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Hello all,
Recently the vlcak community lost a dog to degenerative myelopathy. Forrest Crying Wolf was his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerative_myelopathy
The owners (they are in Italy) are hoping to use Forrest's plight to the spotlight at how important testing for degenerative myelopathy as well as genetic prevention are.
Here is the video, just a warning, it does show a dog in advanced stages of DM where the rear legs are paralyzed form the disease. it is very sad and if you don't want to view that, you can stop the video when the music changes and the "letter" appears (I assume that the letter is that either he tested positive for DM or the diagnosis was DM).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfuFAPGLr0U
Forrest's death is hitting close to home for us even though he was thousands of miles away. Forrest's littermate, Flash, is Pollux's maternal grandmother.
Pollux is a carrier of DM (and so is Luna). While he will never develop the disease if we're not careful with who he's bred to it is possible that his offspring could be affected with DM (affected dogs don't always develop DM symptoms but only affected dogs develop symptoms). Kiri and Zorro are "normal" or "clear" meaning their offspring will not develop symptoms, even if they are bred to an affected dog (worst case is that they will be carriers).
DM is something that can easily be bred out in as little as TWO generations but many breeders refuse to test for it. I don't know why but many claim it's not in their lines even though it doesn't usually start to show signs until later in life and is commonly misdiagnosed as hip dysplasia. Other breeders claim it is not a big issue. Statistically, 25% of dogs in the breed that are susceptible to the disease are affected while 50% are carriers - so that's 75% of the population can have offspring who is affected. I wonder how big it has to be before they consider it a serious issue?
The OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) website has test kits as well as a list of breeds that are at risk. Breeds derived from those breeds are also at risk (for example, Shiloh Shepherds, Saarloos Wolfhounds, and Czechoslovakian Vlcaks were all derived in part form German shepherds so they're at risk, too). There are also universities in the USA who are doing tests on DM (University of Florida in Ganesville is one of the leaders). Please have your dog tested and if you buy a puppy, insist that the breeder tests the parents.
Recently the vlcak community lost a dog to degenerative myelopathy. Forrest Crying Wolf was his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerative_myelopathy
The owners (they are in Italy) are hoping to use Forrest's plight to the spotlight at how important testing for degenerative myelopathy as well as genetic prevention are.
Here is the video, just a warning, it does show a dog in advanced stages of DM where the rear legs are paralyzed form the disease. it is very sad and if you don't want to view that, you can stop the video when the music changes and the "letter" appears (I assume that the letter is that either he tested positive for DM or the diagnosis was DM).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfuFAPGLr0U
Forrest's death is hitting close to home for us even though he was thousands of miles away. Forrest's littermate, Flash, is Pollux's maternal grandmother.
Pollux is a carrier of DM (and so is Luna). While he will never develop the disease if we're not careful with who he's bred to it is possible that his offspring could be affected with DM (affected dogs don't always develop DM symptoms but only affected dogs develop symptoms). Kiri and Zorro are "normal" or "clear" meaning their offspring will not develop symptoms, even if they are bred to an affected dog (worst case is that they will be carriers).
DM is something that can easily be bred out in as little as TWO generations but many breeders refuse to test for it. I don't know why but many claim it's not in their lines even though it doesn't usually start to show signs until later in life and is commonly misdiagnosed as hip dysplasia. Other breeders claim it is not a big issue. Statistically, 25% of dogs in the breed that are susceptible to the disease are affected while 50% are carriers - so that's 75% of the population can have offspring who is affected. I wonder how big it has to be before they consider it a serious issue?
The OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) website has test kits as well as a list of breeds that are at risk. Breeds derived from those breeds are also at risk (for example, Shiloh Shepherds, Saarloos Wolfhounds, and Czechoslovakian Vlcaks were all derived in part form German shepherds so they're at risk, too). There are also universities in the USA who are doing tests on DM (University of Florida in Ganesville is one of the leaders). Please have your dog tested and if you buy a puppy, insist that the breeder tests the parents.
Good for you for trying to raise awareness about the disease.
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