Beside being totally loyal to his family, and having a heart of gold. Our beautiful boxer, if not properly bred, may have a weak or bad heart. Not all, but there is a greater chance if your boxer is not tested BEFORE breeding. You wouldn't want to pass on a weak heart. Below is some information that may help save your boxers life, and since he, in his life time, will give you joy and love beyond what you could imagine, shouldn't you do all you can, to protect his heart? Please read below!
Boxer Cardiomyopathy consists primarily of an electrical conduction disorder which causes the heart to beat erratically (arrhythmia) some of the time. If the erratic beats occur infrequently and singly, the dog will probably not have symptoms of heart disease. If the erratic beats occur in sequence, weakness, collapse or sudden death may result.
The arrhythmia usually consists of VPCs (ventricular premature contractions) that are heard as an extra beat or a skipped beat that do not have a corresponding pulse.
The best way to evaluate a boxer for arrhythmia is to use a 24 hour ECG called a Holter monitor. While an ECG can pick up arrhythmias if they are very frequent, the Holter is much better at doing so. It will tell you if your dog has VPCs, whether they are frequent or infrequent, single or multiple, from a single focus in the heart or from several sites.
For more information about Boxer Cardiomyopathy please see www.americanboxerclub.org
-Bradycardia or slow heart rate may be a symptom of thyroid disorder in Boxers.
-Dialated cardiomyopathy constitutes a serious, emergency case.
It is a serious heart condition whereby the heart muscle is enlarged and thin walled.
Another serious heart condition is called cardiac conduction disease. It was previously known as Boxer cardiomyopathy but the new term is used to differentiate it from dilative cardiomyopathy.
Cardiac conduction is difficult to deal with due to 3 factors.
-One is many Boxers will not show any symptom (asymptotic) but will just drop dead suddenly from it.
-The Boxers develop this disease later in life, often after they have been bred.
-There is a good screening method for it called the 24-hour Holter monitor test.
However, there is still no assurance that Boxers "cleared" now from cardiac conduction disease by the Holter test will remain so in the future.
Many breeders and Boxer experts are now working to refine the test procedures, expand the database and come up with a guideline to select only, for breeding purposes, those Boxers with high probability of being free of the disease.
In the boxer Acepromazine tends to cause an arrhythmia of the heart. It can also cause severe lowering of the blood pressure in boxers that are given the drug. All the reported adverse reactions were in boxers. The reactions included collapse, respiratory arrest and profound bradycardia (slow heart rate, less than 60 beats per minute). Acepromazine should not be used in boxers because of breed related sensitivity to the drug. This drug is a commonly prescribed tranquilizer in veterinary medicine. It is also used orally and is prescribed for owners who want to tranquilize their dogs for air travel. I would strongly recommend that boxer owners avoid the use of this drug, especially when the dog will be unattended and/or unable to receive emergency medical care if needed.
Bloat ( Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus (GDV) ) is abnormal dilatation and twisting of the stomach.
Gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is a condition that is centered initially in the stomach, but eventually can affect the entire body. Some problems that can result are:
Shock and cardiovascular complications
Bleeding disorders
Injured spleen
Secondary infection
Heart arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats ). The arrhythmias are caused by poor oxygenation to the heart (myocardial ischemia), release of toxins, electrolyte abnormalities, acid-base abnormalities, and gastric receptor stimulation.
These problems can persist even as the GDV is successfully resolved.
WHAT IS CERF?
The Canine Eye Registration Foundation (CERF) is an organization that was founded by a group of concerned, purebred owner/breeders who recognized that the quality of their dog's lives were being affected by heritable eye disease. CERF was then established in conjunction with cooperating, board certified, veterinary ophthalmologists, as a means to accomplish the goal of elimination of heritable eye disease in all purebred dogs by forming a centralized, national registry.
VMDB/CERF
P O Box 3007
Urbana, IL 61803-3007
Please Visit the CERF web site @ http://www.vmdb.org/cerf.html to learn more.
Elbow dysplasia is a general term used to identify an inherited polygenic disease in the elbow of dogs. Three specific etiologies make up this disease and they can occur independently or in conjunction with one another. These etiologies include:
Hip Dysplasia is a terrible genetic disease because of the various degrees of arthritis (also called degenerative joint disease, arthrosis, osteoarthrosis) it can eventually produce, leading to pain and debilitation.
To learn more about hip and elbow dysplasia please visit www.offa.org or www.pennhip.org
Autoimmune thyroiditis is the most common cause of primary hypothyroidism in dogs. The disease has variable onset, but tends to clinically manifest itself at 2 to 5 years of age. Dogs may be clinically normal for years, only to become hypothyroid at a later date. The marker for autoimmune thyroiditis, thyroglobulin autoantibody formation, usually occurs prior to the occurrence of clinical signs. Therefore, periodic retesting is recommended.
The majority of dogs that develop autoantibodies have them by 3 to 4 years of age. Development of autoantibodies to any time in the dog’s life is an indication that the dog, most likely, has the genetic form of the disease. Using today's technology only a small fraction of false positive tests occur.
As a result of the variable onset of the presence of autoantibodies, periodic testing will be necessary. Dogs that are negative at 1 year of age may become positive at 6 years of age. Dogs should be tested every year or two in order to be certain they have not developed the condition. Since the majority of affected dogs will have autoantibodies by 4 years of age, annual testing for the first 4 years is recommended. After that, testing every other year should suffice. Unfortunately, a negative at any one time will not guarantee that the dog will not develop thyroiditis.
The registry data can be used by breeders in determining which dogs are best for their breeding program. Knowing the status of the dog and the status of the dogs lineage, breeders and genetic counselors can decide which matings are most appropriate for reducing the incidence of autoimmune thyroiditis in the offspring.
Dogs should not receive any type of thyroid supplementation for 3 months prior to thyroid testing.