Health
Hip Dysplacy | Elbow Dysplacy | Patella Luxation | Eye diseases | Allergies and other health concerns
Hip Dysplasia is a genetic condition where the hip joint is abnormally developed, and that can eventually produce arthosis in the hip joint and lead to pain and debilitation. Dysplacy is caused by multiple factors, genetic and environmental. No single gene causing hip dysplacy has been so far detected, and probably there's several genes that together influence on the formation of hip joint and dysplacy it's inherited polygenic disease.
The only way to try to avoid producing dysplastic dogs is to health test the parents and try to make low-risk combinations. The more background information available of the parents, grandparents, siblings, half-siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins of the dog, the better. The gene test to defect the genes causing dysplacy is being under development, but is still not available.
There's several degrees of hip dysplacy, varying from nearly normal hip joint to badly deformed hip joint. No one can predict when or even if a dysplastic dog will start showing clinical signs of lameness due to pain. There are multiple environmental factors such as caloric intake, level of exercise, and weather that can affect the severity of clinical signs and phenotypic expression. There are a number of dysplastic dogs with severe arthritis that run, jump, and play as if nothing is wrong and some dogs with barely any arthritic radiographic changes that are severely lame.
More information of hip dysplacy: www.offa.org
The HD-statistics in different countries vary a lot. Mudi's have been x-rayed for HD results in Scandinavia (Finland, Sweden) since beginning of 1990's, and nearly 90% of the examined dogs have been found healthy (HD grade A or B). Also the hip statistics of USA and Canada have so far been good. In Hungary the statistics are not that good; approximately half of the Hungarian mudis have mild dysplacy (C), whereas approximately 80% of Finnish mudis are healthy (HD A or B). There's so far no clear explanation on why the statistics are so different.
We strongly recommend to only buy a puppy who's parents have a known HD status, and if possible, choose a puppy from mating where both parents have healthy hips (A or B) to reduce the risk of having HD defected dog. Also ask if there's data available of the siblings, half siblings, uncles, aunts and cousins of the puppy.
Elbow dysplasia is a general term used to identify an inherited polygenic disease in the elbow of dogs.
Clinical signs involve lameness which may remain subtle for long periods of time. It's impossible to predict at what age lameness will occur in a dog due to a large number of genetic and environmental factors.
Elbow dysplacy is more common in large breed dogs. Mudis that have been x-rayed for elbow dysplacy in Scandinavian countries have not shown signs of elbow dysplacy. There is however one case known in Hungary where the dog had mild changes in one elbow. Based on the statistics, the risk of elbow dysplacy in the breed is very low.
The patella is part of the dog's knee joint. In patellar luxation, the kneecap luxates, (pops out of place) either in a medial or lateral position. Most commonly dogs have bilateral patella luxation, but unilateral cases are not uncommon. Patella luxation is concidered an inherited disease. In general the breeds with straight rear angulation are in more risk than well angulated dogs.
There's three degrees of luxation. In grades 1 and 2, lameness is evident only when the patella is in the luxated position. The leg is carried with the knee joint flexed but may be touched to the ground every third or fourth step at fast gaits. Grade 3 and 4 animals exhibit a crouching, bowlegged stance with the feet turned inward and with most of the weight transferred to the front legs.
There's some cases of patella luxation found in Scandinavia and in Hungary. Most of examined mudis have clear patellas. Patella luxation is easy to detect by the veterinarian. The dog doesn't need to be seducted and the palpation takes only few minutes. The official grade can be given to dog up from 12 months of age. We concider the risk of patella luxation in the breed low, but prefer to examine our own breeding dogs to be on the safe side. If you are planning to do dog sports, such as agility, we recommend to buy a puppy who's parents have healthy patellas.
Eye screenings are not yet widely used around the mudi world. There's not yet much data of eye screened dogs, probably only around 100 dogs so far have been eye screened, and from those, majority in Finland and Sweden. There's yet not much reason to be concerned, but we recommend routine eye checks for every breeding dog.
