Labrador health and testing
When buying a puppy, both parents should be hip and elbow scored and have a current clear BVA eye certificate. Labradors can easily be DNA tested to see if they carry the gene for the *conditions below. As long as one parent is tested clear, puppies won't be affected. Some conditions are more serious than others but all can affect quality of life.
Hip scoring - Hip dysplasia is a horrible condition and any dog being bred from should be hip scored. The score for dogs being bred from should ideally be below the breed mean score which is currently 9. The total score for both hips goes up to 108. Although genetics do play a part in hip dysplasia, environment and how the puppy is raised will also have a bearing on the hip score.
Elbow Scoring - We consider elbow scoring to be just as important as the hips. Elbow dysplasia is becoming increasingly common in Labradors. 0:0 is the best score; 3:3 is the worst. New guidelines from the BVA and the KC, state only dogs with elbow scores of 0:0 should be bred from but a dog is more than just an elbow score, although we wouldn't use a stud dog with a 1 elbow. The hips and elbows can be scored by the BVA or ANKC.
BVA Eye scheme - Every dog being bred from should have a clear current BVA eye certificate - test every year.
*Progressive Retinol Atrophy (PRA) - PRA is a disease that causes the retina of the eye to degenerate slowly over time, resulting in eventual blindness.
*Central Nuclear Myopathy (CNM) - CNM is a debilitating, ultimately fatal disease. It usually shows up at around two weeks of age, weight loss is observed with a lack of reflexes and an awkward gait which gets worse with age. CNM is more common in working lines, although it has now appeared in some show lines.
*Exercise Induced Collapse (EIC) - Dogs affected with EIC develop muscle weakness, incoordination and collapse after just five to fifteen minutes of exercise. It often needs a certain trigger for an attack. EIC can be life threatening in extreme cases: if the dog is swimming and has an attack, it could easily drown.
*Hereditary Nasal Parakeratosis (HNPK) - Affected dogs show scales and crusts on the nose pad and can develop painful fissures on the nose. The nose can bleed and will be very sore. In extreme cases the feet are affected too.
*Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) - Degenerative myelopathy is a progressive disease of the spinal cord in older dogs. The disease has a late onset typically between 8 and 14 years of age. It starts with loss of coordination in the hind legs and the weakness gets progressively worse until the dog is unable to walk. It usually takes between 6 months to 1 year before dogs become paraplegic.
*SD2 - SD2 (also known as dwarfism) is a genetic condition that causes long bones to stop growing before being fully developed. Dogs inheriting SD2 develop legs that are shorter than the recognised breed standard despite a normal sized body. Most commonly, front limbs are more severely affected than hind legs with this disorder. The ulna and radius bones of the front limbs may also be slightly more bent in comparison to normal dogs.
*Cystinuria – Dogs with this disease fail to reabsorb cystine in their kidneys, thus leading to the formation of crystals in the urinary tract, which result in urinary obstruction, stranguria (difficulty in passing urine) and hematuria (presence of blood in the urine). Affected male dogs typically show signs between 6 and 14 months of age but female dogs tend to develop signs later. Dogs with cystinuria often have frequent episodes of urinary tract inflammation that can lead to kidney failure and death, if not treated.
*Copper Toxicity (Labrador Retriever type) - This is an inherited metabolic disease affecting dogs, resulting in chronic liver failure. Dogs with copper toxicosis have a decreased ability to excrete dietary copper from the body resulting in excessive copper storage in tissues and organs, including the liver, which can result in liver damage and subsequent cirrhosis. Though the age of onset and speed of disease progression are variable, most affected dogs will present in middle age with non-specific signs of liver dysfunction including weight loss, lethargy, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain. In late stages of disease, affected dogs may develop signs of liver failure including abdominal swelling, jaundice, and neurological dysfunction. Dogs found to have one or two copies of the mutation may benefit from certain therapies. Copyright © Paw Print Genetics.
*MCD - Macular corneal dystrophy (MCD) is a hereditary eye disease which, although painless, causes severe visual impairment in affected dogs. Dogs affected with MCD will develop cloudy eyes, due to an abnormal accumulation of carbohydrates (known as glycosaminoglycans) in their corneas. The only treatment for the disease in people is to surgically perform a corneal transplant; however this has not yet been performed successfully in the dog for the treatment of MCD.
*Stargardt disease - Stargardt disease is an inherited eye disease affecting dogs and is caused by the degeneration of both rod and cone type photoreceptor cells of the retina. Affected dogs present prior to 10 years of age with signs of vision loss including dilated pupils and decreased response to light. Dogs may not completely lose their vision but will develop significant loss of vision, especially in well lit environments.
Dilute gene - This is a D gene that if inherited from both parents, the colour of the dog appears diluted. Black appear charcoal, yellow appear champagne and chocolate appears silver. Labradors only come in Black, yellow and chocolate but there are many unscrupulous breeders that are breeding silver, charcoal and champagne Labradors for money - charging up to three times the price of a normal Labrador and claiming that they are rare. We test our dogs to ensure that our dogs will never contribute to producing any such puppies.
