For the period October 2001 - March 2002
For the past 6 months the committee has continued with its work. However, activity has been rather slow. The events of Sept. llth have put things in a different perspective and probably other thoughts have been on the minds of cairn breeders/owners.
I do want to thank the researchers and the coordinators for their work and their reports which follow.
Since my last report I have been continuing to receive one to two requests per month regarding information on eye diseases. Most of the requests are regarding ocular melanosis but a couple have been regarding diseases not normally associated with Cairns. The inquiries related to ocular melanosis are generally from owners whose dogs have been diagnosed. These people are generally very upset and need moral support and information about what to expect as the disease progresses. I have also had a request from a regional club regarding the planning of an eye clinic. In general, I would say that more people are becoming educated regarding eye diseases in Cairns.
No report at this time (Since Dr. Sheetz has spent some time in Kenya this past year she has not been available as a coordinator. She is back on duty with us now).
Good news! No cases of this disease have been reported.
Since the last report, I have received no email contacts about CAVM via the CTCA website, nor have I written any reports for the Newsletter. It has been a quiet winter for complementary and alternative veterinary medicine.
For the reporting period I have received 12 requests for help with skin related problems in Cairn Terriers. All requests received my standard letter. On three occasions I exchanged more than one email with the person initiating the request. The outcome of the problem situation was learned in one case. Use of benzol peroxide shampoo and a medicated conditioner cured this problem,. No one asked for a referral to a specialist in his or her area. The complaints included the following— itching, scratching, puppy strangles, hotspots, inhalant allergy, black lesions, lumps, loss of hair. The age range was 0.8-l0 years, average about 4 years, one unknown. There were six males, five females, and one unknown sex.
No report at this time.
No additional information. Research has not been funded.
In process of development.
Only a few requests relative to kidney disease have been received in this reporting period. I would like to first report that the breeders that had a male with kidney stones, described in my last report, felt it would be prudent to have him neutered. I do believe that inherited tendency for renal stones is rare (supported by the literature), but I respect their motivation not to take any chances with their breeding program. Would that all breeders would be open and honest about problems with their Cairns. One e-mail request I received was for information about juvenile renal disease (JRD). A Cairn owner, who had a dog that had been tentatively diagnosed as having JRD, asked for more information. I gave her a brief summary of types, symptoms, and treatment of JRD and sent her a copy of my article about the subject. I asked that she let me know what happened to the dog, but I have heard no more. Another request came from an owner of a young dog that urinated large puddles on every carpet in her home. Her veterinarian recommended that the dog be tested extensively for a firm diagnosis and be fed a kidney diet afterward. She could not afford the tests and wanted to know if she should feed the diet anyway and/or place the Cairn. Her children were very attached to the dog and she afraid that they would grieve and the would not be happy. I assured her that if a “Cairn is not near the one they love they love the one they’re near.” In my experience, I had to place a Cairn and discovered that she did not forget me, but was very happy in her new home. I advised that she feed the diet and find a new, suitable home for her Cairn and then get another pet for herself and her children. She had given commendable care to the cairn and I praised her for that. I have had no other requests for information about renal problems.
Dr. Wenger reports that there was a lull in samples being received last summer and then it picked up again after October. However, the quanity of samples being sent is vey low when compared to the beginning of this testing. Fifteen more cairns have been tested bringing the overall total to 5ll samples. Of the additional samples, 4 were found to be carriers. The carrier total now is 86 bringing the percentage of carriers down to l6.8% of the cairns tested. The lowering of the percentage of carriers is good news since it means that the number of carriers out there passing on this gene is getting to be fewer every 6 months. Not once has the percentage of carriers increased since we began testing our dogs. This indicates that our breeders are being very resonsible in moving towards deleting this disease from our breed.
No report at this time.
Updating HRC information is in process.
Any Questions can be directed to the chairman and a response will be made promptly.
Respectfully submitted
Clare Redditt
Chairman, CTCA Health Related Concerns Committee
CC: Anna Mullins, Chrm. CTCA Foundation
