Roseclipt

Yes, doubling up on the merle gene is considered to be lethal white. So merle to merle matings are not a good idea. I met a dog last year who was the result of merle to merle breeding, copped the double merle, and had something like 10% vision. Harlequin to harlequin also produces semi lethal white - Mendelian expectancy 25% in each litter. These pure white puppies are usually deaf, and sometimes blind or vision impaired. They are usually euthanised at birth. Or they used to be, until some breeders found they could sell them ....

It seemed to me that their issue is that piebald will hide the merle, leading to possible inadvertent merle to merle mating. They are not as worried about the effect of the piebald gene on its own. There is deafness in breeds that have piebald. Steve questioned whether there is another gene at work and it isn't just the piebald gene on its own, but it is well known that a dog without pigment in its ears will be deaf. Usually piebald dogs have coloured ears, and so deafness isn't common, but the way the gene works is a little bit unknown. In some breeds, two piebalds can result in extreme white pups, and the pups have less colour than either parent. Not sure what happens in dachshunds. Merle is a dominant patching gene, and cannot be hidden by pied. Pied is recessive to merle, and merles can carry (and do) carry it.

Best advice I can give you is to make absolutely certain ALL paperwork is correct, and to have copies of everything. Most companies do the quarantine paperwork correctly, but remember that most do not do your purebred re-registration paperwork. You must have registration certificates for the dog(s) from a country recognised by the ANKC, the certificates of collection for the semen, the signed (by the owner) form for the re-registration of the dog in Australia, and the signed forms for the registration of semen. Also the airbill and the quarantine clearances. Also many FCI countries will not issue an export certificate for semen. I have, in partnership, just brought in 5 collections from Zurich with Sires On Ice, and all went faultlessly. Cheers, Lesley.

Doppler echo is available in Sydney - at North Shore Veterinary Specialist Centre. Auscultation is also very good, but preferably by a heart specialist. Putnam scoring for patellas can be done by an experienced Vet., and the results sent to the OFA for certification. Forms can be downloaded. Animal Genetics in Florida have a wide range of tests - you can apply for kits by email. If Aust. certification is required, your Vet. should check chip numbers and take the swab for you. Very well priced - less than half of what you pay out here. Cheers, Lesley.

Definitely not a new problem - in the early '90's, we imported 3 male Danes, 1 from Norway iid'd to the UK, 2 bred in the UK. 1 was fertile, never any problems, 1 sired 1 litter out here, then sterile, and 1 became sterile at a young age. We were fortunate to be able to do experimental karyotyping on the dog who sired one litter, and found he was an XXY, so were able to karyotype his progeny as well, and clear the carriers out of the line. The 3rd one who became sterile was actually fortunate, as he developed DCM, so had little impact on the gene pool. It is not at all uncommon for bitches from the northern hemisphere to have breeding problems once they get here - I have known of a number who have not bred on across different breeds - some producing 1 or 2 puppies, some none at all, others requiring prog. shots to hold litters.

BREED : FRENCH BULLDOG DOG : SUPREME CH. PENDRAGAN IN TOTO AGE : 4 YEARS DATE : 07/07/2012 OWNERS : DAVID & LESLEY THORPE & JOE DAIDONE HANDLER: JOE DAIDONE :)

1 x French Bulldog on 07/07/2012 - Supreme Champion Pendragan In Toto

Absolutely agree - people do pull dogs from breeding programs because they fail health tests or just plain aren't good enough. I think they should be pulled from the main register - it is just that our registries seem to have a mind of their own instead of doing what is perceived to be "the right thing" by their membership. In this case of them NOT being removed, I am sure the Wolfhound breeders will know what to avoid. Because of this attitude of "the powers that be" none of us can be sure of our purebreds. If it wasn't for the internet very few of us would have known ....

After WWII, when Germany was pretty well destroyed, the German Great Dane breeders over there rounded up any dog resembling a Dane that they could find. These went before a panel of experts, and if they were considered to be a purebred, they were entered in the Stud Books as "findling" - foundling. You can still see these entries today if you have the Stud Books, and I wouldn't be surprised if this were true for quite a number of breeds. I would presume the Wolfhound breeders know what to avoid, and will breed accordingly. :) Cheers, Lesley.

At 6 weeks it is usually a pointless vaccine as they may, or may not be, covered by Mum's antibodies. Eight weeks vax is ideal, then rehomed at 10 weeks before second shot at 12 weeks, then another at 16 - 18 weeks. Of course, if you are using Protech that is a different story .....

And here: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/carasc.pdf

Ummmmm - A body of research done here in Canada seems to counter claims by Roundup's maker, Monsanto, that it is safe. Five years ago, a graduate student at the University of Manitoba, Jennifer Magoon, found statistically significant links between the use of crop sprays and serious health problems with infants born in farming areas of the province where such sprays were commonly used. Those problems included low birth weights, spina biffida, respiratory distress, jaundice, Down syndrome, cleft palate, retinal degeneration and cataracts. Her findings do not mention Roundup. But she singled out herbicides as the class of crop chemical she was most concerned with. In 1997, the Ontario Farm Family Health Study surveyed almost 19 hundred male farmers in Ontario who'd been exposed to several chemicals, including glyphosate in their faming activities. It concluded that their partners were "more than twice as likely" to miscarry or give birth, prematurely. In 2,001 another phase of the same study, surveyed almost 4 thousand pregnant farm women in the same province. All had been involved in farming activities, milking cows, cultivating or seeding the fields and sometimes helping their partners mix and apply the herbicides. 395 of those women experienced miscarriages. All had been exposed to a variety of pesticides, including glyphosate. In the words of the study, "Among older women (over 34) exposed to glyphosate, the risk of miscarriage was three times that for women of the same age who were not exposed to this active ingredient."

If you have a look around on the OFA site, you can download a form for Putnam scoring, which is about the only test available for LP. Your Vet. then fills in the score sheet, and it is then a relatively easy step to have it recorded and certified by the OFA, and a certificate issued. I usually prefer to have two different and experienced Vets. check the patellas, just in case. This is obviously not perfect, but is the only way available currently, AFAIK. On a slightly different note, I once sold a show potential puppy to another breeder (silly me). The puppy went lame a couple of months later, the other breeder took it to their Vet. (who was supposedly an expert), and was told the pup had shocking HD. Thinking that was strange as generations of ours had been scored, I arranged to take him to my own Vet. - he actually had a broken toe on his hind foot, and had excellent hips. Moral is: not all Vets. are created equal ....

So very sorry to hear this. Thinking of you and Willow's family.

She seems to have bred many crossbreds - her ads. are on something called "buyandsell" in different capital cities. I don't understand why, if a court order was issued against ownership for 5 years, there are still animals on the property, according to her neighbours.