[gemy]

YORKIE HEALTH CONCERNS

Preamble: As a pet owner you truly want the opportunity to love and cherish your Yorkie for many years. A very large part of this encompasses buying a puppy from a healthy lineage and from a breeder who is committed to health with-in their breeding program. At the minimum for the breeder this means, knowing the health lineage, which can be spotty at best, when you start going generations back in time. It will mean the breeder doing at least the minimal health tests for their breeding dogs. Ideally you want to source from a breeder that makes health testing an intelligent informed decision, and will be pro-actively doing what genetic tests are available for their breed.

Current Health Organizations in NorthAmerica:

1. CHIC – The Canine Health Information Registry – www. caninehealthinfo.org: This organization accumulates the health information from various other health registries, so that one can see in one place what health tests have been done for a particular dog and or breed.They have worked with the National Clubs,all of which determine what health tests are required to earn a CHIC number.All clubs denote required tests as well as recommended tests. Please note the designation of a CHIC number does NOT mean all tests were passed, just that all tests were done. As a future owner of a dog, this should be one of your first stops on searching out what tests have been done by a breeder.

2. OFFA – The Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals: www.offa.org

This organization has a team of experts that evaluate both hip and elbow Xrays, to determine hip/elbow dysplasia, and or arthritic and other boney abnormalities at those joints. They will also post CERF results as they become available. www.cerf.org.

3. PENN HIP – another registry that certifies specifically hip dysplasia. Will do evaluations at 6months old for your breeding dogs. Thought to be a good indicator of future potential hip problems.

4. CERF - The canine eye registry foundation. www.web.vmdb.org..

All board certified opthamologists, and only they can certify your dog clear of PRA, and cataracts and some other eye conditions thought to be genetic.

As a future owner you can go to each of these organizations to see what health tests the breeder does.

Note: There is a lag time between testing being done and the results posted,sometimes as much as 6-8 weeks time. How-ever some services now allow electronic registrations.

THE TOP TEN HEALTHCONCERNS

**Please note the YTCA as of August 2013 – requires LP evaluation to be registered with the OFFA and CERF’s to earn a CHIC number – they also recommend Thyroid Testing, Legg Calve Perthes and Hip Dysplasia (both are OFFA evaluated and the results should be posted, if the breeder elects to post them.

In relative order of frequency in theYorkie

1. Luxating Patella or loose knees. The bane of most toy breeds!. Can be mild ie a grade one, or moderate to severe Grades 3/4. The higher grades usually require surgery. That cost alone is anywhere from $2000 to $4500 depending on the complexity of the repair required.

All breeding pairs should have an LP evaluation and be free of LP. This will be shown on the healthdatabase known as CHIC, and or OFFA. This is thought to be a polygenetic condition especially if present in both knees. There is some dispute about this condition as to it being a purely genetic one. Environmental conditions are argued to be at least in some cases a causative nature of the condition. No genetic test is available to breeders.

2. Retained baby teeth. Usually will need to be surgically removed, often doneat the time of neutering/spaying. This can/will increase the cost of the surgery. Prices vary a whole lot by vet.

3. Hip Dysplasia and or Leggs Perthes. Currently on the rise. An FHO surgery is again somewhere in the neighbourhood of LP surgery. Both conditions are thought to be polygeneticones and as of yet no genetic testis available to breeders.

Breeding Pairs are recommended to have Xrays done and submitted to OrthopedicFoundation for Animals for evaluation and to be clear of hip disease. OrthopedicFoundation for Animals. This evaluation can not be done prior to two years old. This foundation will evaluate the hips from Fair/Good to Excellent; all those are passing grades.


4. Liver shunt and or Liver Disease. Quite prevalent in the breed. Extrahepaticshunts require surgery and again depending on the complexity, surgery can range anywhere from $1500-$3000+ dollars. ABATS test was recommended by the YTCA but as of August 2013 their site is currently undergoing a revamp, and the information was not available when I searched their site.

5. PRA - Progressive Retinal Atrophy. Breeding pairs should be examined at one,three, five years old by a Board certified opthamologist and be registered on the CERF data base, and you should see this test done under CHIC. There is now a genetic test for the PRAgene. But not for cataracts, and so regular eye examinations will still need to be done.

6. Hyperuricosuria and related Bladder Problems. ie Bladder Stones. This is the one of the DNA tests available that breeders can see if their breeding stock is a carrier, clear, or affected. But it only tests for one particular type of Bladder Stone.

7. Allergies/Skin Problems/Digestion problems. These are all variable. Many yorkies can be fussy eaters, have allergies to different things, and have gas etc.

8. CT or Collapsing Trachea. Neither breeding pair should suffer from this disease. The YTCA does not mention this as a recommended test or evaluation.



9. AAI (AtlantoAxial Instability) and orChiari. Again the prevalence with-in the breed is un-known, but for sure not unknown here at YorkieTalk. There is no genetic test for these conditions. Both these conditions can be life threatening and or severely affect the quality of life for the puppy.

As you can see from this list the concerns are many.


There are a couple of other DNA tests available to breeders:



A. The Color Dilution Alopecia Genetic test. This gene if present is associated with what is known as Blue Baby.

B. The Primary Lens Luxation test. PLL test. At this point it is unknown how prevalent this might be in the breed.



In closing: Few breeders will do all these tests. But a good breeder should be informed on the top 3 issues, and have some knowledge of most of the others. I would hope that future puppy buyers will support breeders who do at least the health testing recommended by the YTCA which is quite minimal to earn a CHIC number.