Health Issues

There is just about nothing as much fun as picking out a new puppy. My favorite breed is the Labrador retriever. I have written in the past about the ins and outs of the different colors and whether a male or a female is the best one for you. Today I am starting a 3 part series on three different health concerns that you really need to take into account when deciding when and where to buy you next dog from.

The three health conditions that I am going to cover are 1) hip dysplasia, 2) EIC (exercise induced collapse), and 3) CMM (canine muscle myopothy). If you have been around any number of dog owners you will probably seen or heard of a dog that has had hip dysplasia. This is an issue that has been well researched and documented for over 30 years and it is by far the most well know of the three.

Hip dysplasia is a condition in dogs where the bones in the dogs’ hind legs that join the dogs’ pelvis don’t match up perfectly. The only way to determine for sure that a dog has or does not have hip dysplasia is with a high quality X-ray. The dog is stretched out on its back with the rear legs extended as far as possible. Positioning of the dog for the X-ray is critical. I know this from a very bad past experience. I had a wonderful yellow lab that I had spade after she was diagnosed as having a mildly dysplastic hip.

If you have a dog with this condition then the only responsible thing to do is to have the dog spayed or neutered. There is no reason to intentionally or by accident pass on this genetic defect to other offspring that will just continue this bad breeding outcome. The dog that I am referencing was later treated for a torn ACL ligament and as part of that treatment she had many other X-rays. It was determined by the second opinion after reading a second x-ray that this dog did not have a bad hip. The second opinion determined after reviewing the original x-ray that it was taken with the dog misaligned. It was this misalignment that led to the wrong diagnosis and the spaying of a great dog unnecessarily. Needless to say I was heartbroken. I kind of wish that this error would never have been convey to me. More and more vets are now using sedation to help aid in getting the best alignment.

The firm doing the x-ray should also have up to date equipment to get the very best picture. A fuzzy x-ray makes it much harder to determine the quality of the dogs’ hip confirmation. Anyone who is considering breeding any hunting dog should first spend the money to determine the quality of the hip confirmation. If the hips are bad, forget the breeding. When you read an ad for puppies for sale, regardless if they are expensive or seem really cheap, the first question to ask is whether the parents have had a hip x-ray and did both parents receive a passing OFA rating.

OFA stands for Orthopedic Foundation for Animals. This is the most trusted entity when it comes to hip certification in dogs. The OFA receives your x-ray and sends it out to a random 3 individuals on their reading panel. These are veterinarians with vast experience in reading films and making hip determinations. There are many recognized individuals on this panel and the three that read your dogs x-ray are chosen at random.

Each member reads the film and assigns it a rating. The best rating is excellent. This is when the hip confirmation is as good as it can be. The ratings are then listed as good, fair, mild dysplastic, moderate dysplastic or severe dysplastic. Only dogs that are rated as excellent, good or fair should ever be considered for breeding. Each member of the panel is un-aware of the rating assigned by the other x-ray readers in order for there to be no other outside influence on their own determination.

The cost for the OFA determination used to be $60 plus the cost of the x-ray. These records are kept at the OFA and can be confirmed by any puppy buyer. Dogs that have hip certifications are issued a paper certificate and the puppy buyer can request to see it before any purchase takes place. Most breeders want the OFA reading on their AKC paperwork and in order to do this the dog needs to be identifiable. This is accomplished by either a tattoo or a microchip.

You cannot get an OFA rating on a dog until it is two years old. This helps to insure that there will little if any change in hip confirmation as the dog ages. There are very few things as disappointing as training a dog to a high level only to find out it had a bad hip. Many dogs with hip dysplasia will live out their life with no noticeable indications of this genetic defect. Many dog owners will never utilize the dog in a manner strenuous enough for a bad hip to be an issue. In other cases a dog enjoyed only as a pet will be completely lame within just a few years. In these cases when the condition gets so severe, the only responsible thing to do is have the animal put to sleep. This is hard enough to do when the dog is really old and it’s even harder when your buddy is only five or six.

In order to avoid this heartbreak I have a preliminary hip x-ray done at eight months of age to get an early indication of the hip configuration. I have never seen a good hip go bad between eight months and two years but I have seen some marginal hips at eight months pass an OFA at two years of age. It just depends on how the dog grows and develops. As a very avid pheasant hunter I will not keep a dog with a bad wheel. If at eight months the hips look marginal I will give the dog away to a great home and allow it live out its days as a pet. This is the best for me and best for the dog.

