There is no breed of dog that does not have health problems, and most of them likely have a
genetic basis, which is why certain breeds are plagued by some problems and others by entirely
different ones.
The Havanese breed does not have more health issues than average. What it does
have is a general breed-wide attitude about candor regarding health issues, rather than an
inclination to sweep them under the rug.
When the Havanese Eye Angels Research Team ( the ubiquitous H.E.A.R.T., which is pretty hard
to ignore if you are researching the breed) was founded in 1999, it's main focus was on cataracts,
which were the most widely-recognized health problem in Havanese. Its goals were, and still are,
to support research into cataracts in Havanese, and to educate the public about genetic health
problems in the breed.
Thanks to widespread support among both owners and breeders, it has
been extremely successful at both over the past few years.
The ongoing research into cataracts has revealed several other health problems in Havanese,
and the one getting the most press lately is probably chondrodysplasia, which is primarily
characterized by skeletal abnormalities. For more information on CD, we strongly suggest you
click on erashavanese.com/CD.html and carefully read through the material there. This webpage,
which was designed by a Havanese breeder who is also an R.N., is informative, easily
understandable, and includes photographs of CD dogs.
In addition to cataracts and chondrodysplasia, patellar luxation, deafness, seizures, and liver
abnormalities have been reported with a fair amount of frequency in Havanese over the past
several years, with hip dysplasia and kidney dysplasia being reported also, albeit less frequently.
Whether or not all of these problems, as well as cataracts, may be linked to chondrodysplasia, is
the current focus of HEART's research right now. (Chondrodysplasia appears to result from a
metabolic disruption in the biosynthetic pathway of cholesterol in the liver, and metabolic
disorders are generally characterized by multi-system involvement, so this is not much of
a stretch.)
In the meantime, breeders would be wise to screen breeding stock for those disorders which can
be screened for (all of the above with the exception of seizures) so that they may make
intelligent
and informed breeding decisions.
No matter what the mode of inheritance, basic
animal
husbandry practices suggest that breeding two animals with the same weaknesses is
unlikely to result in offspring better than the parents. Without screening, it is impossible to
avoid doing so.
Screening for hip dysplasia is not widely practiced among Toy dogs, because tradition has it that
HD is a “big dog disease”.
This is a misconception, plain and simple. The breed currently
reporting the second-highest incidence of hip dysplasia among nearly 150 breeds, with a 65%
incidence rate, is the Pug… and Pugs, last time I looked, were still in
the Toy Group….
In
Havanese, it is simply prudent to ascertain by radiograph that breeding stock is free of hip
dysplasia, whether this certification is made by a knowledgeable vet, OFA or PennHip.
BAER testing falls into the same category. Research has proven that in all breeds studied,
breedings between two unilaterally deaf dogs have the highest likelihood of producing
bilaterally
(totally) deaf offspring.
In Havanese, unilateral deafness is thankfully much more
common
than
bilateral deafness, and without BAER testing, it cannot be identified, as a
unilaterally deaf dog appears entirely normal. (Indeed, they make fine pets.)
But a breeder who
fails to BAER test their breeding stock and puppies has no way of knowing whether or not these
animals indeed are unilaterally deaf (in which case they may inadvertently breed two together)
and whether or not they may be producing deaf pups.
BAER testing may be performed on any
dog over the age of five weeks, and the test needs only to be performed once in the dog's life,
as hereditary deafness is congenital.
Given the average price of a Havanese puppy, a breeder's failure to perform a simple, five
minute non-invasive fifty-dollar test to determine whether parents and pups have normal
hearing, so that they may make informed breeding decisions, is beyond comprehension.
The bottom line is this- if a breeder tells buyers that they do not screen for a particular problem
because they “do not have such-an-such in their line”, one should intelligently wonder how on
earth they arrived at that conclusion!
All Bydand breeding stock is completely health-screened.
Bydand pups are examined by a
veterinarian and sent to their new homes with a signed health form and BAER test results from
Virginia Tech, as well as copies of their parents' health-screening results.