Breed Specific Wellness blog

Breed specific wellness 2010!

Breed specific wellness is not brand new but it is certainly getting exciting.

First to give credit where credit is due this area of wellness has been pioneered by two colleagues Shannon Pigott CVPM and Nan Boss DVM.

Dr Boss’s American Animal Hospital Accredited (AAHA) practice in Grafton, Wisconsin has already implemented these programs.  I especially like her emphasis on breed specific conditions for mixed breeds after finding out what different breeds are present using the new DNA test (more below) http://www.bestfriendsvet.com/html/wisdompanel.htm As many of the dogs and cats we see at WFPC are mixed breed rescues this has direct application.

Ms Pigott’s coaching and business skills and her broad reach in the veterinary community will be a great asset to spread this concept. (She just presented this at our the Wisconsin State Veterinary Meeting in October 2009)  She has been working on breed specific conditions since 1998 and will be integral in stimulating the development of tools to help us as veterinarians to implement this.

With over 200 recognized breeds you can imagine the volume of information that needs to be sorted through to insure reliability of both medical disease and behavior prediction. This site www.upei.ca/~cidd/intro.htm is just a glimpse and has not been updated since 2004 so it has likely already been superseded by the rapid explosion of genetic testing capabilities that is currently underway.

Another AAHA colleague in Arizona has developed quite a nice list of conditions specific to certain breeds. http://www.hillsidepets.com/index.php/pet-care-pages/66-canine-breed-wellness

From our training in veterinary school, every veterinarian recognizes that all breeds have specific predilections towards certain illnesses. The emerging genetic information for the many new breeds (and breed mixes) along with all the great evidence based nutrition and supplements is changing the way we practice and are applying wellness principles.

Our clinic’s wellness focus on Ideal Weight, dentistry, preventing osteoarthritis, and infectious disease has lead us to apply breed specific wellness in the following way

A client brings in a rescue that appears to be part cocker spaniel. We take a blood sample and a DNA test is performed (cost of around $125) and indicated that indeed the pet is 45% cocker spaniel. We know that Cocker Spaniels are prone to glaucoma, ear infections, and many other things and we want to do all we can to prevent those diseases and detect them before they cause problems if possible.

As a result of the DNA test we take ocular pressures with our Tonopen to screen for glaucoma and find at least for now everything is OK but set up a schedule of annual rechecks to make sure we keep on top of this now known underlying condition. For the possibility of allergies and ear infections we advise the addition of anti-inflammatory doses of EPA (the key anti-inflammatory ingredient in fish oil) to her diet and discuss how to detect allergies.

As a second example, we sit down at a puppy consultation (we offer these as a courtesy to our clients) and discuss the many behavioral and medical characteristics that a client might encounter with a certain breed of puppy (or a mixed breed that contains a majority of a particular breed) say a Boxer who as a breed are know to have higher rates of cancer than other breeds. We would use a referenced list of medical conditions to substantiate our discussion. The outcome might be that the owner having just lost a family member to cancer decides she just doesn’t want to take that additional risk and chooses a different breed despite the great behavioral and fun look that boxer dogs have.

Third, we are beginning to develop formalized, comprehensive lists for each breed. The lists have always been in our head but nothing beats a checklist for thoroughness.  For several reasons I chose pugs for our first breed.  Breed Specific Wellness Blog

Wellness has always been the backbone of  Westside Family Pet Clinic.  Annual blood work and laboratory testing, dentistry, ideal weight, osteoarthritis, prevention of tick carried diseases and vaccinations have always been our core wellness steps in all breeds but breed wellness specificity has so much potential.

This is how we currently apply breed specific wellness:

1) Breed specific dentistry

We have always spent 2 or 3 times as long discussing dental disease with a smaller dog than with a larger dog. The smaller amount of bone leads to more rapid loss of teeth if preventative steps are not taken. We need to be much more proactive in these small breeds to prevent disease and tooth loss. Greyhounds have a known genetic predisposition to severe periodontal disease.  Brachycephalic (short nosed) breeds have a much higher incidence of missing and possibly un-erupted teeth, crowded teeth and resulting periodontitis. Knowing this at an early age can prevent much in the way of severe damage to the bone and associated tissues  10 vital components of a dental care program

2) Breed specific nutritional supplements

Perhaps more of a specificity for a breed grouping like the retrievers, sporting breeds and agility breeds than just one breed a nutritional supplements like joint supplements  are more important to some breeds than others including our active sporting breeds and large and giant breeds like Labradors, Golden Retrievers,  German Shepherd Dogs, St Bernards, Great Danes, Newfoundlands. They need the benefit of high quality joint supplements as well as appropriate levels of EPA & DHA (fish oils) than other breeds to help combat the higher risk of Cranial Cruciate Ligament (CCL) injury Evidence based supplements

3) Ideal weight

Our Ideal Weight contests & programs over the pat 4 years have shown that certain breeds are overrepresented. Obesity prone dogs like Bichons, Beagles, Labradors, Golden Retrievers, Dalmatians and Pugs have outnumbered all others. We feel it is VERY important to see that coming and take steps to prevent it. The new Mars test promises to give an ideal predicted weight. Stay tuned to see how accurate and useful that might be.  Any guess towards a dog’s true ideal weight is good guess in the right direction!  Here is a link to our Ideal Weight for Pets Facebook Group Page Lots of great photos, tips and scientific links to help!

4) Tick related disease in Labradors & Golden Retrievers

Information presented at the WVMA meeting in October 2009 presented by world renowned DVM’s indicates that both Golden Retrievers and Labradors are more prone to the tick carried diseases both Anaplasmosis and the fatal complication of Lyme nephritis than other breeds especially in they are infected with both.  Knowing that these breeds are at increased risk will allow us to emphasize that and hopefully get more specific protection in place via vaccination or optimal tick prevention in the form of topicals. (Year round use is now strongly advised.)

read more at WVMA Tick Disease Update 10/09

5) Breed and lifestyle specific vaccination

Also at the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association conference this past week a Dr Richard Ford a world renowned vaccination expert acknowledged that certain breeds like Dachshunds are more likely to have vaccine reactions because of their size and possible underling genetic predisposition. We will be taking steps like separating out certain vaccines to avoid complications when the same might not be at all necessary for a Labrador puppy. As stated above for a Labrador or Golden Retriever puppy coming to our practice a Lyme vaccination discussion is going to more important than another breed based on emerging evidence.

Interested in testing your mixed breed or rescue?

There are several DNA tests currently on the  market including both saliva for owner use and blood test for professional use. The Wisdom professional panel test is a blood test available through veterinarians for over 200 breeds and has recently added a breed specific condition report and even a predicted adult weight.

The test should be considered for any non pure bred dog to determine breed specific health risks. One caution is that phenotype (the outward appearance) and genotype (DNA) do not always allow us to guess accurately from visual appearance.  See lots of great results on the Wisdom “Doggie DNA“  Facebook fan page.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments in this exciting area. This is an open blog so please feel free to share!  Dr Ken