French Bulldog Health Clearances

French Bulldogs are wonderful dogs. Health checks for both a male and female are imperative! They simply have to be cleared of any genetic condition prior to breeding.

Here are the clearances Celt MacBhaid Kennel does.

1. Patellar Luxation
2. Inherited Heart Disease
3. Inherited Eye Disease
4. Hip Dysplasia
5. Degenerative Myelopathy

For Hip Dysplasia, the dog has to be an age of two. We do the X-rays on our females at 14 months. This is to clear them prior to breeding at 18 to 20 months. If there is no evidence of hip problems at this point, they will be cleared at 2 years or later when they do not have pups with them.

All info is sent to Orthepedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). When a dog has cleared everything they will get their Canine Health Information Centre (CHIC) status. This means you have a healthy dog.

Here are the Certificates that OFA has for CHIC

Breeding CHIC dogs means that you are breeding with confidence. Using CHIC will help you look at pedigrees for female and male. The previous generations that provide the health, conformation and their performance records. All of this reduces the chance for an inherited disease. Medical checks must continue on each new generation. Pedigrees and ‘lines’ can go for several generations without a problem. And then one dog is tested and shows up a ‘carrier’. It does not mean the dog cannot be bred. It simply means the dog cannot be bred to another ‘carrier’.

Interpreting Your DNA Test Results for Autosomal Recessive Diseases

There are three possible test results: Clear, Carrier, and Affected. Below is a description of what each result means to you as a breeder.

Clear

This finding indicates that the gene is not present in your dog. Therefore, when used for breeding, a Clear dog will not pass on the disease gene.

Carrier

This finding indicates that one copy of the disease gene is present in your dog, but that it will not exhibit disease symptoms. Carriers will not have medical problems as a result. Dogs with Carrier status can be enjoyed without the fear of developing medical problems but will pass on the disease gene 50% of the time.

Affected

This finding indicates that two copies of the disease gene are present in the dog. Unfortunately, the dog will be medically affected by the disease. Appropriate treatment should be pursued by consulting a veterinarian.

Helpful Canine Breeding Chart

The chart provided below outlines the implications of various breeding pair combinations. Remember, it is always best to breed “Clear to Clear”. If followed by all breeders, these strategies will ensure a significant reduction in the frequency of the targeted disease gene in future generations of dogs. However, to maintain a large enough pool of good breeding stock, it may be necessary for some breeders to breed “Clear” to “Carriers” (see below).

Ideal Breeding Pair – Puppies will not have the disease gene (neither as Carrier nor as Affected).

Breeding Is Safe – No Affected puppies will be produced. However, some or all puppies will be Carriers.Accordingly, it is recommended that Carrier dogs which are desirable for breeding be bred with Clear dogs in the future, which will produce 50% carrier and 50% clear animals, to further reduce the disease gene frequency. These offspring should be tested by VetGen’s test for this defective gene, and if possible, only the clear animals in this generation should be used.

High Risk Breeding – Some puppies are likely to be Carriers and some puppies are likely to be Affected. Even though it is possible that there will be some clear puppies when breeding “Carrier to Carrier”, in general, neither this type of breeding pair nor “Carrier to Affected” are recommended for breeding.

Breeding Not Recommended – All puppies will be genetically and medically affected.

*Source: Information on this page has been taken directly off of www.VetGen.com.*