S U N L I L Y'S

HEALTH ISSUES AND GENETICS

​

We often talk about the different health issues that each breed deal with, and for many breeders it's easy to forget that not all of our puppybuyers actually know what all the illnesses and issues are. 

​

A dog from Kennel Sunlily will have parents with known DNA-status, eye-examined and x-rayed to make sure you have the best chance of getting a healthy pup. That's also why we want our puppybuyers to understand the necessarity of health testing their own pups as well when they become of age. Not only for me as a breeder to know what my dogs have produced, but also for you to make sure your dog is healthy or in the other case, not - so that you can give the best life for the pup to have a long and painfree life as long as possible. 

 

Following under we have been listing some of the most common issues and illnesses that affects the aussie, but there will always be new issues and illnesses that will develop and new tests to take, some are more relevant than others and these following issues are the ones that our breeding test for, either by x-rays, eye-examinations or DNA-tests. We advise you all to read more about all of them to make sure you are all aware of what the different issues means and how to avoid them as best can do. I will more than happily explain it in Norwegian if needed as well, or answer your questions.

 

 

​

​

HIP-DYSPLASIA (HD)
When the dog becomes of age (12 months and older) we x-ray the dog to check for hip-dysplasia. In Norway we read the results in a scale divided in 5. A and B is a dog free for any hip dysplasia, while C has a mild type, D moderate and E is the worst score and also often the most painfull one. The hips can have a different score than the other, meaning one hip can be A (which is excellent) and the other can be E. It is strongly recommanded not to use a dog with any grade of dysplasia in breeding.

​

Hip-dysplasia is when the ball and socket joint is malformed, meaning that the ball portion and its socket don’t properly meet one another, resulting in a joint that rubs and grinds instead of sliding smoothly. Even though a dog is having hip dysplasia it doesn't mean it is in lots of pain, but it's a bigger risk if the x-rays also show calcifiaction. Many dogs lives with HD a fully lifetime, but others will need medicaitons, and som even operation to live pain free, and some will even sadly have a shorter life especially if the response of the medication is good enough. Often will also heavy and extreme sports such as agility and flyball make the sympthoms worse, while rehabilitaion such as organized swimming will be beneficial. 

​

​

ELBOW-DYSPLASIA (ED)
Like with HD we take x-rays of the elbows when the dog become of age (this should be done at the same time as with HD) to check for elbow-dysplasia. Just like above the ball and socket joint is malformed, and could be causing lots of trouble and pain for your dog. 

We divide the results in four different scores. 0 is healthy and free elbows, while 1,2 and 3 is different degrees of elbow dysplasia were 3 is the worst. 

​

 

HEREDITARY CATARACT (HSF4)

HSF4 is as it name includes hereditary cataract. HSF4 are bilateral, meaning they occur in both eyes, but they may not appear at the same time.  If a cataract is noted on one eye, it is wise to recheck in six months to a year to see if one develops in the other.  Hereditary cataracts progress starting as small opacities and advancing, sometimes to the point of clouding the entire lens.  Dogs with these generalized cataracts are unable to distinguish anything but extremes of light and dark.  Cataracts do not cause the dog any pain and usually progress slowly enough that the dog adjusts to its vision loss.
[http://www.ashgi.org/home-page/genetics-info/eyes/cataracts]

HSF4 is heritaged if the parents carries copies of the "weak" gene, and this could easily be checked by taking DNA-tests to make sure both parents are CLEAR. Even one copy is enough for a dog to react. so it's strongly recommanded not to use a dog who even carries one copy, if doing so the partner should be CLEAR (+/+). You can also follow the developement regulary by doing an eye examine. 

​

COLLIE EYE ANOMALY (CEA) 

Collie Eye Anomaly (CEA) is a sometimes blinding congenital inherited eye disease.  All dogs with CEA have bilateral choroidal hypoplasia (CH), also called chorioretinal dysplasia, a thinning of the vascular tissue in the back of the eye which does not significantly impair vision.  Some dogs will also have optic nerve coloboma, in which the nerve tissue is not fully developed where the optic nerve enters the back of the eye.  A few will have retinal detachment.  Both of these more serious defects can be blinding.  CEA is present at birth and does not progress, so there is no worry that an affected puppy will get worse as it gets older.  It also does not cause the affected puppy any pain. [http://www.ashgi.org/home-page/genetics-info/eyes/collie-eye-anomaly]

CEA is heritaged if the parents carries copies of the "weak" gene, and this could easily be checked by taking DNA-test to make sure both parents are clear, or at least not doubling two carriers or one affected and one carrier. This disease will only be an issue if the dog is affected, meaning a dog carring only one copy is not affected in this case, unlike a dog carring one copy of HSF4. You can also see this in an eye examine.

