DCM

[sandaharr]

Following on from a thread which has been forwarded to myself from another board about poor Mashaka who is a Mopsa/Merlin puppy from 3 years ago I thought I'd would write what we have done as the new owners of Mopsa with regards the health screening for this condition as soon as we found out.We found out about Mashaka a few days after we had actually had Mopsa AI'd in May and we immediately made contact with our vet to have her tested for this DCM.As she was possibly pregnant we did not X ray but she did have the echo test which we were very relieved to say was all clear.If the test had shown that Mopsa did indeed have this condition we would have had no qualms about terminating the pregnancy so there would be no more pups affected and no more stress put on our girl.We also spoke to a genetics expert at length and while this condition may be a hereditary one it can also be something that can crop up at any given time.Merlin has sired a lot of very healthy pups as has Mopsa and we can only ask the owners of these dogs if they have any doubts to request an Echo test and/or Xray to allay any fears,or to confirm any doubts.As Razzy is Mopsa's half sister we shall also be having her tested before breeding next year.Mopsa shall also be Xrayed in September.As Mopsa,(like all our dogs and all her pups born with us) is DNA profiled there is a possiblility that we can also test this to see if she has the gene responsible for this condition,we are contacting the KC about this and will of course let you all know what happens.
I feel desperately sad for Louise who owns Mashaka and send her our best wishes.