Health Testing

  Is a good thing.  In a perfect world breeders would do every relevant test on every dog and publicly post the results.  In this world, one almost never finds that.  But to the extant one does, I think it’s a fair expectation that you should pay more for your dog.  As the breeder has paid more to try and produce a healthy one.

 Every breed is affected to one degree or another with genetically transmitted disease.  Some afflictions like Hip dysplasia are wide spread.  Others are more peculiar to their respective breeds; like deafness in Dogos.  It is a good idea to at least be familiar with the common problems of a given breed, and the tests that are relevant to those problems.

 So, I’ve listed the ailments most likely to affect the breeds I work with below.

Boerboels: 

 Hip dysplasia:  Pronounced, despite a well coordinated marketing campaign out of South Africa to the contrary that accompanied the breeds early recognition here.  The mean penn hip score for the breed as of 2010 after testing …….dogs  .59  That may be roughly average for  mastiffs but it’s really not very good none the less.  

 I used to Penn hip or O.F.A  all my dogs religiously, of late I sometimes have skipped it on some of the crosses but there’s really no excuse for it.  

Ectropion/ Entropion:  Eye problems, pronounced.  Vary few breeders actually test much less post eye certifications on their dogs, myself included.  If you can find one that does, that’s a definite plus.  But like most testing it’s not cheap and when a dogs eyes are bad it’s not necessary to test, it’s obvious.  The loose looking eyes are what’s called Ectropion, and though they are not good, the real problem is Entropion which cause the eye lids to roll in, creates friction on the eye itself, and ultimately can affect vision.  It’s difficult to see but the irritation and discharge that accompanies a bad case is not.   There are surgical procedures available to fix the symptoms, but they don’t fix the genes that caused it.

 Vaginal Prolapse:  This is a lovely disorder that basically turns a females uterus inside out at menstruation.  A bad case looks vary much like a red grapefruit hanging out of the birth canal.  All a person needs to do to find out if their bitch carries this genetic problem is not breed it the very first time it goes into heat, and observe.  The corollary fact however is that anywhere the trait is common place the dogs have routinely been bred at first heat, which is never a good sign ( excepting perhaps in a state of nature, where other rigorous selections pressures are at play )

Others: there are many, but those are the biggies.

Argentine Dogos

 Hip Dysplasia:  common, dogs should be tested via Penn hip or OFA.   Mean Penn Hip as of 2010 with ………dog’s tested…….

  As a personal foot note I might add that I am currently the proud owner of the single best Dogo Penn Hip score in the history of mankind at .27 .27 which belongs to a male named “ Negro culo” by me, and as the FCI felt the need to edit, Negro Lulo.  Brother to my Dogo Bitch Negrecha.

Deafness: Common; The BAER test ( brainstem auditory invoked response test ) is really a must for people breeding pure Dogos, because while a bilaterally deaf dog is easy to spot a unilat is not.   Many people, some deep in experience will argue that they can tell without the test, and offer up a whole variety of low tech home spun tests, but trust me, they don’t work. I’ve seen those people eat their words at the test site.  The only way to be sure is the BEAR test.

 Others:  The dogo suffers from many auto-immune diseases, usually evidenced in skin conditions, and largely a result of inbreeding but basically lacking for any genetic indicator test.

Kangal: 

 Hip dysplasia: less common than the others but common enough to warrant testing via Penn hip or OFA.  I don’t believe there have been enough Kangals tested via Penn hip to establish a significant mean to date.  The Mean for “Anatolians”  as of 2010 was……… after testing ………dogs  

Ectropion/Entropion: Eye problems; not vary common.  I spent a month in Turkey looking at a variety of dogs, many of the more mastiff looking “kangals” did demonstrate some eye problems, but they seemed to do so in proportion to their mastiff influence.   I don’t know that any Kangal  breeders are bothering to certify eyes, but as always, if you find one, it’s a thing to be respected, and paid for.

Others:  I’m sure there are, but I’ve not heard much, I think if simply by virtue of benign neglect the Kangal tends to be healthier than breeds longer since become “popular” 

Great Dane:

 As one of our more gentrified breeds it is also the one with the longest list of health issues, only some of which can be tested for.

 Hip dysplasia: actually rather low for such a big dog.  The mean as of 2010 was……. after testing……..dogs.  Which is far better than many much smaller breeds. And better than any breed of mastiff !!

 Thyroid:  This is common one for Dane people, the reading that I’ve done suggests it’s a fairly complex, expensive and not entirely concrete matter to gage thyroid systems, hat’s off to those that do, but the symptoms of fat or skinny seem to be the obvious ones, I’ll work with that as I don’t anticipate breeding pure bred Danes.

 Ectropion/Entropion: common

 Bloat: This is a twisting of the stomach that blocks the intestine and results in a painful if mercifully quick death; or an expensive surgery.  Many show breeders routinely have the dog’s “stapled”, literally stomachs to ribs, and continue to breed them.   I don’t believe Bloat happens in nature. I suspect it’s a side effect of the deep exaggerated chests that find success in the show ring.

 Longevity:  very poor, average life span is on the bottom of the list, pathetic really, 3-4 years or some such.

Others:  There are many, more than I care to try and list, the breed for all intensive purposes is ruined.