The Question On Breeders Got Me Thinking, How Many Pups Here

[Guest donatella]

or chronic illness?

The question on breeders got me thinking, how many well bred health tested pups here have still ended up with health complications?

and i don't mean accidents and injuries but actual genetic or chronic illness?

i've learn't so much by coming on this site, i've owned dogs for years (and years growing up) and never even knew such tests existed. we've always had dogs live to 15 and 16 without ever being tested for anything!

of course i think these tests are wonderful and i will be requesting them for my next pup but i just wondered if they were spot on or if they do tend to miss a few things?

[Gayle.]

Health testing doesn't guarantee your dog won't die early of a disease. It only reduces the likelihood of the dog developing a hereditary condition that can be tested for.

[Tara8430]

I was starting to think the same thing, my last dog lived till 14, when we brought her appart from making sured she had papers we didnt really know anything (From being on this site obviously there is alot more to it). She was very healthy all her life, but very unfortuantly ended up with cancer, she never had any hip or eye problems etc...

Do you wonder if breeders ever get/or ask for information on litters once the dogs get old, if they have had cancer or other illnesses and if that did run in the dogs bloodlines.

[becks]

Depends on the test eg we do eye tests by yearly examination by a specialist vet BUT we have no DNA tests for the eye problems, so we can't know for sure if a particular dog is clear, carrier or affected, the test just tells us the dog is clear on the day of the test.

In the UK there were several thousand mini schnauzer pups born last year and our breed has the best reputation for eye testing litters ( i think the figure is about 60 or 70% of those born and registered. Out of those tested only 5 litters had affected puppies.

We also know through breed rescue that those who were bred in a puppy farm are a lot more likely to be affected or produce affected pups with eye problems.