Health & Clearance Information Imporant for Fox Red Labs -

 

When looking to purchases a Fox Red Labrador puppy, it is very important to ensure that the breeder you decide to purchase from is breeding for more than just depth of color and wonderful family pets. Over the years with an abundance of line breedings, the gene pool of fox reds has been kept very small. Therefore, when a breeder decides to produce Labradors of this color, they need to be willing to do extensive research of pedigrees and be willing to breed to other colors to aid in improving the overall health and conformation of the fox red color.

When looking for a breeder that produces fox reds in their breeding program, it is very important that the following questions be asked:

Do you have an overall goal for your breeding programs? This goal should be more than just producing wonderful pets for families. This is only a small part of the equation. The overall goal should DEFINITELY NOT be to produce dark fox red puppies.

Ask to see copies of clearances. OFA Hips, OFA Elbows, Eye CERFS, PRA, EIC, and CNM. It is very important that ALL of these clearances be part of their program. Cataracts, PRA and EIC is found often in this color. There are MANY breeders out there breeding without these clearances. If a breeder is breeding for the right reasons, they should be utilizing all tools available to them to lessen to possibility of producing puppies affected with hereditary issues. I have found in my research that certain lines of fox reds are prevalent PRA carriers, others are prevalent EIC carriers, and then other lines are prevalent carriers of cataracts.

It is very important that your breeder is doing annual eye CERFs to be certain that eye issues have not developed over time. CERF exams are similiar to human eye exams. Cataracts and other hereditary eye issues develop as dogs age and can not be DNA tested for. The only way a breeder can attempt to ensure that their breeding programs is not producing some hereditary eye issues is to do annual CERFs. As with all other clearances, there is never a 100% guarantee that you will not produce genetic issues, but it is very important that your breeder is taking every precaution available to us today.

 

Labrador Retrievers have a lifespan of 10 to 14 years generally.

 

        How to read the Health Clearances -

        Hip Dysplasia

        Example: LR-100E24M-PI

        To find out more about OFA Hip Clearances please Visit http://www.offa.org

LR = Breed Code, in this case a Labrador Retriever

100 = Ascending numerical identifier given to each animal within a breed evaluated as normal and given a number, in this case the 100th Labrador to be given a number

E = The phenotypic OFA evaluation, in this case E = Excellent, other normal phenotypes include G (Good) and F (Fair).

24 = The age in months when the testing was done, in this case 24 months

M = Sex, in this case a male

PI or VPI = Indicates that the animal has been permanently identified in the form of tattoo or microchip. If the dog is permanently identified AND the id has been verified and signed off by the attending veterinarian, a suffix of VPI is applied. If the animals lacks permanent identification, a suffix of NOPI is applied.

        Elbow Dysplasia

        Example: LR-EL500F36-PI

        To find out more about OFA Elbow Clearances please Visit http://www.offa.org

LR = Breed Code, in this case a Labrador Retriever

EL = OFA Database, in this case Elbow (EL)

500 = Ascending numerical identifier given to each animal within a breed evaluated as normal and given a number, in this case the 500th Lab to be given an elbow numbe

F = Sex

36 = The age in months when the testing was done, in this case 36 months

PI or VPI = Indicates that the animal has been permanently identified in the form of tattoo or microchip. If the dog is permanently identified AND the id has been verified and signed off by the attending veterinarian, a suffix of VPI is applied. If the animals lacks permanent identification, a suffix of NOPI is applied

         CERF (Canine Eye Registration Foundation)

         WHAT IS CERF?

The Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF) is an organization that was founded by a group of concerned, purebred owner/breeders who recognized that the quality of their dog's lives were being affected by heritable eye disease. CERF was then established in conjunction with cooperating, board certified, veterinary ophthalmologists, as a means to accomplish the goal of elimination of heritable eye disease in all purebred dogs by forming a centralized, national registry.

To find out more about CERF please Visit http://www.vmdb.org/cerf.htm

CERF Number can also be found on the OFA database.

