16 April 2009 HD ( Hip Dysplasia)

As the first Welsh corgi cardigan kennel in DK we started in january 2007 to publish the HD status of our dogs on our homepage. As we are aiming against breeding family and herding dogs the health of our dogs are of highest priority.

What is HD?

HD is a genetic inherited diseas that affects the hipjoints of the dog.

What are the symptoms?

The average symptoms are pains in the hips, which often shows after the dog has rested. To "get on the feets" again can be very painfull and the dog wails. The degree of impact on the health of dog variates depending on the dog and not on the degree of the HD. To some it is a surprice after an xray that the dog has HD, as no symptoms have shown; for others the reason for doing the xray is that the dog wails.

Who has HD?

You can only tell if the dog has HD by doing an Xray. No movement analysis nor behavior analysis or peedigree study will tell you for sure if your dog suffers from HD. The only way to know is the get the xray picture evaluated by experts. The degree of HD is evaluated as follows:

• HD A1 or HD A2, free
• HD B1 free
• HD B2 borderline, needs reevaluation
• HD C, mild
• HD D, moderate
• HD E, severe

How many Welsh Corgi Cardigans suffers from HD?

Actually nobody knows! What is known is that

• it only develops if the genetic inheritance is there
• the probability raises in a litter where one or both parents has HD or carries genes for HD
• the statistics indicates that the probability for HD in a litter and the degree of HD found are depended on the degree of HD in the parents

Where does it come from?

HD is known to develop based on 3 factors:

nurisment
exercise
genetic inheritance

How it develops is uncertain but one thing is absolutely sure:

HD will only develop if the genetic inheritance is there.

What do we do to prevent HD?

First step is to identify the visibel HD. So to know your dogs HD status you need to do the xray and send the pictures for evaluation. Then you actually know what is the current visibel status at your dog.

Second step is the decision wether to breed from your evaluated dog or not.

In Kennel Arddun we have decided to expand the demands for our breeding compared to the danish corgi club and are using the Dutch welsh corgi cardigan club as our consultants in this area. In this club we have guidelines and rules to follow to protect the future puppies from a life in pain. You can breed according to following rules

• HD A1, HD A2 and HD B1 can be used in breeding program without limitations
• you have to apply for permission if you want to breed with a HD C. And you are only allowed to breed with a HD A1/A2 in that case

Our belive is as a serious breeder you will make a lot of conciderations and check up on the HD status in your bloodlines before you breed with your dogs.

As no genetic test is yet avaible at the moment only carefull selection of dogs for breeding based on HD status and history of HD in the pedigree can help us to try to avoid HD in our dogs.

We will emphasize that no HD evaluation is demanded in the danish welsh corgi club before breeding so what we are doing in Kennel Arddun is completely voluntary and based on our emphaty with the dogs.

Who are the experts that can evaluate HD status?

It is individual who dogowners chooses as their experts. In DK only evaluations made by DKK are accepted by the DKK. An exception is if the dog e.g. has an OFA evaluation before it enters DK, then the DKK accept this evaluation in relation to breeding( http://www.dansk-kennel-klub.dk/0/123). In Holland evaluations done by the Dutch kennel club and the OFA are accepted in relation to breeding ( Orthopedic Foundation for Animals). Due to

• the schism from our point of view in the DKK policy
• after many years OFA has gained high expertice within evaluating HD in Corgies
• obaying the rules of the dutch corgi cardigan club

we in Kennel Arddun have decided to use OFA as our experts.

Puppy buyers worst nightmare

When you buy a puppy we recomment you to get the puppy xrayed due to the above mentioned information. This should be done before the age of 2 years, where your garantie by law expires. Be aware that if you buy a puppie with any kind of discount the garantie will not apply. Only if you buy a puppy full price, you are covered by the law of 2 years garantie. If your pup has HD you are entitled to discount depending on the degree and in worst case entitled for a new puppie. As we are a DKK registred breeder we will always recomment you to be a member of DKK. As a member you will always be able to get information and support from DKK if you ever should get in such a tragic situation.

20-01-2009

Nuckle over/ extreme twisted front paws

This condition I have seen very often in the showring all over Europe, but nobody seems to make any objections. First time I heard about this was with my second litter, where we after matting 3 different bitches with same male, had at least 3 offsprings with this condition. Later I have bought 2 bitches turning out to have the same condition in different degrees.

I went to my specialist and got the reason for this condition. It is very often seen in Great Danes and my specialist have performed many operations on corgies for exactly the same. It is the question of growth of the Radius bone in the front leg. It continues to growth ( and grows faster than) after the parallel bone ulna stops. In some cases this results in the nuckle over syndrome, in other cases the Radius bones pushes the paw out to a side forcing the dog to walk on the side of the paw instead of on the pad and sometimes you will see both conditions on same leg.

It is very urgent to get into treatment as soon as possible with this condition. This as it must be done before closure of the distal radial physic The vet will break the ulna bone and it will be able to follow the growth of the radius bone. After recovering of the fracture, the dog will walk normaly and the limping is disappeared.

However if you do not recognize the condition before after closure of the distal radial physic the dog has to live with this condition for the rest of his/her life. You as the owner must be very carefull with the dog, never allowing the dog to jump, especially down jumping will put enormous presure on the frontleg and the weakness here.

Earlier the condition was related to wrong nurisment of the dog, overweight, wrong exercises e.g. the same way HD has been explained earlier, but now the gene for this condition has been found in the yorkshire terrie, which could be the breaking point for explaining the disease.

Fortunately and unfortunately this condition has been discussed between swedish judges. Fortunately the judges have started awareness regading this. However it is even more important that the judges knows how this condition looks like. I was showing in Sweden and the judge claimed that my dog had this condition. As an exhibitor I am not allowed to speak, so I hold my tongue, but as the owner of two bitches at home which has the condition I was more experienced in this area. But due to exhibition rules I could not tell the judge that he was wrong and did not know what he was talking about. Unfortunately I do.

HD

We have choosen to get our dogs xrayed in Holland and we have asked OFA to evaluete their HD status.  

It is not our intention to get these results aknowleged by DKK, who do not accept OFA evaluations. The purpose for us is to get indications so we can avoid breeding with dogs having HD Status C or worse.

There are no demands for xray of corgies in Denmark. As our aim is to breed healthy herdingdogs, it is very essential for us to know that the dogs used for breeding are in excellent phsysical condition.

As OFA has many years of experience of Corgie HD status evaluation and as the Dutch kennel club demands HD status A1/2 or B1/2 to be accepted for breeding of corgies- we have choosen to follow the Dutch standard for approval for breeding.

HD

EPI/PAA and other genetic related diseases:

Overview of know diseases in corgies: