Page 114 - K9News_Issue12_July2020

Health
in
Miniature Pinschers
in the
UK
Miniature Pinschers in the UK are generally very
healthy little dogs,especially considering that,
until the last few years, the gene pool has been
very small.
Although a few individual dogs were brought
into the country before World War II, the most
important imports came in after the war up to
about the mid-fifties. These dogs came from
Europe and the United States. After that time,
due mainly to the quarantine rules, there were
very few imports so that most of the Min Pins in
the UK were fairly closely related. Despite that,
the breed stayed healthy but in the 70s and 80s
there were many cases of patella luxation, most
of which could be traced to one particular stud
dog. It was not unusual in those days to see
dogs being shown that were demonstrating the
characteristic hopping action and several dogs
sported scars in the stifle area.
The breed could have developed a serious
problem but the show breeders who produced
the majority of the breed, began to acknowledge
that there was a problem and over the last few
years the show breeding community has taken
the concept of screening their breeding stock
very much to heart.
The breed clubs, the Miniature Pinscher Club
of Great Britain, and the newly formed Scottish
Miniature pinscher Club, maintain a database of
dogs that have been screened for patella fitness
using the Putnam System, which is easy, quick
and does not require sedation or anaesthesia,
and now it is very rare to see an affected dog in
114
K9 NEWS DIGITAL / JULY 2020
by Di Stark BVMS MRCVS
the ring.
In recent years, however, there has been a huge
rise in the number of breeders who are not in
the showing community and who do not belong
to either of the breed clubs. They are either
unaware of any problems in the breed or they
choose to ignore them. Because the incidence
of the problem is low, it is not considered to be
a problem by the Kennel Club so that these
breeders do not realise that it is in their own
interest to screen their stock The rise of social
media means that it is not unusual to see posts
offering dogs at stud, and when members of
the breed club committees ask if these dogs
are health tested we are told that there is not
a problem because the Kennel Club does not
require testing.
Although patella luxation may not be a
numerically serious problem due to breeders’
vigilance, it is a very serious problem for any
affected dog and their owner.
It is unfortunately not uncommon to see posts
on social media referring to young puppies that
have already had surgery on slipping patellas.
When asked, none of these dogs have been
bred by known breeders and the owners are
completely unaware of patella testing. Attempts
by caring breeders to educate are at best
ignored or at worst , challenged. The breed
clubs recommend that potential puppy buyers
ask to see proof of patella testing .
We are also getting reports that young puppies,