Eye CERF

How to read the CERF numbers.

Example: LR-49912/2007

LR = Breed Code, in this case a Labrador Retriever

49912 = Ascending numerical identifier given to each animal within a breed evaluated as normal and given a number, in this case the 49912th Labrador Retriever to be given a Cerf number

2007 = Year CERF was done

Exercise Induced Collapse in Labrador Retrievers (EIC)

The Syndrome of EIC (the following information is taken directly from the University of Minnesota Veterinary School website)

Exercise-induced collapse (EIC) is a recently recognized disorder of increasing significance in Labrador Retrievers, especially those dogs used for hunting and field trials. Dogs affected with EIC develop muscle weakness, incoordination and life-threatening collapse after just five to fifteen minutes of field exercise and cannot participate in many types of strenuous activities. The condition also exists undetected in Labradors that are not routinely participating in such activity, and likely also exists to an as yet unknown extent in a number of other breeds. Dogs affected with EIC usually cannot continue with strenuous retriever training, but may live good lives as family pets.

 Centronuclear Myopathy (CNM)

CNM has also been called Labrador Muscular Myopathy or Type II myopathy, ARMD and/or HMLR.

Centronuclear Myopathy (CNM) is an inherited autosomal recessive disorder and is characterized by muscle weakness and exercise intolerance.
At birth, affected puppies are indistinguishable from their control littermates but as from two weeks of age, a progressive significant weight loss is observed. At one month of age, the absence of tendon reflexes is noticed and used as an early and reliable diagnosis. The age of onset of the disabling phenotype varies between 2 to 5 months, with an awkward gait and a decreased exercise tolerance, associated with a generalized muscle weakness. The pup will never recover from this disabling disease.

 

Progessive Retinal Atrophy (PRA)

The genetic disorder, prcd-PRA , causes cells in the retina at the back of the eye to degenerate and die, even though the cells seem to develop normally early in life. The “rod” cells operate in low light levels and are the first to lose normal function. Night blindness results. Then the “cone” cells gradually lose their normal function in full light situations. Most affected dogs will eventually be blind. Typically, the clinical disease is recognized first in early adolescence or early adulthood. Since age at onset of disease varies among breeds, you should read specific information for your dog. Diagnosis of retinal disease can be difficult. Conditions that seem to be prcd-PRA might instead be another disease and might not be inherited. OptiGen’s genetic test assists in making the diagnosis. It’s important to remember that not all retinal disease is PRA and not all PRA is the prcd form of PRA. Annual eye exams by a veterinary ophthalmologist will build a history of eye health that will help to diagnose disease.

Unfortunately, at this time there is no treatment or cure for PRA. If your dog is affected, you may find it helpful to read about other owners’ experiences living with blind dogs. (suggested links:www.eyevet.org and www.blinddogs.com)

Inheritance

Prcd-PRA is inherited as a recessive trait. This means a disease gene must be inherited from each parent in order to cause disease in an offspring. Parents were either “carrier” or affected. A carrier has one disease gene and one normal gene, and is termed “heterozygous” for the disease. A normal dog has no disease gene and is termed “homozygous normal” – both copies of the gene are the same. And a dog with two disease genes is termed “homozygous affected” – both copies of the gene are abnormal.

It’s been proven that all breeds being tested for prcd-PRA have the same disease caused by the same mutated gene. This is so, even though the disease might develop at different ages or with differing severity from one breed to another.

Although prcd-PRA is inherited, it can be avoided in future generations by testing dogs before breeding. Identification of dogs that do not carry disease genes is the key. These "clear" dogs can be bred to any mate - even to a prcd-affected dog which may be a desirable breeding prospect for other reasons. The chance of producing affected pups from such breedings depends on the certainty of test results. Again, you’ll find the specific information on certainty of test results for your dog by linking to breed specific information.

To find out more about PRA visit Optigen please Visit http://www.optigen.com