Health information

Patella Luxation/PL

The Patella should be hold in its place by the patella tendon. If the knee is ok, the Patella will go up and down in the growe when the knee is bending. If the trochea is to shallow the Patella tendon will slip out of its position when the knee is bending.

Patella Luxation have these grades:

0- The Patella can not be Luxated.

1- You can luxate the Patella manually but it will return back in position when you release the knee.

2- The Patella can easily luxate manually and will remain luxated until it will be replaced.

3- The Patella is permantly luxated but can go back manually.

4- The Patella is permantly luxated and wont go back in its position manually. This will cause a lot of pain and surgical correction must be done.

Leg Calve Perthes LCP

Leg Calve Perthes appears in the age from 5 months to 12 months of age. The signs of this illness is that the dog will start limping or the defected hip will be lame.

The dog will be in pain and it is assumed that the reason is that the bloodsupply is reduced or cut of and then the femural head will start to die.

To confirm that it is LCP you must take an ex-ray of the hip, very seldom both hips are defected. I don't know the % in dogs but in people only 10 to 15 % of those who have LCP have it in both hips.

LCP need surgical help where the vet. remove the head of the femur. A new joint will be formed by the femur and Pelvis. It's important to operate as early as possible, then the dog often have no problems/no limping or pain.

Hydrocephalus

Hydrocephalus is an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. The fluid is then under increased pressure which can squeeze and then damage the brain.

H cp can occur before birth or sometimes at any time after the dog is grown. There can be many causes to why someone have/get Hcp.

The brain fluid should flow in the ventricles in the braincenter. If here are abnormal cavities the flow will be little or totally closed and then the preassure will destroy the brain.

How to know if your dog has hydrocephalus? It can be an enlarged head. But if the dogs skullbones are all fused together you wont see an enlarged head. Then you might notice it if the puppy/dog is walking with strange balance and coordination, keeping its head in a strange way, pulling up their back, visionproblems. And it might have problems with focusing and difficult to get in contact with.

A dog with Hcp can be delayed in its development in walking or be clumsy. Seizures might occur and you will notise a change in temperament.

All this signs might not occur in the dog and some can live for many years on medication after being diagnosed with hydrocephalus.

PRCD PRA & PRA generell

PRA is short for Progressive Retinal Atrophy. This might not be detected before the dog is old, but yearly eyechecking is recomended.

PRCD is short for progressive rod-cone degeneration. This PRA is detected by taking a bloodtest. In different from PRA Generell this bloodtest will show if your dog is clear at any age.

A group of diseases that cause the retina of the eye to degenerate slowly over time. The result is declining vision and eventual blindness.

In the Chinese Crested breed there are detected two types of PRA (PRA generelle and prcd PRA). The PRA in Cresteds is a recessive gene. A dog who have PRA must have got the PRA gene from both parents. If only one parent have PRA gene, he/she passes it on to his or hers offspring, the offspring will be a carrier but will not have any problems. Mating between two affected dogs will give offsprings that are all affected. PRA might not be detected in the dog before the dog is older and already used in breeding. If dogs with PRA have been used in breeding then it's important to mate their offspring/PRA carrier with a dog from a line where there is not PRA.

Lens Luxation

Lens Luxation can be heredity but it can also be caused after an inflammation or trauma. Lens Luxation can be result of Glaucoma.

The eye is buildt up with the lens behind the iris. The lens is visible through the pupil and is hold on its place by the Zonules. If the zonules is destroyed the lens might slide through the opening, you can then notice a colourchange (blue/grey) . If the lens slide back you can not notice it, you will need an eyeexam from a vet.

If you suspect LL on your dog these are the signs to beware of, minor to extreme pain where the eye might be red eyeball where it should be white. If the cornea is cloudy, if the eye is tearing. It is very important to seek an eyespecialist as soon as possible. Because ionly after a few hours there has been a lot damage in the eye.

Glaucoma

Glaucoma is caused by an increase in the pressure inside the eye. And this high pressure can over time harm the fibre in the sightnerves. In many cases this is caused by the drainage canal being blocked. And then the eye will be deformed and cause a lot of pain.

Glaucoma causes blindness in older age but if the illness is detected in early age medication can prevent blindness.

Glaucoma can be caused by old age, eyedamages, inflammation/iridocyklitt, Lens Luxation and it can be heredity.

Again it is important to visit the vet. as soon as possible. Eyedamages/illnesses can be fatal if not threatend as soon as possible.

Cataract

The Lens is behind the pupil and make sure that the eye is focused when you watch an item. The lens should be clear. If the dog has cataract the lens will be cloudy.

Cataract can be inherited or caused by diabetes or trauma. Cataract can also lead to Glaucoma and/or Lens Luxation. Cataract can be fixed in a surgical operation.

Dogs with cataract should not be used in breeding.

Kcs

Without tears the eye will become irritated and the conjunctival tissues around the eyes will be red. In an effort to protect the eye the cornea will turn brown, and you will see yellow discharge predominates. If you don't start threathmen, the result will be blindness.

The most common cause of KCS appears to be immune mediated destruction of the tear producing gland tissue.

Here are some causes of dry eye; Can occur with distemper infection . Congenital lack of tear producing gland tissue. Kcs can look like a simple case of conjunctivitis, and therefor it's so important to measure the tear production to determine how dry the eyes are. The test that accomplishes this is a Schirmer Tear Test.

How a Schirmer test work; The vet use a strip of special paper and insert it just inside the lower eyelid in the outer corner of the eye for 60 seconds. The moisture of the eye will wet the paper. At the end of the 60 second period, the height of the moistened area is measured. A height of 15mm or more is normal. A height 11-14mm is a borderline result. A height of less than 11mm is Kcs.

It's important to threat Kcs early to avoid damages on the eye or blindness if the tearproduction is severly dry. The best is to start with Optimnune and use it twise a day and do a recheck in three weeks to check for improvement. If the Schirmer tear test is still showing poor results, the medication can be given three times a day; similarly if excellent results are seen, the medication can be dropped to once a day.

Info about Kcs in Norwegian can be read on the link below.
http://spah.no/assets/docs/bestill_materiell/Optimmune_info_NO_07.pdf

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