Chihuahuas Health Issues

Possible Health Issues with Chihuahuas

There are many concerns related to owning an animal and one that is over looked by so many are the possible health issues you may have to deal with in your pets life.

As we all know every living creature can get ill within their life span whether it be minor or major but as with most breeds of dogs there are problems that tend to crop up more often than others which ultimately become associated with the breed.

With the Chihuahua Puppies what we are seeing more and more are Luxating Patellas which is the slipping of the knee caps on the hind legs. This can cause pain, stiffness and walking difficulties but in severe cases to live a normal life your Chihuahua Puppies will need surgery to correct the problem. 

So what can we do ? 

When buying from a breeder make sure they can offer some proof that your new puppy has had their Patellas checked by the vet and that you have written confirmation of this as we all know that breeders can tell you anything when it comes to sell their pups

Any future operations can be huge amounts of money!

Working closely with our Vet we were able to see on The Vets Internal system recurring illnesses associated with any breed of dog over recent times and the Luxating Patellas really are getting more common with today's Chihuahua.

Now personally speaking we think the cross breeding is playing a huge part in the deterioration of the Chihuahua and that these will find their way back into the Chihuahua breeding therefore will introduce the problems of the breed they have been crossed with chihuahuas. 

Believe it or not the Chihuahua Puppies has the longest life expectancy and least common health issues out of all the toy breeds.

Recently we were at a fun dog event and a little girl came up to us to stroke one of our dogs and also introduced her dog which was a Chihuahua crossed with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.  I think everyone can guess if that was bred with other Chihuahuas what possible temperaments could be added to the Chihuahua bloodlines.

Although this is only one issue we have spoke about there can and will be many more given what breeders are doing to the breed so think beyond designer crossbreeds and how amusing they may look, protecting the real Chihuahua is extremely important.

The merle gene and its effects

As extraordinary as they may look we see some breeders promoting the Merle Chihuahuas as extremely rare and unique and to be honest this is exactly how we want to keep them.

What they don't understand is although most people like the unusual display of colours associated in the Chihuahuas coat and eyes they are in fact a mutation of a specific band of genes which affects sight and hearing and also dilutes coat colours.

The genes that have been identified in a 2006 study showed that they are inherited from mother or father or both so being passed on to their puppies who then can show different levels of severity of the genes. The science being the Merle gene will leave people scratching their heads but simply put there are single Merle traits and double Merle traits with the double being the more serious and giving these problems:

Increased Intraocular pressure : excessive pressure created in the eye.

Ametropia : vision impairment due to a refractive error such that images fail to focus upon the retina.

Microphthalmia : a smaller than normal eye due to a defect occurring early in development. Affected dogs may have prominent third eyelids. Other eye defects are common in animals with this condition, including defects of the cornea, anterior chamber, lens and retina.

Coloboma – a defect in ocular tissue; a cleft or missing portion of components of the eye, most commonly affecting the iris. 

Put into plain English this ultimately means deafness and blindness at some stage of their life.

Now although there is no mention of the colours or coat patterns in the above problems these are not health problems but an indication of the presence of the Merle Gene. Breeders who promote the Merle Chihuahua Puppies we feel are not showing enough responsibility for the breed by trying to eradicate the mutant genes within their breeding stock. There is a test available although it is in Canada which can identify within the dogs DNA the rogue genes so responsibility lies with the breeder to have their dogs DNA tested for Merle if they are producing Merle offspring therefore identifying the dogs not to breed from. Greedy breeders will not stop breeding these as money is more important than the Chihuahuas health.

Doggy science can be a touchy subject with many different views but at the end of the day health within the breed needs to over shadowed by customers preferences.