Thanks Flatcoatluver...Originally Posted by Flatcoatluver
As far as bloat goes, you just gotta make sure you do your research and find a breeder who is honest about whether or not they have had bloat in their lines. I know no one can say for sure what causes bloat, and I am sure the cause is not 100% genetic, there are other factors and causes, however I know it runs in certain lines and you have just got to find a breeder who will be honest about it.. and their are pleanty of breeders out there that will try to hide it, or make up stupid excuses for why it happens in their lines.
If it happens onces or twice and there is no history of close relatives bloating in the predigree.. ok that might be a fluke.. however if you can look at a 5 generation pedigree and name off several dogs in each generation that bloated or produced offspring that later bloated then I'm sorry...you have a problem, whether that breeder wants to admit it or not... I know of a very popular stud dog back in the early 80's that bloated 3 times before it finally killed him...
If it happens in an older dog... 7-8-9 yrs or old.. It can be caused by other things... abdominal masses or other tumors etc.. I friend of mine had her 9yr old lab bloat last year because of a tumor in the abdomen... when it happens in young and otherwise healthy dogs 2-3-4-5 yr old dogs... it is MY personal opinion its very likely genetic... unless you can find other reasons for it.
I have had Collies for just over 13yrs now, and I have had 2 Collies bloat in that time. It was actually father and son who bloated (hmm... kinda odd if other breeders wanna say its not partly genetic??? and there were several other dogs back in their pedigree who bloated) The son bloated first at ONLY 7 months old... I caught it early, he had the surgery to tack his stomach, and was saved.. and later after he recovered from that, was neutered and placed in a pet home that knew his history and had experience with bloat dogs (she had Irish Wolf Hounds that bloated years ago).. he is a happy and healthy 5yr old now. Just over 1yr after the puppy bloated his father was at the co-owners house, she came home from work and found him dead.. he bloated. She said he was fine that morning before she left, acting happy and energetic like he normally was. I do not have any dogs closely or directly related to those 2 dogs anymore... except for one of my smooths who is an outcross one the other side of her pedigree.. so she is not tightly bred on it all...
I have known so many other breeders who have lost so many dogs to bloat and I just don't understand why they try to make excuses for it or even try to hide that it happened... it doesn't help the breed... just admit there is a problem and work to fix it! There are pleanty of other lines out there with no history of bloat... that is one reason why I bought my smooth male Zack several years ago.. I'll post his picture.
Zack is Paris, Kelsey and Lucy's sire.. and the grandsire of Aiden and Andy.
Zack
He is tightly bred on and is from a long line of geneticly sound and healthy, long lived dogs.. his great grandsire "Andre" as of the 2007 CCA nationals (where I last saw Andre) was still alive and showed at the national in the 11+yr old Vetran class... he was very slow to move.. but he was 14yrs old at that point!!
A few years ago me and a friend of mine were visiting another collie kennel just to see what they had and look at their dogs.. and the lady there had this 7yr old male she was so excited she was going to have a vetran dog to show at the national that year.. she said she had never had one before.. said her dogs didn't usually make it that long.... please tell me why that is a good thing????
Ok.. I could go on and on about this.. so I better stop now...
Janna
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