Pug Health
The Pug breed is considered by many vets one of the higher risk breeds of dogs for ill health. However most veterinary surgeons can not distinguish between true bred Pugs or those of unrecognised colours mixing in with Pugs, in other words cross bred pugs being registered at vets as pure pedigree pugs. Poor breeding practise has catapulted to high levels of poor breeding. Vets just look at the dog and assume its a pug when the owner registers it at the practise as a Pug.
As a breeder we recognise the Pug breed does need improvement, Health tests are set out to help to improve the Pug breed.
The owner has a duty of care to buying a Pug and if you think you can not afford veterinary fees you should take up Pet insurance to the value of £15000.00
So with this in mind as breeders we should keep trying to improve every breeding that we do. Because after so many generations you can change things for the better.
As a breeder we recognise the Pug breed does need improvement, Health tests are set out to help to improve the Pug breed.
The owner has a duty of care to buying a Pug and if you think you can not afford veterinary fees you should take up Pet insurance to the value of £15000.00
So with this in mind as breeders we should keep trying to improve every breeding that we do. Because after so many generations you can change things for the better.
What should you do if you buy a pug and it develops a confirmed hereditary illness. Obviously you have to treat your dog. Thats the most important thing. Ring your breeder and ask for advice if you are worried.
Get an official letter from your veterinary surgeon to forward to the breeder so they are aware of what’s happened. No dog can be sold and the breeder expect it to be 100% all its life, this is not possible as animals are living beings, just like their is no such thing as a perfect human being. But if the problem is hereditary then at least the breeder can record what’s happened and make a decision about breeding in the future.
Get an official letter from your veterinary surgeon to forward to the breeder so they are aware of what’s happened. No dog can be sold and the breeder expect it to be 100% all its life, this is not possible as animals are living beings, just like their is no such thing as a perfect human being. But if the problem is hereditary then at least the breeder can record what’s happened and make a decision about breeding in the future.
Their is a long list of health tests your adult Pug you can do before breeding them. The main ones which are highlighted as the most important are:
PDE = Pug Dog encephalitis
(PDE can be done by taking a DNA swab taken from the dog and submitted to the laboratory. The Pug club laboratory of choice is UCA Davis according to Breed club but their are UK laboratories called Laboklin.
http:??www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/PRE.php
http://www.laboklin.com
The results will come back as follows:
n/n clear
n/pde carrier
pde/pde affected.
PDE = Pug Dog encephalitis
(PDE can be done by taking a DNA swab taken from the dog and submitted to the laboratory. The Pug club laboratory of choice is UCA Davis according to Breed club but their are UK laboratories called Laboklin.
http:??www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/PRE.php
http://www.laboklin.com
The results will come back as follows:
n/n clear
n/pde carrier
pde/pde affected.
Understanding genetics is not as simple as disregarding all carriers. Because if we omit carriers we will end up with more health problems. For example a dog may carry pde, but it may be clear of inherited epilepsy. So we need to breed to carriers but only to clears. Because then no offspring can be effected and in the end day this is what we all aim for is to breed dogs which arent effected by nasty health issues. So breeders should breed clear/clear or clear/carrier. I can not see any reason to breed effected/effected.
HV = Hemivertabra
Any breed which has a screw tail can potentially pass on HV. It is not yet fully understood if it is actually hereditary or not yet. But by a x-ray done on the spine before breeding, you can send to Dick Whites Referrals, and they will look at the x-ray and tell you if your dog is affected or clear. By breeding only through clear dogs it is thought to avoid HV. The problem is no one will know for sure for several generations if this has in fact been the case.
Luxaxtion Patellar
Small toy breeds can develop Patellar luxation. The patellar is the knee cap on the back legs of the dog. They can simply slip out from the socket. They are graded by each hip 0:0 or 1:1 which is desirable to mate dogs from these scores. You also have 2:2 and 3:3 and 4:4 which is not desirable to mate your dog. 4:4 would be the worst case scenario where the dogs knee caps slip out and do not go back in. Most of these cases would need veterinary intervention to fix the knee caps.
Their are of course many other health tests you can do with pugs but the ones above are the main ones.
Those tests above are just a few for things known in the breed. Of course their are hundreds of health problems in dogs where there are no tests what so ever.