Cataract or HC for short, is a term used to describe changes in the lens of the eye that are usually occur on older dogs, and call an "aging change." Cataracts may be caused by genetics, or by non-genetic cause such as trauma or ocular inflammation. Usually cataracts diagnosed in younger dogs are from genetic causes. This means that dogs can inherit cataracts from their parents.
A cataract is defined as a partial or complete opacity of the lens and/or its capsule. In cases where cataracts are complete and affect both eyes, blindness results. The cataract doesn't affect vision when it is small because the dog can see around it. Even if the cataract is not causing complete blindness, cataract is assumed to be hereditary in most cases, and dog with cataract should not be breed.
Genetic cataracts are diagnosed in many breeds of dogs and are diagnosed from 2 months up to 7 years of age. The size of the cataract, whether blindness results from the cataract and the age of first diagnosis is breed dependent. So far mudis haven't been eye screened world wide very much, so there's not much information available. However, cases of cataract or suspected cataract have come up in Scandinavian countries and in USA. At the time, there's so little eye screened dogs that it's impossible to say how common catacats is, or if it's hereditary in this breed, and if so, how it herits.
Retinal Dysplacy
The retina is the neurological structure in the back of the eye which receives light. Retinal dysplasia is a type of retinal malformation. Retinal dysplasia occurs when the 2 primitive layers of the retina do not form together properly. Mild dysplasia manifests as folds in the inner retinal layer. These are called "retinal folds". In "geographic" retinal dysplasia there are larger areas of defective retinal development. In the severe form of dysplasia, the 2 retinal layers do not come together at all and retinal detachment occurs. Retinal dysplasia is not progressive. It is a congenital defect and animals are born with as severe a condition as they will ever get. Retinal dysplasia can be detected as early as 6-8 weeks on a CERF examination.
The cause of retinal dysplasia in most breeds is genetic. Simple autosomal recessive inheritance has been suspected in some breeds, and means of inheritance have not been determined in many breeds.
Though there's not enough data of examined dogs to yet say how common or rare retinal dysplacy is in Mudis. There's been one case of RD in Sweden.
Progressive Retinal Atrophy (PRA)
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) is the name given to a group of hereditary retinal diseases in dogs.
Although there are several classifications of the disease, almost all forms of PRA eventually lead to complete blindness. In some breeds of dogs the disease begins very early in life (as early as 6 weeks of age.) Another form of PRA called progressive rod-cone degeneration (prcd) is the most widespread hereditary retinal disease leading to blindness in dogs. It usually has a later onset, and affected dogs may have decreased vision or blindness at 4 to 7 years of age. In this type of PRA the rod and cone cells of the retina develop normally but gradually degenerate.
The first sign of most types of PRA is night blindness. Gradually dogs with PRA will lose their ability to see in lighted rooms and will go completely blind. They will frequently have dilated pupils. Sometimes owners will notice increased shininess or hyperreflectivity to the back of the eye.
In most breeds PRA is inherited by an autosomal recessive gene. The PRA gene may be "hidden" in the genes and pass many generations, only to show up when 2 dogs carrying the PRA gene are bred together. The best way to fight against spreading of such defect is to eye screen dogs many enough times during their life to ensure that defected dogs are not accidentally used for breeding. So far no cases of PRA has been found in mudis, but there's not enough large number of eye screened dogs to be sure that the breed is completely free of PRA or other eye defects, so to be on safe side, we recommend to eye screen the breeding dogs.
Allergies and other health concerns
Some cases of different allergies have been found in the mudi breed. Most of the allergic dogs react to certain foods. The allergies can come up as digestion problems or as skin irritation. Also some cases of skin irritation and coat problems that don't associate with food allergies have been found. Many dogs may suffer from dry skin that causes itching, specially if the diet doesn't have enough fat and protein.
In every breed there's always some per centage of dogs uncorrect bites, with missing teeth, kinks in the tail or with cryptocism. These problems do occur also in the mudi breed. All of the above are recessive, and most likely caused by many different genes interacting with each other. These faults are mostly cosmetic, and don't effect the dog's quality of life. Dog with these faults should not be breed.
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