A few examples include :
Hip dysplasia
- hip displasia.jpg (193.89 KiB) Viewed 24 times
during growth. The ball and the socket of the hip joint grows at the
different rates. As a result the ball doesn't fit properly in the socket.
The joint becomes loose and moves from position over time resulting in
damage of ligaments and of course hip breakdown. This condition affects
larger dog breeds and are likely to be seen in dogs at one or two years.
Dogs affected have pain and weakness in the hind legs, are wobbly
and don't like to rise up when sitting or lying down. Will not like to
climb stairs and have a limp.
Luxating patella
This genetic condition usually affects smaller breeds. It's a condition in
which the knee cap slides out of it normal place at times during knee flexing or
bending. The dog will start skipping as it walks on three legs.
The dog may give a loud yelp as this happens before it starts using three legs
because the patella slip could be painful.
Some dog breeds carry gene responsible for deafness and blindness. The
CNGB3 deletion and CNGB3 SNP genes cause day blindness in breeds like:
Alaskan sled dog breeds, Siberian Husky, Miniature Australian Shepherd, and
German Shorthaired Pointer. Also dogs most likely to suffer from blindness
include French bulldogs, Shih-Tzu, Pugs, English Bulldogs, Boxers,
Pekingese and Boston Terriers. This is the flat face dog group.
The issue of genetics linked blindness is a vast topic which i will not
discuss at length.
- Blue merle -.jpg (248.26 KiB) Viewed 24 times
Collies, the Blue Merle or as some refer to a harlequin coloring is in fact the
heterozygote of a recessive gene which disrupts proper nervous system formation.
For this reason it's not advisable to mate two dogs with this coloring because
on average one quarter of the puppies will have serious defects in their nervous
system ranging from deafness to other fatal flaws.