2010-11-11

Submitting Abnormal Results

I had a post typed out and then decided it's really not about that.

Based on something that happened at work yesterday, I'm curious about not just releasing (the third part)... but the second part of this, submitting abnormal test results regarding your dog.  (Testing is the first part of all this.)

Case in point: a client wanted us to do a patellar luxation OFA form for her dog.  It's a common problem in the breed but the attending veterinarian hadn't ever filled out a form for it before.  He noted that there is no way to grade each patella individually.  You can make notes about each patella, but then each patella is given the same grading, from "Normal" up to "Grade 4."  He then made a comment that people wouldn't submit abnormal results anyways.

Would you submit abnormal results and just not release, to provide beneficial data for your chosen breed.  Or would you withhold results completely?
--The attending veterinarian commented on the money factor.  It costs money to send the form in when the results are already known.

4 comments:

Robin Sallie said...

I would / have submitted them to both OFA and to the breeder.

Dawn said...

I plan on submitting all of Peace's results (when I get around to the testing) but if I were testing a non breeding animal that I knew had problems but wanted to see how bad, I might not spend the extra money.

Megan said...

I guess this is aimed at Dawn, because Robin doesn't breed but...

If you had pertinent health information on siblings of a dog being considered for breeding, would you use the results? Example: possible breeding dog has good hips/normal elbows but one sibling has HD and another has ED.

A while ago I heard of a breeder putting a certain percentage of purchase price into a savings account from each puppy. When the pups turned two, the owners were reimbursed a $$ amount for completing the health testing. The breeder had great compliance.

I've worked the numbers over in my head many times, in the off chance I ever breed dogs... it sounds like a good plan to me. I'm just not sure on the feasible part.

Dawn said...

I have only bred the one litter, so am no expert, but yes basically Yes I would love it if everyone always submitted results, but I also admit I have never submitted Magics hips. He was under 2 when we took them, as I wanted to make sure they looked ok before we started agility. He is neutered, so I never re-took them after age 2.

I used all the information I coulds find when considering stud dogs. I looked at records both here and in Finland where the stud was from. I looked at pictures of pups as well as the bitch to see what strengths the studs gave teh pups. I also tracked hips eyes, elbows, thyroid and any illnesses I could find out about in the descendents. I also talked to other breeders about historical health info on sibs.

My contract at the time of Graces breeding was that her breeder got input on the stud. I took the ones she wanted to use, ran them through my review and weeded out those that I was not comfortable with. In the end there were 2 brothers, one had produced before and one hadnt. I went with the one who had produced as I was able to see offspring (photos only, our litter was the first US litter for this boy) I contacted breeders oversees who had used him aand asked what they liked/dislied about their litters. I think I was pretty diligent about my choice at the time. Now, had I known I would get the curls I got I would not have gone this way-even though its cosmetic, its a pain.