English Cocker Spaniel

La Légende des Elfes

Health

Take care to protect your cocker spaniel against the external parasites: chips, ticks etc… with specialized products of Frontline type in pipettes (much more practical) and counters the internal parasites: worms.

The pups are with vermifuger every month until the 6 months age then twice a year.

The adult is with vermifuger every 6 months while taking care to alternate the marks of vermifuges in order to destroy to the maximum all the kinds of worms.

*Les eyes: Most of the charm of the cocker spaniel is due to its glance. It is thus necessary to take care of its pupils by essuyant to him each day with cotton soaked with an ocular solution (or in the absence of the physiological salt solution). If its eyes run much or are red and purulent, consult your veterinary surgeon.

*Les teeth: wash the teeth of cocker spaniel with a brush with flexible tooth and toothpaste for dog, those 2 times per week, that prevents the tartar.

*Les nails: cut the nails and pins every month.

*Les ears: Achilles' heel of the English cocker spaniel, his heavy and hanging ears block the auditory canal and empèchent its ventilation. That supports the fermentation and the proliferation of the microbes. It is thus necessary to be very vigilant and to clean regularly by introducing a cleaning lotion and mass the base of the ear slightly in order to make go up dirtinesses then using a cotton rolled around your finger, wipe until cotton is clean. If the ear is very very dirty, to put in more one anti-bacterial, fungicidal pomade.

*Les heats: the female cocker spaniel has its first heats around 8 months and renew all even once the 7-8mois per annum only. Take care of not too cajoler Miss because they are sujettent with the false pregnancies.

Hereditary tares

Like all the races of dogs, the cocker spaniel can be victim for it.

The progressive atrophy of retina (APR): 

The genetic disease APR-prcd causes the degeneration and the death of the cells of the retina, with the back of the eye, even if these cells seemed to develop normally earlier in the life of the dog. The cells “rod” work on levels of low light and are the first to lose their normal functions. It results a night blindness from it. Then the cells “cone” gradually lose their normal functions in situations of full light. The majority of the affected dogs will become blind. Typically, the clinical disease is detected with adolescence or early at the adulthood. As the average age of the appearance of the disease varies from one race to another, it is advised to read information specific to your race. The diagnosis of a retinal disease perhaps difficult to establish. Sometimes symptoms of prcd-PRA can be on the contrary another disease, perhaps nonhereditary. The genetic test Optigen helps to establish the diagnosis. It is important to have always with the spirit that all the retinal diseases are not APR and that all the APR are not form prcd. Annual ocular examinations carried out by a veterinary surgeon ophtalmologist will establish a history of the health of the eyes and will help to diagnose the disease.

Unfortunately, there is not currently any treatment or remedy against the APR. If your dog is affected, it will be perhaps useful for you to read testimonys of other owners of blind dogs.

=>Heredity

The prcd-PRA is hereditary in a recessive way. That means that the gene of the disease must be carried by the two parents to cause the disease in the descent. The parents must be is “carrying” or affected. A carrier has gene of the disease and a normal gene, and is called “hétérozygote” for the disease. A normal dog does not have a gene of the disease and is called “homozygote normal”, the copies of gene are identical. And a dog with two genes of the disease is named “homozygote affected”, the copies of gene are abnormal.

It was proven that all the races having been tested for the prcd-PRA have the same disease caused by same mutant gene. It is the case even if the disease can develop with different ages or has degrees different from one race to another.

Even if APR-prcd is hereditary, it can be avoided in the future generations by testing the dogs before using them for the breeding. The identification of the dogs which do not carry the disease is the key. These free dogs can be married with any dog, even with an affected dog by APR-prcd which could be an element interesting in the breeding for other reasons. The risk to produce affected pups such unions depends on the degree of certainty of the results of the test. Once again, it is necessary to consult information specific to each race.

Family nephropathy (NF):

The family nephropathy (or NF or FN) are a hereditary renal disease in a recessive way which has been recognized in the English cocker spaniel for more than 50 years. The FN is a form of “hereditary nephritis” in reference to a group of glomerular diseases related to lacks of genetic collagen. The appearance of renal lesions due to the FN generally arrives between the age of 6 and 24 months. The clinical signs can include polydipsy (the dog drinks more), of the polyurie (the dog urinates more), a loss of weight, a lack of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea. The FN evolves unrelentingly to the death of the dog reached by this disease.

Gradually, the attack of the renal clusters is accentuated, allowing the passage in the protein urine in abnormal quantity (the kidney loses its function of selective filter). This is why, the first objective sign observed being able to give the alarm of the presence of the disease is the observation of a protéinurie, which is persistent (i.e. on several taking away, at a few days of interval) and important (to quantify it, it is preferable to require a report/ratio then: urinary protein/creatinin, and to follow its evolution). If this protéinurie is observed during the growth, this one is often slowed down and the pup reached will be then smaller than his/her healthy brothers and sisters. With, the increase in the protéinurie and the aggravation of the renal attack, the kidney loses its capacity to concentrate the urines, that is at the origin of the first often signs observed by the Master: that is to say polyuro-polydipsy (i.e., to more often urinate and to drink abnormally).

The disease worsens unrelentingly, the kidney then does not manage to eliminate the “waste” produced by the organization, and, then occur the symptoms of the renal insufficiency (capricious appetite, vomiting diarrhoea…) and biological modifications good known (in particular: increase in urea and creatinin at the time of a blood test). The disease develops unrelentingly towards the death of the animal reached, certain therapeutic (diet food for renal insufficient dogs, anti-hypertenseurs drugs inhibiting the enzyme of conversion) only being able to slow down the FN. It is interesting to note that at some subjects reached, few symptoms is observed before the observation a severe renal insufficiency, being able by there evoking another diagnosis.

2 Laboratories propose tests ADN to detect your cocker spaniels: www.optigen.com and www.antagene.com

 THE DYSPLASIE OF THE HIP 

It is a disease unfortunately very widespread in many dogs, in particular at the averages and great races.

The dysplasy of the hip appears in an early way by more or less important osteoarthritis. The head of the femur, encased in the cavity glénoïde of the basin, is maintained there by a fibrous capsule, the muscles of this zone, and by a ligament called “ligament of the head”. In the case of a dysplasy, there exists a failure of this ligament: It does not completely any more fix the head which moves then abnormally in its cavity, involving a deformation then osteoarthritis.

Although it is hereditary, and in spite of the efforts of the stockbreeders, the system of transmission very complex E the dysplasy does not completely allow a éradiquer. It should be also specified that other factors which the genetic transmission can play in the development of this affection: Food and environment, with possible excesses of physical activity.

The symptoms are not obvious, apart from a suspect step in the pup which strongly dandles rear-axle unit, more than the majority of its congeneric. In the adult, one notices a boitery, the morning with the rising or close a long moment of rest.

These symptoms enormously vary from one subject to another. A dog dysplasic can suffer from osteoarthritis only of the years later, whereas it declared in a way much earlier at another.

The treatment can consist either of the anti-inflammatory drug administration in the form of seals or of injections, or in a surgical operation. There are many techniques, according to the evolution of the affection and the state general of the dog. One practises also today the installation of prostheses, more expensive method but which seems to appear effective.

According to gravity of the dysplasy, and after establishment of a diagnosis by radiography (only starting from the age from 12 to 18 months according to the race), the dog is classified in one of the categories corresponding in its state. Of A with E (A being the sign of the absence of dysplasy and E the most marked form).