Silkygirl Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 (edited) My 9 month old dog was born without a tear duct opening which an eye specialist vet told me was congenital. Has anyone had this problem before? Edited August 25, 2014 by Silkygirl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandra777 Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Is it common in the breed? In her 'family'? Personally I wouldn't If it is so rare as to be unheard of in the breed and she's fabulous in every other way then you may have reason to think about doing so. Issues which affect the quality of the dog's life are always top of my list when considering breeding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonwoman Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Is it common in the breed? In her 'family'? Personally I wouldn't If it is so rare as to be unheard of in the breed and she's fabulous in every other way then you may have reason to think about doing so. Issues which affect the quality of the dog's life are always top of my list when considering breeding. I would not breed her, you know the risk is there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 What did your dog's breeder say ? they are the ones to ask .It will be noted if the problem were in the lines . Did the breeder know of any other littermates with teh same problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkygirl Posted August 21, 2014 Author Share Posted August 21, 2014 I have emailed the breeder of my dog and she did not know of any problems with any of her dogs, her dog was the father of mine. She did not say anything about the litter mates. The mother of my dog was an import from another state but of good breeding. I am still trying to contact that breeder to find out if she has had any problems in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkygirl Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 I have emailed the breeder of my dog and she did not know of any problems with any of her dogs, her dog was the father of mine. She did not say anything about the litter mates. The mother of my dog was an import from another state but of good breeding. I am still trying to contact that breeder to find out if she has had any problems in the past. I have now contacted the breeder of the mother of my dog and she said that she had not come across this problem with her dogs and that she had bred a lot. She also stated that possibly not all people get back to the breeder re issues with their purchased dog either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salukifan Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 My 9 month old dog has just had surgery to create an opening in her lower tear duct as she was born without an opening. Another tear duct opening was too small and was widened. I was told that it is a congenital problem and that if I were to breed from her, there is a chance that the puppies may be fin,e but that there is no guarantee on that. Does anyone know about the statistics of this. My dog is an Australian Silky Terrier. Seriously, why risk it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystiqview Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 (edited) I have emailed the breeder of my dog and she did not know of any problems with any of her dogs, her dog was the father of mine. She did not say anything about the litter mates. The mother of my dog was an import from another state but of good breeding. I am still trying to contact that breeder to find out if she has had any problems in the past. I have now contacted the breeder of the mother of my dog and she said that she had not come across this problem with her dogs and that she had bred a lot. She also stated that possibly not all people get back to the breeder re issues with their purchased dog either. Bold Section - This may be often true - even if the dog was purchased as a pet only. Some times people may be to embarrassed or shy to approach the breeder. Some things are just bad luck. What is "bred a lot"?? I would possibly also do some more research on eye conditions associated with the breed itself. Just because this one breeder may not have had it happen before, it may have been produced by a close relative in another litter. I had a pup once with a deformed eye. It was like the second eyelid had not opened properly. The pup also had a totter when it walked - at first I attributed this to me having to revive the pup at birth and may have sustained a brain injury while it was without oxygen. I put that pup to sleep at 4 weeks as I was not comfortable in sending out a pup with two obvious deformities/possible issues. A PM of the pup confirmed a deformed eye - not just the eyelid not opening properly. A few weeks later I spoke to the owner of my bitch's grandfather, who responded "Oh Harley had produced eye issues before, don't worry about it?" OMG!!!! Now quite a few more years on and a different litter by the girls breeder going back into the same line as her and there is a pup with wobbly walking and twitching, possible Ataxia..... Related?? I don't know. Coincidence? - Maybe. I no longer have that line. Personally - I wouldn't. You may not produce it this generation or the next... But it might be something that pops up way later down the line, and the person who has that pup, may not be as forgiving of the breeder. Edited August 23, 2014 by Mystiqview Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Any condition which requires surgery just to get a "normal' function does not need to be part of any gene pool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VizslaMomma Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 (edited) I have now contacted the breeder of the mother of my dog and she said that she had not come across this problem with her dogs and that she had bred a lot. She also stated that possibly not all people get back to the breeder re issues with their purchased dog either. Sounds strange. I would think majority of people would get back in touch with a breeder IF they had medical expenses incurred because of the need for surgery. In my breed, I am aware of this happening. I would think your costs were quite high for the surgery. Edited August 23, 2014 by VizslaMomma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkygirl Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Yes the surgery cost $1650.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
