Ears and DM

Yesterday morning I had a humorous message from a Blanik owner saying that she thought her boy had huge "bat ears!" I looked at him and disagreed .. though maybe they are a little wide set giving a false impression. We'll blame dear Ziva for that! Then strangely on the walk I took this photo .. it's the classic "boys only as Kaiah has fecked off after one click" photo. It often happens and I'm left with just the two boys. But what is absolutely strikingly obvious about this photo is the difference in ear size between the boys.Weirdly I don't see it in everyday life but in a photo like this you can't miss the fact that Loki's ears are too small for the size of his masculine  head.

Precious Asha still fighting fit 

On a more serious note, Asha's sister has been having a really hard time. She had been slowing down but all of a sudden she went completely off one of her hind legs. Following Xrays and a diagnosis of spondylosis at the vets her owner asked for her to be referred to a specialist animal hospital. Following ct and mri scans it was also confirmed she has a trapped nerve and a partially slipped disc. Poor girl no wonder she was in pain. Though she had no clinical symptoms she was also tested for DM and the owner was told that the DM genetic test revealed that she is a carrier of the mutation and therefore at major risk of the development of dm.
This has confused me greatly as the DM test is new to us all and absolutely worth doing but I was under the impressions there where only three results possible, clear, carrier and affected. Clear and affected are self explanatory but that a carrier had one gene from one parent and is at low risk of developing the condition. Indeed a carrier can be bred from providing the partner has tested clear. This contradicts the results given to the bitches owner.
Last night I went on The KC site and found this ... "DM is a progressive disease of the spinal cord in older dogs. A recessive mutation that is linked with this disease has been identified. There is evidence that having two copies of this gene (one inherited from the mother and one from its father) is strongly associated with the development of DM. However, having two copies of the recessive mutant gene does not necessarily result in clinical disease and similarly an absence of the gene is not a guarantee that the condition will not occur.
 • Two copies of the normal gene (“Clear”/ homozygous normal) – likely to be free of DM
 • One copy of the mutant gene (“carrier”/ heterozygous) – low chance of developing the disease
 • Two copies of the mutant gene (“affected”/homozygous affected) – high risk of developing DM"

That also confirms what I had been told but I looked further going onto Fitzpatrickreferrals page ..if you don't know who he is then shame on you .. lol
"Genetic testing is available through laboratories and breeding guidelines are available to identify dogs at risk of degenerative myelopathy. Test results identify dogs that are ‘clear’ i.e. the dog who is extremely unlikely to develop DM; those who are ‘carriers’ and are less likely to develop the disease and those who are ‘at risk’ of developing DM. It is important to understand this genetic test does NOT confirm degenerative myelopathy. In addition, some dogs that might be destined to develop the disease do not do so in their lifetime and pass away before getting degenerative myelopathy."
Here is a link to that page as it's well worth a read https://www.fitzpatrickreferrals.co.uk/neurology/canine-degenerative-myelopathy/?fbclid=IwAR2Wke7QFI-z0RYyZyvYCiWB1LRX8FggkT2bduPTJQPjnEmdxOYSH-jKd3A

An Old Finlay showing weakness in his hindquarters

I also contacted my friend last night, the breeder of sable 2, she is a fount of knowledge. She has written books on the breed and is always the one I turn to for help and advice .. she also agreed that a carrier has "less change" of developing HD.
The test is so new that Sammi was not tested for it ... and neither was Merlot. But being used regularly Merlot has now been tested and is clear, so theoretically Kaiah and her brothers should not be affected .. they can only be clear or carriers. Kaiah will be tested before I breed from her, If Kaiah is a carrier then she must be mated to a clear dog .. and Zalu, the dog on the top of my list for her has been tested  and is clear. I think I will also test Ross as it will give me an idea for the future.

Blade at the front - 1997

As far as I know no Blanik bred dog has ever developed DM, but those of you who have known me a long time know that I have lived with the heartache of DM at it's most cruel. (or CDRM as it was called then.) It quickly stripped Blade of his mobility and it was heartbreaking to see him deteriorate so quickly. Thankfully Blade was never bred from. Finlay also developed it, but for him it progressed a lot slower and though he was loosing strength he managed to get about until we lost him to an unrelated condition. Finlay was 13 when we lost him, Blade was only 10.5. It has been said that trauma and surgery can bring it on more aggressively and Blade had had his second torsion in the July when he was 8.5 years old, (1999) before then he had no clinical signs and to be honest I don't remember when he did first show significant signs.(Early signs are easily missed) I do remember showing him at Crufts in May 2000 the foot and mouth outbreak moved the show forward 2 months that year .. and I remember he deteriorated rapidly after that as the restricted exercise did him no favours. Jill Hubbard told me to walk Finlay as far as I thought he should go .. and then a little bit more .. he definitely progressed at a slower rate than Blade who was confined to our own land because of foot and mouth. 
I wish Asha sister all the luck in the world and hope the conservative pain management and hydrotherapy give her the quality of life she deserves in the Autumn of her years and I thank her owners from the bottom of my heart for loving her so much and doing the very best by her.

Edited to add - A post on this blog about Finlay on the 30th of July 2015 I wrote ... "As we suspected Finlay has CDRM, which is a pain free, but degenerative and paralyzing condition of the nerve endings of the spine. The condition progresses at different speeds in different dogs, sometimes taking years, sometimes months to cause any real difficulty. Sadly I have come across it before, and watched Blade loose his mobility with it over his twilight years. Anyway Vet Jill stressed that we must carry on with the walking, she said do what your doing and then do a little more! Stopping is the worse thing you can do for CDRM, though the progression of the condition can not be stopped, it can be slowed down. Thankfully everything else is in good working order for his age so now we plod on and enjoy every day that we share together!"
It was only 13 months later that we lost a 13 year old  Finlay - and though the condition was progressing as I said we lost him to an unrelated condition.