Inherited canine ailments.....

[Alec Swan]

It's actually the thread of Noodle_'s which has set me to thinking. "Inherited canine ailments".... except that there's little actual proof of inheritance, it would be a fool to think otherwise.

So just how have we got ourselves into this frightful muddle? Back in the '70s, it was quite fashionable to blame the show bench for most of the occurrences of HD in Labs, which made very little sense, because there was virtually no intentional cross breeding between show and work dogs.

Now we have spaniels of all varieties with hip, elbow and eye problems. I'm going from memory, but in the early to mid 1970s I wasn't aware of any heritable problems, with spaniels; Labradors and Golden Retrievers were rotten with HD, and there were VERY few dogs, at that time, with clear hips.

My question is this; If since the '70s, we have been aware of all these problems, with the retrieving breeds, how have we allowed this dreadful state to occur? It's a serious question, and does anyone know of any research which would be easily assessed by the layman?

Alec.

 

[CorvusCorax]

My mother first started hip scoring in 1977 and our dogs results can be found in various yearbooks. English, German, all of our dogs have had their hips, and latterly their elbows x-rayed, we have always bought from *generations* of low scoring stock and we have never had HD in any of our dogs. That's good enough evidence for me, touch wood. Bring on the spinal x-rays too. It's not a failsafe, but it gives a fighting chance.

TBH, I see no real excuse not to health screen breeding stock apart from people wanting to save money. The info and the means have been there for years for those who care to look.

And for those who sell their 'old fashioned, big boned, straight backed' un-health tested GSDs with the pitch that only the 'European, slopey backed' type suffer from HD - how do you explain it in Labs, Goldens and spaniels?!

 

[EAST KENT]

I think these days science and knowledge makes us look for problems,back then...well, the old dog got a bit stiff after seven or so.All dog breeders in any breed should make sure their breeding animals are FULLY tested prior to breeding,each breed has various problems within it,and breed specialists will know of them,wether they choose to do the right thing and properly test is quite another thing!
In bull terriers for instance..testsevery year include heart by colour doppler/UPC kidney /one off tests are PKD scanning kidneys and BAER hearing test.All puppies should be BAER tested before sale.It is quite a lot to wade through and it can seem ,frankly,a bloody nuisance,BUT it must be done.It ensures your puppies will not break someone`s heart later on.
Nothing is guaranteed even then,but the chances of a healthy dog are higher,it is only after generations of successful testing things are more concrete,even then the occasional anamoly will occur.
Maybe I am being a cynic but I can see a connection ,in time anyway,between the days when proper food was fed and now.One of my working lab pups was ruined by feeding a cheap adult worker dry to a growing pup,for instance.