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| Kyle |
A long chat with a friend this morning had me thinking about testicles and DM again. I feel sorry for her as she's in a similar position to the one we were in with Kyle. A beautiful pup with hopes for the show ring, but at 12 weeks he only has one testicle, and that is not always in the scrotum. (It's amazing how puppies can pull them back up!) Anyway she is now of the same thoughts as I was at the time. She can't hang on any longer, the pup needs his life, he needs stability and her heart is aching so much she cries. I know exactly what she means. I cried so much over Kyle, did we keep him as "a pet" did we wait a little longer, should we sell him? It all went round and round. Now hand on heart I know we did the right thing by Kyle .. he has the ideal life and I'm so happy for him. I also know I did the right thing for me as I now have my lovely Ross who can share all my days with me at home and at the shows.
We then went on to talk about DM, she had siblings that where tested. One was clear, one was a carrier. To know where the gene had come from she then tested the mum, she was clear so it had to have come from the sire of the litter. (as I said this test is new so the older generations could not have been tested) That made me realise that of course having one sibling as a carrier did not mean all the litter would be carriers, it would depend on the genes the siblings had inherited from the parents. That's why genetics can be so complicated. I will not be testing Asha, she's 10 and a half and has no clinical signs of DM. Mind you neither does her sister. DM is a slow progressing condition with no pain involved, Asha's sister went suddenly lame and bless her she has been in a lot of pain.
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| Kaiah |
As I said Merlot, Kaiah's dad was tested after my litter was born and he was tested clear. Sammi is not tested and I will only test her should I want to breed from her again. That will only happen if for any reason Kaiah can not go on to produce the "K" litter at the end of the year. With Merlot testing clear theoretically Kaiah and her siblings can only test clear or carrier as they could only have inherited the clear gene from their father, to be affected they need to inherit the DM gene from both parents. That means that there is no reason not to go ahead and breed from Kaiah this year. Of course until I have that piece of paper in my hand I'll just be mulling it over .. and over!
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| Nikki - Lledfegin Camri |
So it will be the registered "K" litter .. and of course my hope is to have a standard coated bitch. Zalu is a sable so a standard coated sable would be the dream this time. But of course Zalu is also a Long coat and I don't know whether Kaiah carries the l/c gene .. or not! £45 to find out ... shall I? But I need a carpet for the middle room, it's not a necessity to know about the L/C gene but curiosity may get the better of me. If she does not carry it she will not produce it .. simple, but mated to a L/c some of her progeny will carry it. I know that if you mate two S/C's who carry the gene then 25% of the litter will be L/C .. but for the hell of me I can't remember the ratio if you mate a L/C to a S/C who does carry the gene! (But I know the woman to ask .... again!)
I now need some nice names beginning with "K." Nikki's registered name was Camri and in tribute to her I may use Kamri which means "Very pretty and cute with a little spicy attitude." Kamry is a variant form of the name Kamri. Variant forms share the origin and meaning of the name so a choice on spelling too. Sounds good to me! My God look at me it's only January and I'm making plans for the Autumn!
