Tag archives: canine counseling

If you are like me, 2021 is a welcomed sight. As you all experienced, 2020 was full of challenges related to COVID-19. At Paw Print Genetics, some of us have been working from home since March and really miss being able to get together with our colleagues. The laboratory needed to go to different shifts to allow for social distancing, which really put a strain on our turn-around times. We have experienced delays in getting laboratory reagents that allow us to do our testing, as they are being used by other laboratories for COVID testing, and the US Postal Service has been struggling even before the holidays to deliver our kits and your samples in a timely manner.

Even with these challenges, I have kept track of what I like to call the COVID silver linings. First, in Washington State, veterinary services were deemed essential business so although many restaurants and gyms were forced to close, Paw Print Genetics (PPG) remained open. This meant that we were able to serve our customers and keep our staff employed. Even with social distancing and shift work, we were able to meet our published turnaround times for more than 90% of cases! In ...

Paw Print Genetics is celebrating the Australian Cattle Dog this week. Although generally considered a relatively healthy breed, like other purebred dogs, the Australian Cattle Dog is known to inherit several genetic diseases. Testing your dog prior to breeding prevents the disease through avoidance of producing puppies at-risk. This brief article describes a few of the diseases that can currently be tested for in Australian Cattle Dogs.  You can find a complete list and more information at  https://www.pawprintgenetics.com/products/breeds/91/.  All of these tests performed by Paw Print Genetics are accepted by the Orthopedic Foundation For Animals. 

Cystinuria is an inherited disease that is known to affect amino acid absorption by the kidneys. This abnormality leads to cysteine crystals and/or stones in the bladder that can block the ureters or urethra and stop the normal flow of urine. If not treated, urinary stones can cause urinary tract infections, kidney failure and even death.

Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) is a late-onset neurological disease found in over 100 breeds of dog.  Known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in humans, affected dogs typically begin to show signs of neurological weakness in ...

Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (NCL) is a group of inherited mammalian diseases characterized by abnormal accumulations of a metabolic byproduct known as lipofuscin in nerve cells and various organs of the body.  The accumulation of lipofuscin eventually leads to progressive nerve cell dysfunction and severe neurological symptoms including behavioral changes, balance issues, muscle atrophy, uncoordinated movement, blindness, head tremors and seizures.  Other organ systems can also be affected to various degrees depending on the severity of lipofuscin build up.  Most dogs will die due the disease or are euthanized when neurologic problems progress to the point of preventing normal daily activities.  While most types of NCL begin to cause clinical signs around 1 to 2 years of age in dogs, the age of onset and speed of progression vary significantly upon the type of NCL.  Variable presentation and progression among NCL types is expected given that multiple genes can cause this clinical condition.

Unfortunately, details about disease incidence and prevalence within a breed are often difficult to obtain including NCL.  Without going into an in-depth discussion about statistics, among other conditions, in order to estimate incidence and prevalence of disease for an entire population, individuals ...

A fascinating and enlightening weekend was enjoyed by those attending the AKC-CHF Parent Club health conference in St. Louis, MO August 9-11.  Thank you to the AKC-CHF and sponsor Nestle Purina for hosting such a fun, educational, informative and classy event!  I was able to attend many presentations on new gene discoveries and gene testing/diagnostics available and coming for our dogs. In addition, I learned about new treatments and therapies including stem cell therapy for injuries, certainly not my area of expertise but absolutely fascinating and exciting for the future of dogs and man!

Something I noticed from many attendees with regard to new genetic testing were many questions and a seeming frustration and/or concern about what to do with this new information - namely what does a dog "with the gene" mean for the breeding of that dog?  One thing that people were told was that dogs may have a dominant gene and in turn have the potential to produce affected puppies, but that they should be concerned about the "gene pool" and about removing dogs with the gene from breeding, especially if a large percentage of dogs in the breed have the gene mutation ...