I would not buy a dog from any litter where both parents have not had their hips checked and received a passing score. Any breeder that skips this very important step will fall under my categories of a barnyard or back yard breeder. Responsible breeders will be glad to provide you with all of the hip background necessary to make a good decision. Passing hips on both parents will not guarantee a puppy with good hips but it certainly ups your odds in avoiding this issue and this is all that a quality breeder and the puppy buyer can do.

Last week I started a three week series on health issues in Labrador retrieves that you should become familiar with before you start the process of buying a puppy. These issues are also important if you already own a dog as you may be able to manage the problems if you already have a dog that is affected by one of the three conditions. Last week general information on hip dysplasia was covered. This column will cover a much lesser known problem called Exercise Induced Collapse or EIC for short.

I think the EIC has been around for a while but is just now coming to the forefront for buyers and breeders alike. EIC is a condition where affected dogs, as a result of strenuous exercise coupled with high levels of excitement actually collapse for short periods of time. The most recognizable symptoms are completely evident to anyone who sees them.

After 5–20 minutes of high energy exercise the dog will become weak in the hind quarters and ultimately get to a point where it becomes immobile. The dog will be wobbly on its hind quarters, seem uncoordinated and hazy and have no ability to move. Episodes of EIC will most likely last for about 15 minutes and after that period of time the dog will then return to a state where it will appear completely normal. EIC symptoms normally show up between seven months and two years of age. It is evenly distributed between the sexes and different colors of Labradors.

In very rare instances dogs have died as a result of an EIC event but for most animals here seems to be no substantial long term negative effects on the dog that suffers an episode of EIC. This assumes the owner limits the dogs’ activity to low levels of exertion. After the dog recovers they act and behave normally as if nothing happened. There have been extensive amounts of research done on dogs that display EIC conditions and these results have been compared to dogs that are normal.

EIC was thought to have its roots in any or all of the following conditions. The conditions include low blood sugar, heat intolerance, cardiac issues and chemical imbalances. EIC in fact is caused by a mutant gene that is passed down from dog to dog. There are three possible EIC scenarios. They are EIC clear, EIC carrier and EIC affected.

EIC can now be diagnosed with a blood test. If your dog is EIC clear it means that it has two normal genes passed down from its parents and as the term indicates an EIC clear dog should show no signs of collapse during its lifetime. If the test results show the dog as EIC carrier it means that it has one mutated gene and one normal gene. Just like an EIC clear diagnosis an EIC carrier diagnosis will also have no problems with this condition. It just means that is has the ability to pass the one mutated gene down to approximately 50% of its offspring. An EIC affected test result will mean that the dog as two copies of the mutated gene. There are some EIC affected dogs that have not had any collapse episodes. There are several possible reasons for this. Maybe the dog has never been put in the position of extreme exercise or very high excitement. EIC affected dogs might very well live out normal lives as pets but would most likely suffer multiple and reoccurring issues if it was hunted or trained extensively.

So what does this all mean to a potential puppy buyer? It really depends on what you intend to do with the dog. If I were looking for a hunting dog I would only consider two options. Buying a puppy from a litter in which both parents were EIC clear or a second satisfactory choice would be if only one parent was clear and the other was a carrier. This breeding would possibly result in a puppy having only one mutant gene. Remember that an EIC carrier only will not suffer from EIC collapse episodes. It takes two mutant genes to be affected with EIC. This means that both parents would need to posses the mutant gene.

If you were purchasing a puppy that you ultimately wanted to use for breeding stock then a puppy out of a litter where both parents were clear would allow you a much greater variety of breeding options. You could breed your dog to another dog that was clear or one that is a carrier. Clear on clear means clear puppies. Breeding a clear to a carrier would result in puppies that were carrier only and not EIC affected.

The only true bad scenarios are litters where both parents are any combination of EIC carrier or EIC affected. This will mean that the puppies will almost always be EIC affected. These dogs would most likely suffer from exercise induced collapse episodes. Mating two dogs that are both carriers but not affected would dramatically up the odds that some of the puppies would be EIC affected and suffer collapses.

I would not be afraid to buy a puppy that was an EIC carrier. I have had them and they are going to perform like any non-carrier dog. The key here is to know the EIC status of the parents in order to insure that you do not end up with a puppy that has two mutant genes and will never be able to perform in the field.

If you question your prospective breeder about EIC and the status of the litter and they respond that they don’t know or haven’t checked, immediately move on to a different breeder. Any serious dog breeder will know the facts about EIC and the status of the dogs that they are using for breeding. Just as a said last week there is no greater heartbreak than training a dog to a high level only to find out to later that it has a bad hip or is EIC affected.

Hip dysplasia cannot be determined in a 7 week old puppy but EIC can. This can be done either by testing the parents in advance or doing a blood test on your puppy before you take it home. A quality dog breeder will do everything in their power to produce only the highest quality offspring and paying attention to these important details should help you greatly in deciding where to buy you next puppy and removing the possibility that you will be greatly disappointed later.

This is the third installment in my three part series on health concerns affecting Labrador retrievers. The first was on Hip Dysplasia, the second was on Exercise Induced Collapse and this one will cover what I thought was Canine Muscle Myopathy. I have learned a lot in my research for these three columns and one of those was the fact that although it is often called Canine Muscle Myopathy, its real name is Centronuclear Myopathy or CNM for short.

These are big words for a dog guy and overwhelming for many potential puppy buyers. There are many different myopathy’s that affect Labradors. Many are just an unfortunate function of dog health and there is little that can be done to avoid them at purchase time but this is one that can avoided by proper breeding procedures and is one that every puppy buyer better have a good grip on before they lay out good hard cash to make a puppy purchase.

So just what is Centronuclear Myopathy (CNM)? It is a disabling disease that affects Labradors from all over the world. Countries like the United States, Canada, Argentina, South Africa and Europe all have reported cases of this disease. The outcomes seem to be identical regardless of where they are reported. At birth the affected puppy is undistinguishable from its litter mates. Symptoms become visible at 2–5 months of age. Most puppies go home to the new owners at around eight weeks.

During this time (2–5 months) weight loss is evident and a general deterioration of muscle control becomes evident. Puppies exhibit an awkward gait and intolerance to any kind of exercise. The condition will worsen to an almost complete loose of muscle control. There are videos on YOUTUBE that show dogs with this condition and they are almost enough to make you cry. Afflicted dogs will never recover and in most cases they are put to sleep. If the dog does manage to survive for very long they suffer from significant respiratory difficulties due to condition. To see a dog with this condition would make you think that this dog had been on the loose in a war zone for six months with almost no food or water. There is nothing pretty about Centronuclear Myopathy (CNM).

Avoiding this condition in the first place is the only way to deal with the problem. Just like the condition EIC that I covered last week this condition can be avoided with proper attention to the status of the parents. This status can now be determined with a blood test that looks for mutated genes. If both parents are CNM clear than the puppies will be clear and no problems will result. Just like with EIC, if one parent is a carrier and one is clear than 50% of the puppies will be a carrier and 50% will be clear. Being a carrier will not result in the CNM affliction. Carriers show no signs. They just have the ability to pass on the defect to their offspring if proper precautions are not taken.

What this means is that breeding Labrador puppies is more than getting two AKC registered dogs of opposite sexes in the same room at the right time. It requires the breeder to spend a very substantial investment in time and money to get their breeding stock checked for three important genetic defects before any breeding takes place. They need to have the hips x-rayed on dogs that are at least two years of age. They need to get a certificate of a passing grade from the OFA. If they pass this requirement they need to have both the EIC and the CNM test done to insure that at least one parent is tested CLEAR for both of these diseases. Both parents with an all clear on both tests are better but not a requirement. Remember that carriers of EIC and CNM will not show signs or suffer from these conditions. Only dogs that are consider affected (2 mutated genes, one from each parent) will live less than satisfactory lives in a hunting home and most pet homes for that matter.

The next time you price a puppy and the seller tells you the price is $150, ask about these three issues. Cheap puppies will come with few assurances. I would rather pay $650 for a puppy that I know is not affected by EIC and CNM and has parents with good hips than the cheaper priced one that has a pretty good chance of heartbreak later.

I love my dogs. All four of them lay on the living room rug as I scratch them behind the ears. We hunt and train together as often as we can. I owe them the best dog quality of life that I can deliver and they hunt as hard as they can to say thanks for that life. If you as dog buyer don’t do everything in your power to wipe out these serious health issues by mandating (with your pocketbook) your breeder do well researched breeding backgrounds and by making sure that whatever breeding that you may do with your own dog does not pass on these avoidable health issues then maybe you should consider making a different purchasing decision. Maybe you should consider buying a cat instead.