persephone Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Yes the surgery cost $1650.00 and this is what you would be passing on to other owners should any puppies have this problem Breeding is ideally about bettering the breed.. and helping correct mistakes...not breeding using stock with a known serious problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christina Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Any dog with a congenital problem should not be bred from IMO. Its not exactly a small, non serious thing either. The idea of breeding is to breed the best & healthiest not with dogs that carry known problems. Desex & keep her as a pet & start again with another line if you want to breed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkygirl Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 Any dog with a congenital problem should not be bred from IMO. Its not exactly a small, non serious thing either. The idea of breeding is to breed the best & healthiest not with dogs that carry known problems. Desex & keep her as a pet & start again with another line if you want to breed. " Finding another line is going to be hard as my dog "grandfather's" line is one of the best winning show blood lines today. If I bought another dog I would have liked it to have come from that line, but now not knowing where the duct problem was inherited from, I am not so sure now. What I want to know is how do you track down which line has the problem when so many blood lines are involved in the breeding of a dog. Also how many generations does the problem continue for or is expressed in. If I bought another other dog how do I know that they wont have some other problem or the same one, as I have read that 20 to 25% of small dogs can be born with this condition. Silkies can also have other inherited problems as well, which I feel are worse than what my dog has. Her problem is only cosmetic as far as I am concerned which prevented me showing her. She did not have any discomfort from the extra tearing on one side of her face and certainly did not get any infections as a result of the issue. I just did not like the look of a stained face, which I read, could have been washed daily, if necessary, to improve the situation. I have seen many white coated dogs like maltese and some poodles which have a fair bit of tear staining, maybe they have the same problem, does that mean that those people should not breed from them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hankodie Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 There is a risk regardless of how small it is and like Persephone said you could be passing on this problem to the owners. Personally I think it would be very irresponsible to breed from her. I think with any dog breed one of the aims should always be to improve on the health of your own lines as well as the breed as a whole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silkygirl Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 There is a risk regardless of how small it is and like Persephone said you could be passing on this problem to the owners. Personally I think it would be very irresponsible to breed from her. I think with any dog breed one of the aims should always be to improve on the health of your own lines as well as the breed as a whole. I do agree with you on that, but what happens to all the lines in my dogs pedigree if I tell all the breeders of my problem do you think that they will stop breeding? I doubt it. As I said one of the lines involves one of the best breeders in Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mystiqview Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 Is there a forum list for silkies, people who keep a database of pedigrees etc? A health committee? Google and see what you find out. Are there health tests for your breed? If so make sure you only look at dogs from lines that are tested. Some breeds I know are not as up on health testing as border collies. And even in my breed, there are breeders who will not fully health test their breeding stock. If the condition is in 20-25% of small dogs including your breed! then your breed needs a serious wake up call! and don't have the attitude oh well! it's in 25% of the breed it's too hard. Steps on a breed level should be started to improve this statistic. Do you have the money to pay for the operation again and again? If you breed from this dog, you might be up for it yourself or be forced to pay for it from a disgruntled puppy buyer who is facing it. Just because of one line in one pedigree being a top winning show line. If the line is unhealthy and may or may not involve a large name kennel does not mean that it's right if they are breeding with known congenital faults. They would be just as irresponsible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hankodie Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 (edited) The difference is you now KNOW that your dog suffers from a congenital problem. It's been diagnosed and you've seen it first hand. So why on earth would you risk bringing more puppies into the world that could potentially have same condition? Like you said the surgery cost $1600, something the owners might have to fork over should their puppy end up with the same condition. Doesn't matter what the lines involve, health should always be a top priority. Edited August 23, 2014 by hankodie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steph M Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 There is a risk regardless of how small it is and like Persephone said you could be passing on this problem to the owners. Personally I think it would be very irresponsible to breed from her. I think with any dog breed one of the aims should always be to improve on the health of your own lines as well as the breed as a whole. I do agree with you on that, but what happens to all the lines in my dogs pedigree if I tell all the breeders of my problem do you think that they will stop breeding? I doubt it. As I said one of the lines involves one of the best breeders in Australia. That's a cop.out. you're absolving responsibility by saying 'but the other kids were doing it!' Who cares about the lines? The while point of breeding from awesome lines is to better the breed. Your dog may be amazing, but you run the risk of setting those lines back and producing deformed dogs, who then go out into the gene pool and potentially produce more issues. I would think in a breed so favoured by BYB and pet shops you would be keen to keep moving forward, not back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dotdashdot Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I have a breed plagued with not lots of issues, but two pretty severe ones. The mentality that everyone else is breeding with those lines so why shouldn't I? Is possibly the reason my breed has one of it's problems today! Besides a special bunch of backcrossed Dalmatians, every.single.dalmatian carries a double gene for high uric acid (=bladder stones). Probably because one line was favoured and they doubled up on the HUA gene and once that was done, there was no going back (it's a recessive gene, it had to be backcrossed out) You might now have a chance to STOP a problem becoming concrete in your breed. It may seem small and purely cosmetic to you, but the pet puppy buyer who has the same problem may not feel that way. My hopeful foundation bitch is only 11 months old, and as much as I can't wait to breed with her as she's stunning, I am prepared to desex her if I get a bad result from a health test. It's enough that my breed has to contend with a high rate of deafness and bladder stones, I am not going to add to that with something I could have prevented. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now