Canine Genetic Diseases - Please help me with my vet studies

[wolfsoul]

Bloat is VERY common in some bloodlines.... lines I've tried to stay away from as much as possible. Dermatomyositis (commonly called DM in the Collie/sheltie world) is seen in some lines, though I've never personally seen a dog with it, just photos.

Have you ever been to any Pat Hastings seminars? She believes that bloat is related to how short the sternum is or isn't. When you think about it, it makes sense -- the breeds most prone to bloat tend to be very short in the sternum (boxers, dobes, great danes, etc), allowing organs to be more exposed (including the stomach) than in a normal dog. It's one thing I feel for in dogs -- the sternum should be as close to the "belly button" as possible.

In my grooming career, I have to say that almost all of the large breed dogs I groom I would consider dysplastic. Of course I also groom alot of breeds very prone to dysplasia genetically, but these are pet dogs that will never be x-rayed. And yes I agree it can be hard to tell by a dog's movement depeding on the dog. A good friend of mine has a sister who breeds pyrs -- everyone in the show ring always marveled at how well her dog moved -- just beautiful movement. When she had the dog x-rayed, it literally had no hip joints and no hip sockets to put joints in. It was one of the worst cases of dysplasia the vet had ever seen. Belgians are hard to tell by movement because they are light dogs, and they have a high pain threshold when they are working, so they will keep jumping and running as long as you tell them to. I think alot of times it can depend on the breed involved.

[chocolatepuppy]

My RB Mandy had SAS-Sub Aortic Stenosis. She was a Lab/Golden mix. She was diagnosed at three months. She had a grade 5-6 murmur. The Vets at Ohio State U. put her on atenolol. The surgeries don't prove to prolong the dogs life and they felt she was so bad she would not survive the surgery. She lived just past five years old. Infection took her life in the form of Pyrometra. All we could try was antibiotics as she would not have been able to handle the other treatments. We didn't have her spayed due to the higher risk with that surgery.
Zara, if you're interested, just ask for more info and good luck.
Here's a link about SAS...
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/subaortic_stenosis.html

[Miss Z]

Wow, thanks so much everyone, this is a brilliant help.

Elbow dysplasia is something I've not seen too much of either. I have seen a luxation of the elbow joint in a labrador cross, but I don't think it's quite the same. Correct me if I'm wrong there.

I would also assume that hip and elbow conditions would go hand in hand, as if weight distribution is affecting the hind limbs then it seems likely that the forelimbs will be experiencing similar problems.

However, the most commonly seen problem is CEA (collie eye anomaly), which affects about 77% of Collies world wide (and of the Collies that are "normal eyed" most are still carriers for the gene), but about 66% of those affected dogs have what is called Choroidal Hypoplasia, which is the mildest form of CEA, which does not get worse as they get older and it does not cause vision problems. About 8.75% have Coloboma's which is a small pit or bulged in the eye and about 1.8% have Retinal Detachment.

I have read a little about CH, this is the condition, I think, where the tissues between the retina and sclera don't form properly? I've never come across CEA before though. I have seen two cases of colobomas before, one fairly serious and the other not quite so.

Karen, I'm so sorry to hear about Logan's hips, poor girl. This may sound silly, but what exactly about her gait did you notice? Not having come across the condition a lot and not having owned a dog before, I'm a little green when it comes to spotting these things.

Also the point about the length of sternum is very interesting, I'll have to research that a bit further. I'd only ever really thought about the cranium, spine and joints being the areas of skeletal disorders before.

My RB Mandy had SAS-Sub Aortic Stenosis. She was a Lab/Golden mix. She was diagnosed at three months. She had a grade 5-6 murmur. The Vets at Ohio State U. put her on atenolol. The surgeries don't prove to prolong the dogs life and they felt she was so bad she would not survive the surgery. She lived just past five years old. Infection took her life in the form of Pyrometra. All we could try was antibiotics as she would not have been able to handle the other treatments. We didn't have her spayed due to the higher risk with that surgery.
Zara, if you're interested, just ask for more info and good luck.
Here's a link about SAS...
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/subaortic_stenosis.html

Thanks for the link, and I'm so sorry that sweet Mandy had this condition. This is also a condition I've remotely heard of but not really experienced. So the narrowing of the aorta (I think stenosis is to do with narrowing?) brings on the murmur? The only murmurs I have ever encountered were to do with leaky valves.

The conditions I've come across most often are in the short-nosed breeds; cleft palates, elongated soft palates and bronchial or tracheal collapse. I also recently witnessed a bulldog caesarian (I'm under the impression that a lot of bulldogs can no longer give birth naturlly due to the breed standards demand for such huge heads) and it was so disheartening when two puppies were born cleft and the breeder requested their destruction. Such a waste.

Does anyone have any further knowledge on these conditions?