Saturday, April 10, 2010

That terrible DM

Of course I care about DM because of Merlin. But he isn't the only reason, and he wasn't the first reason, I knew about or cared about DM and puppies being born at risk for DM even though a simple test and judicious breeding can now prevent it.

But I handle cart loans for CorgiAid, and one thing I do is lend carts out, about half to dogs with DM, another quarter to undefined maladies that are probably DM. It isn't the lending of carts, though.

It's that they come back. One came back today, with a brief note. "(Our dog) could no longer use the cart and had to be put to sleep."

Then she went on to say, "That terrible DM took her."

It's true no one knows yet how many At Risk dogs, particularly Pems, will get DM, and it is easy, I guess, from the perspective of a breeder who doesn't think she has had it in her lines, to say the risk is small. But from my perspective it isn't 5% or 20% or 30% or 50%. It's 100%. Of the carts we lend to dogs with DM, 100% will come back within a few months to a few years. That terrible DM takes them all.

And that's the reason I'm argumentative and outspoken and even militant about DNA testing. It's too late for Merlin, and it was too late for Poppy. But thousands of puppies are born each year, and if every breeder had started testing for DM in 2008 and avoided breeding At Risk litters, in 2020 I might have stopped getting notes and emails about the ones that terrible DM took.

3 comments:

Ebonwald Cardigans said...

AMEN!

Three of my Cardigans are carriers. I've bred them to N/N (normal) dogs to prevent that from ever happening to anything I will breed. There is no sense to it, especially right now as Cardigans thankfully are not as prone to DM (over half are N/N, normal) so we are not in as bad of a position as the Pems. I love your blog!

Kady Cannon said...

I was thinking in the wee hours of the morning (usually dangerous). Perhaps breeders who insist that it is "not in their lines" just don't know that it is. If they place retirees instead of keeping older dogs, and if they do not stay in touch with puppy owners it would make it easier to be in denial.

Everyone who has a DM dog should e-mail, write, or visit the dog's breeder. Let them see or hear first-hand just how this has affected the dog and the owner or family. Don't allow the breeders to be ostriches.

Worth posting to the -L?

Janine's Mom said...

It still amazes me how hard it is for people to get a DM diagnosis on a corgi. (And easy to get a wrong diagnosis of DM!) We get about 1/4 the CorgiAid apps (maybe more) for carts with no diagnosis stated. In some cases it is pretty obvious and I suggest they consider DM. But I wonder how many of the arthritis, hip dysplasias, spondylosis, etc, are really DM that a vet didn't know how to diagnose. And if the owner doesn't get the DM diagnosis the owner doesn't tell the breeder it is DM- and how many do, anyway? Carolyn, you were VERY proactive in telling your puppy buyers from a decade ago to check their dogs because one in the litter had DM. How many breeders do that?