*Long coat gene - A gene that causes a fluffy / long coat in the Labrador. A Labrador should have a short dense coat and anything else is a fault and is incorrect.
Elbow Scoring - We consider elbow scoring to be just as important as the hips. Elbow dysplasia is becoming increasingly common in Labradors. 0:0 is the best score; 3:3 is the worst. New guidelines from the BVA and the KC, state only dogs with elbow scores of 0:0 should be bred from but a dog is more than just an elbow score, although we wouldn't use a stud dog with a 1 elbow. The hips and elbows can be scored by the BVA or ANKC.
BVA Eye scheme - Every dog being bred from should have a clear current BVA eye certificate - test every year.
*Progressive Retinol Atrophy (PRA) - PRA is a disease that causes the retina of the eye to degenerate slowly over time, resulting in eventual blindness.
*Central Nuclear Myopathy (CNM) - CNM is a debilitating, ultimately fatal disease. It usually shows up at around two weeks of age, weight loss is observed with a lack of reflexes and an awkward gait which gets worse with age. CNM is more common in working lines, although it has now appeared in some show lines.
*Exercise Induced Collapse (EIC) - Dogs affected with EIC develop muscle weakness, incoordination and collapse after just five to fifteen minutes of exercise. It often needs a certain trigger for an attack. EIC can be life threatening in extreme cases: if the dog is swimming and has an attack, it could easily drown.
*Hereditary Nasal Parakeratosis (HNPK) - Affected dogs show scales and crusts on the nose pad and can develop painful fissures on the nose. The nose can bleed and will be very sore. In extreme cases the feet are affected too.
*Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) - Degenerative myelopathy is a progressive disease of the spinal cord in older dogs. The disease has a late onset typically between 8 and 14 years of age. It starts with loss of coordination in the hind legs and the weakness gets progressively worse until the dog is unable to walk. It usually takes between 6 months to 1 year before dogs become paraplegic.
*SD2 - SD2 (also known as dwarfism) is a genetic condition that causes long bones to stop growing before being fully developed. Dogs inheriting SD2 develop legs that are shorter than the recognised breed standard despite a normal sized body. Most commonly, front limbs are more severely affected than hind legs with this disorder. The ulna and radius bones of the front limbs may also be slightly more bent in comparison to normal dogs.
*Cystinuria – Dogs with this disease fail to reabsorb cystine in their kidneys, thus leading to the formation of crystals in the urinary tract, which result in urinary obstruction, stranguria (difficulty in passing urine) and hematuria (presence of blood in the urine). Affected male dogs typically show signs between 6 and 14 months of age but female dogs tend to develop signs later. Dogs with cystinuria often have frequent episodes of urinary tract inflammation that can lead to kidney failure and death, if not treated.
*Copper Toxicity (Labrador Retriever type) - This is an inherited metabolic disease affecting dogs, resulting in chronic liver failure. Dogs with copper toxicosis have a decreased ability to excrete dietary copper from the body resulting in excessive copper storage in tissues and organs, including the liver, which can result in liver damage and subsequent cirrhosis. Though the age of onset and speed of disease progression are variable, most affected dogs will present in middle age with non-specific signs of liver dysfunction including weight loss, lethargy, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain. In late stages of disease, affected dogs may develop signs of liver failure including abdominal swelling, jaundice, and neurological dysfunction. Dogs found to have one or two copies of the mutation may benefit from certain therapies. Copyright © Paw Print Genetics.
*MCD - Macular corneal dystrophy (MCD) is a hereditary eye disease which, although painless, causes severe visual impairment in affected dogs. Dogs affected with MCD will develop cloudy eyes, due to an abnormal accumulation of carbohydrates (known as glycosaminoglycans) in their corneas. The only treatment for the disease in people is to surgically perform a corneal transplant; however this has not yet been performed successfully in the dog for the treatment of MCD.
*Stargardt disease - Stargardt disease is an inherited eye disease affecting dogs and is caused by the degeneration of both rod and cone type photoreceptor cells of the retina. Affected dogs present prior to 10 years of age with signs of vision loss including dilated pupils and decreased response to light. Dogs may not completely lose their vision but will develop significant loss of vision, especially in well lit environments.
Dilute gene - This is a D gene that if inherited from both parents, the colour of the dog appears diluted. Black appear charcoal, yellow appear champagne and chocolate appears silver. Labradors only come in Black, yellow and chocolate but there are many unscrupulous breeders that are breeding silver, charcoal and champagne Labradors for money - charging up to three times the price of a normal Labrador and claiming that they are rare. We test our dogs to ensure that our dogs will never contribute to producing any such puppies.
*Long coat gene - A gene that causes a fluffy / long coat in the Labrador. A Labrador should have a short dense coat and anything else is a fault and is incorrect.
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