think that a regular vet check up can clear a dog from all possible issues, and when I started my journey with Boxers I was one of them. Well let me be the first to tell you that statement couldnt be more wrong!!! Lets look at Degenerative Myelopathy for example, average age of onset is 8+ years. So if a breeder takes a dog in at 2 years old for the vet to give them a breeding clearance how is the vet going to know if the dog will be effected by this 6 years from now? How is the vet going to know if the dog has the genes to pass it? He wont, so therefore this breeder will breed the dog and it will have X amount of puppies that now one day may be effected as well. And the biggest thing that gets me is a regular vet clearing a heart, what a joke! Ive heard of vets missing grade 3 murmurs on dogs that where literally dying from aortic stenosis, AND cleared them for breeding. This is sickening but oh so true, especially in Boxers where heart issues are so common. Only a cardiologist, doing an echocardiogram and yearly holter monitoring can clear a heart 100%. Like Cardiomyopathy for example, it doesnt always cause a murmur to be heard, so its impossible to detect with a stethoscope. I am not discrediting vets at all, however there are just things that they cannot pick up regardless of how good they are. I recently was on a search to help a dear friend find a quality Boxer puppy from health tested parents and I could not believe what a task that proved to be. She purchased my last available baby from my litter but wanted another to raise her with. I contacted several breeders and they totally dodged my questions about health testing. Thankfully after talking to several breeders I found her a great puppy from health tested parents. **************************** Why Health Test? All dogs are at risk of inheriting diseases, regardless of whether they are purebred or crossbred dogs. A substantial amount of research has been carried out to analyze these diseases by investigating important factors such as what causes them, which breeds may be affected and how the disease is inherited. Funding into this type of research has enabled the development of DNA tests and health screening schemes, which allow breeders to help reduce the number of affected dogs and eventually eradicate these conditions. Making Informed Health Decisions for Breeding Where DNA tests and screening schemes are available, breeders are able to test their breeding stock for these inherited diseases before the dogs are bred from. Testing all potential breeding stock allows breeders to better understand the kind of genes a dog may pass on to its offspring, giving them the information required to avoid producing clinically affected puppies. Making informed decisions from health test results enables breeders to adapt their breeding programs and reduce the risk of the diseases appearing in future generations. Reassuring Puppy Buyers Puppy buyers should ensure that any puppies they consider buying are from parents that have been appropriately health tested. By breeders health testing their potential breeding stock and by us using those results responsibly, puppy buyers can be reassured that there is a lower risk of the puppy developing the specific inherited disease that was tested for. Diagnosis of Genetic Disorders for ALL Dog Owners Regardless of whether you use your dog for breeding, if you think it is at risk of developing, or may be suffering from an inherited disorder, it is important to test your dog in order to know their health status. Not all inherited conditions are congenital, i.e. present at birth. By knowing the health status of your dog, it may enable you to seek essential early treatment. Furthering Research Health test results provide data which allow researchers to help develop a picture of how each breed is affected by particular diseases, how best to improve the health of affected breeds and to develop cheaper and faster testing methods. The data from these results can be monitored to show how the number of affected dogs has changed over time, whether it has improved or worsened and if a specific disease is no longer a risk for the population. Types of Health Tests Available There are two general types of health tests that are available: DNA testing schemes for simple inherited disease and clinical screening programs for complex inherited diseases.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:33:21 +0000
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