jscaldwell

Hello all, first time poster here...

Our family is about to get a BH puppy, from a very experienced, reputable breeder. One of the things this breeder does with all her litters is an eye test/evaluation to check for the potential for glaucoma. Apparently the rating scale for these evaluations is Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor where Excellent means there is little chance and Poor meaning there is a higher chance. The pup we're considering was rated Fair.

My questions are, does anyone have experience with these kinds of tests and know what Fair really means, and what are the odds the average BH will get glaucoma? This breeder has been doing this forever and breeds/shows champions on a regular basis, and has never had a dog with glaucoma, so I'm thinking we may be o.k. with this one but would like to know more to be sure.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Lightning&Stomps

I'm in the midst of treating Lightning for a type of uveitis that can lead to glaucoma (he's almost 13). The opthamologist that I took him too said he sees lots of bassets for glaucoma. So it's definitely an issue. I didn't ask the op if he could tell whether Lightning's problem is hereditary (I think it's more age-related). I don't know anything about the test you're talking about, but I'm not involved with breeding in any way. I hope someone else can give you information about the test.

Mikey T

There are many types of eye tests and evaluation. The most common used by breader is CERF which is completely undiaognostic for glaucoma and is not reliable until the dog is at least 2 years old so it is general only used on breeding stock however many breaders like the off spring test after the age of two as well. Breed that are prone to Gaucoma often add a Gonioscopy to the CERF exam. Some do a Seperate Gonioscopy, only problem is there is no definitive evidence that such an exam is actually diagnostic or a pronosticator of which dogs will or will not end up with Glaucoma. The best results are still obtained from taking and maintaining an extensive breed history of not just the sires and dams in the pedigree but also the proginee (offspring) of all those dogs as well. A lack of gaucoma bodes well for future generation a history for glaucoma not so much but it is variable on the odd given the specific circumstances. based on where in the pedigree the disease in known to hae occured. Without a genetic test(s) for glaucoma it is not going to be possible to put any odds on any particular dog coming down with it and not all cause are of a genetic origin even if most are.

Glaucoma in the Basset Hound

If you read the Iowa university report you will see even with the diagnostic test they use it is not posible to determing if a puppy dog under 1 year will develop glaucoma and it takes multiple test over a span of time, There is much debate in the Basset community on the validatity of the Iowa model and many think there are multiple causes and different heritity pattern in each.

Beverly Anne

As the owner of a basset hound blind from glaucoma I know the disease pretty well. I think the time to do the CERF is on each parent before they breed. If either parent shows even a minimal trait she should not breed them.
Anyway, if, God forbid, a dog develops glaucoma it is not the end of the world. Francis is almost 13 and has been blind most of his life to no real ill effect.
He's still the King of the Entire Universe (can't see any competition) and Master of Our World.
Love him to death.

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Francis's Bevy

Lightning&Stomps

Bevy, do you mind if I contact you privately to talk about your experience with His Majesty's glaucoma? Lightning's affected eye seems to be getting worse very quickly.

Soundtrack

I agree that they should have the CERF, but it does not test for any indicators of glaucoma.

Ginger is blind too, but not from glaucoma. She manages very well.

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Beverly Anne

Sure call me or write me any time There are a lot of tips I could give you and just some plain old encouragment
You can email me @ BeverlyCY@aol.com

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Francis's Bevy

bubbad

I may be taking Esa in Jan. to Long Island to have the Laser test done. If it goes as planned I can let you know what,if anything ,I can forward on to you. If the breeders lines have been clear of glaucoma so far then I don't think the risk is high of your puppy developing it.

smitte21

YEah I'd say history is the greatest tell tale sign plus the parents should have had a gonioscopy done to check for glaucoma. Have to be over the age of two to get a decent reliable result though so I don't know what kind of test that breeder ran on a puppy. CERF really doesn't mean squat in the case of bassets aside from checking the eyelids to make sure they don't roll in.

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Mikey T

The problem is a gonioscopy is not diagnostic for basset hounds and glaucoma for other breed perhaps, but there are too many clears the end up with glaucoma and al lot of not so good to terribles that never have a problem on has to consider if it actual does more harm than good because too much value is placed on it when the best tool currently is a very broad pedigree analysis of which includes a lof of the offspring and siblings off the dogs in the pedigree. That is a big problem with testing in general Unless it is a definitive genetic test for a particular disease in a particular breed, there is going to be some false positive and negative that are going to give some owners false sense of security and some quality breeding stock is going to be unecessarily eliminated decrease the overal genetic deversity of the breed as well. It is very important to discuss the limitation of such testing