PROGRESSIVE RETINAL ATROPHY (PRA)
PRA is a gradual degeneration of the retinal tissue.  The form found in Australian Shepherds is Progressive Rod Cone Degeneration (PRCD).  Age of onset is usually in the prime of life.  The first things an owner might notice is night-blindness.   The disease progresses, over months or years, until the dog is blind.  The disease is caused by a recessive gene mutation. [http://www.ashgi.org/home-page/genetics-info/eyes/progressive-retinal-atrophy]

PRA is heritaged if the parents carries copies of the "weak" gene, and this could easily be checked by taking DNA-test to make sure both parents are clear, or at least not doubling two carriers or one affected and one carrier. This disease will only be an issue if the dog is affected, meaning a dog carring only one copy is not affected in this case, unlike a dog carring one copy of HSF4. You can also see this in an eye examine.

DISTACHIASIS
This is a quite common problem with the breed that is seen more and more often. Many chose to still breed the dog as most people does not see it as a problem, but doing so we also see more cases of it, making it an even more common problem. The distachiasis is easily explained eyelashes pointing into the eye and can be annoying for the eyes of the dog. The distachiasis can occur any time in the dog's lifetime and can also occur in different degrees. It occures by heritage, meaning breeding a dog with such problems also can give a risk for giving the pups the same problem. 

MULTI DRUG RESITANCE GENE (MDR1) 
MDR1 is a quite common issue with many breeds especially in pastoral group, and also meaning it's an common issue with the aussie. The MDR1 codes for a protein that is responsible for protecting the brain by transporting potentially harmful chemicals away from the brain. In certain breeds, a mutation occurs in the MDR1 gene that causes sensitivity to Ivermectin, Loperamide, and a number of other drugs. Dogs with this mutation have a defect in the P-glycoprotein that is normally responsible for transporting certain drugs out of the brain. The defective protein inhibits the dog's ability to remove certain drugs from the brain, leading to a buildup of these toxins. As a result of the accumulation of toxins, the dog can show neurological symptoms, such as seizures, ataxia, or even death. [http://www.animalgenetics.us/Canine/Genetic_Disease/MDR1.asp]

This means that it is an issue that should be respected, but that being said there is tons of medicaments that does not contain the chemicals that an MDR1-affected (or also carrier) can react to but have the same affect. In other words by being aware of the situation you can avoid getting your dog in dangerous situations by letting your veterinarian aware, and also taking precautions and now what to give your dog and not (for instance lots of the tick preventions and deworming contains chemicals that is dangerous for a dog with MDR1). 

 

The best thing is for sure to not breed dogs that carry this gene, or is affected, but being aware of the situation also shows that a dog can live happily ignorant about being affected of the issue. You can make a DNA-test to be sure about the status of your dog. 

 

DEGENERATIVE MYELOPATHY (DM) 
Degenerative myelopathy is a progressive disease of the spinal cord in older dogs. The disease has an insidious onset typically between 8 and 14 years of age. It begins with a loss of coordination (ataxia) in the hind limbs. The affected dog will wobble when walking, knuckle over or drag the feet. This can first occur in one hind limb and then affect the other. As the disease progresses, the limbs become weak and the dog begins to buckle and has difficulty standing. The weakness gets progressively worse until the dog is unable to walk. The clinical course can range from 6 months to 1 year before dogs become paraplegic. If signs progress for a longer period of time, loss of urinary and fecal continence may occur and eventually weakness will develop in the front limbs. Another key feature of DM is that it is not a painful disease. [http://www.caninegeneticdiseases.net/dm/basicdm.htm]

DM is heritaged and can be checked by taken DNA-test. A dog carring DM could be having a very low risk for develope the illness, and even a dog affected of DM does not neccissary develope the illness.  

