Tag archives: dog inherited diseases

Genetics play an enormous role in the health of dogs walking through the doors of any veterinary hospital. However, the treatment of an animal with an inherited disease rather than proactive testing of the genetic mutations responsible for disease has been the traditional role of the veterinarian. With an increase in the availability of canine genetic disease testing and great improvements in the ease and convenience of ordering genetic testing through Paw Print Genetics, more and more dog breeders and their clients are having genetic testing performed preemptively and learning the benefits of these powerful technologies. As a veterinarian, understanding the basics of genetic testing and how genetic test results can be used to prevent and diagnose disease will keep you current and prepared for your clients as these technologies inevitably become a more significant part of clinical veterinary practice.

One of the more challenging but important aspects of canine genetic testing is deciding what recommendations to make when a dog or one of its relatives are found to be at risk for (or affected with) an inherited disease. Appropriate testing recommendations for the relatives of affected dogs may be crucial for prevention of additional affected puppies and identification of ...

Intestinal cobalamin malabsorption, also known as Amnionless Deficiency, Cobalamin Deficiency, Imerslund-Grasbeck Syndrome (IGS), and Vitamin B12 Deficiency, is an inherited disease found in the Australian Shepherd and related breeds (Miniature Australian Shepherd, Toy Australian Shepherd, Miniature American Shepherd). The disease is inherited in a recessive fashion and as such, dogs that inherit two copies of the mutation are at risk for the disease. The disease is caused by the inability to make adequate amounts of a protein that plays a role in absorption of certain nutrients from the intestinal tract and kidneys, including the B vitamin, cobalamin. Affected dogs have increased levels of methylmalonic acid in their urine (a sign of cobalamin deficiency) after weaning, but symptoms of disease may not be recognized by owners for months or years. Symptoms of disease include anorexia, lethargy, poor weight gain, poor muscle mass, and in rare circumstances, a severe neurological dysfunction called hepatic encephalopathy that can lead to altered mental state, seizures, coma and death. Affected dogs require treatment with cobalamin supplementation throughout their life.

Because of the severity of this condition and the fact that it is treatable, this test has been added to the breed-specific panels for Australian Shepherds and related breeds ...

We train our dogs to do certain things, like sit, stay, lay down, retrieve or even run through an agility course. Training a dog takes patience and persistence. It means providing consistent clues that your dog will eventually come to understand if done in the same manner. But I’ve recently come to wonder, have I trained my dog, or has she trained me?

Every time we sit down to eat dinner, our dog Daisy runs to the front door, whips around and stares at us. Invariably, one of us says, “Daisy needs to go out” and my daughter groans, gets up and lets her out.   Most of the time, Daisy does her business, but sometimes, she runs out to the middle of the yard, expecting my daughter to follow her and hopefully play.  This has led us to believe that Daisy’s behavior of running to the door and then staring us down, has trained us to respond in a particular way, and has us wondering if she brags to the other dogs that she has trained her human to stand up and open the door on command.

Likewise, Trixie the Wiener Dog has my husband trained to take ...