Why should you heath-test your Eurasier, even though s/he seems completely healthy?
Well, there are lots of benefits from health-testing, not just for your own dog but also for the breed as a whole.
· It is important to know the state of your dog’s joints so that if there are problems, you can adjust your dog’s life accordingly and allow it to enjoy it to the full.
· Your dog will also benefit from you knowing whether they have developed, or are in the process of developing, any conditions such as hypothyroidism, so you can act swiftly to ensure your dog maintains the best possible quality of life.
· You may have promised your breeder to undertake health tests as part of your puppy contract.
· Testing would have the additional benefit of giving your breeder a good insight into the health status of their breeding stock, so that they can best ensure they are producing healthy puppies.
· You may have already paid a health-deposit that would cover much of the cost.
· Finally, your club’s Code of Ethics might require the parents of your dog to return good health results in their puppies before they can be bred again.
Hopefully you will agree that our wish is to breed dogs that will, to the best of our knowledge, have bright futures and live long and healthy lives. If so, you would certainly expect your breeder to have undertaken all the recommended tests on the mother, and the stud dog owner to have done the same on their male. These results do give us a lot of information, but this really is the minimum. The more we know about the health of the relatives of dogs that are being bred, the greater is our knowledge of what is likely to be carried by the parents of a litter. This is a bit like in humans, when diseases in close relatives increase your risk to develop them. Therefore, even if you have no plan to breed your dog, please, please do get your dog health-tested; it’s important in so many ways!
- What can you do VERY easily and (usually for FREE) – at any visit to the vets:
- What can you do EASILY (cost about £120)– at any visit to the vets:
- If you can, please get your dog’s large joints (hips and elbows) checked as well.
FOR ALL OF THE ABOVE, PLEASE SEND RESULTS TO YOUR BREEDER AND OUR BREED HEALTH COORDINATOR (for entry into the international Eurasier health database, unless you ask for it to be kept confidential)
All the recommended/required tests are also listed here: https://www.southerneurasierassociation.co.uk/thinking-of-breeding
Our recently published ‘Looking for a puppy’ page on the SEA website can give you more information on health deposits and health-testing in Eurasiers, as can the dedicated ‘Health’ page. However, we have a vast range of experience within our community of members and our committee, and we are all willing to help where we can. If you have questions about health-testing, health deposits or anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
At the upcoming AGM, there will be lots of opportunity to chat about health tests, so please come and fire away!