​

EPILEPSY (EPI) 
Epilepsy is just as with humans, an awful illness that can make the affected dog having seizures. It is strongly recommanded to be caution with close relatives when it comes to future breeding when having a documented case of EPI in family. Parents, siblings and offsprings should be taken out of breeding as well as the actually dog having EPI. 

We don't really know the exact genetical reason why or how the EPI developes, and also that it's not always because of genetical reasons, but either way it's an awful illness that is hard to live with for both the dog and the owners.  

​

​

​

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We often talk about CLEAR, CARRIER and AFFECTED dogs, but it's not always easy to understand what it all means. 
Very simple and easily explained (this is not correct in all cases) each dog heritage one copy from each parent, meaning two genes in total of most of the illnesses, or even color and tail length. 

CLEAR (+/+) is as simple as that - the dog is not carring any weak or affected genes and will not give a weak copy of a gene to its offspring either

CARRIER (+/-) means that the dog is carring one copy of a CLEAR gene and one copy of an AFFECTED gene. This means that it can give the weak copy to it's offspring, but also the clear one, but it should not be bred to either another carrier or an affected partner as it can result in offsprings being affected. 

​

AFFECTED (-/-) means that the dog is affected and have two weak copies. This means that it will always give a weak copy to it's offspring, and because of that it should always be bred to a CLEAR dog if mated. Then all of the puppies will become carriers of that disease or issue. An affected dog will, easily explained, be a "sick" dog - this depends on which disease it is affected of. 

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

When talking about color genetics or tail lengths we also talk about carriers, but the dogs are not sick even if we explain it the same way as above. 

 

Breeding two dogs with fully tails will only give you full tails, but breeding a dog that is born with a bob tail (or half tail if you want), also called NBT (short for Natural Bob Tail) you will be able to have both fully tails and also NBTs. This is because the NBT gene only needs one copy to produce NBT, the other gene is the gene for full tail. Breeding two dogs with NBT is discussed if it's good or not, as a fetus having two NBT copies will not survive and will be absored before birth in the mother's whomb.  In Norway it is allowed to do such matings, but there is regulations and strictly forbidden in other countries such as Finland.

When it comes to colors we have many different colorations. We talk about solid dogs and merle dogs, all of them both with and without tan markings. Red and black are solid, and we also have red merle and blue merle. The merle gene is a mutation, and two merle dogs should not be bred together as it can bring health issues such as blindness and deafness. 

The gene for black is dominant, meaning the dog only need one copy of the black gene to be a black dog. The fun thing is that blue merle is also a "black" dog, but the coloration has mutated so it looks grey spotted. 

The gene for red is recessive, meaning the dog needs both its copies to be the red gene to be seen as a red dog. This means that if only one of the parents have the red gene (even if the parent is red) the offspring will not be red but only carrying the gene of red. Like with blue merle, red merle is also a "red" dog, but the coloration has mutated. 

This means: 

- You can have a black dog carring one black copy and also carrying a red copy. If you breed this to a dog that is blue merle that carries one red copy, you can have all the combinations - red, black, red merle and blue merle. 
 

- You can have a black dog carrying black gene, and breed it to a red dog (this dog will have both of the genes being red) and all the offsprings will be black, but also carrying the red gene. You will not be able to see that the dog is carrying the red gene, as the dog will be seen as a black dog. 

- You can have a blue merle that carries one red copy, and breed it to a red dog (that still has two red copies) and you can have all the combinations - red, black, red merle and blue merle. 

- You can have a red merle (this will be a dog carring one red gene, and also have the red merle gene NOT the blue merle gene) to a red dog (that still has both copies being red). In this combination you will be able to find puppies that are red and red merle. 

- You can have a red merle (this will still be a dog carrying one red gene, and also have the red merle gene) and breed it to a black dog carrying the red gene, and you will have all the color combiantions. 

You can breed a blue merle that does not carry the red gene to a red dog, and you will then only get black and blue merle puppies, but they will all carry the red gene.  

And so on. 
As mentions above, you can also have variations in having tan markings or not. 
If you want to know more, you are more than welcome to ask. 


 

​

​