Heritable diseases

The Lancashire Heeler is a strong and healthy dog,and you can expect this dog to live for 10-15 years.Also this breed,as every other breeds,has some diseases you should know about.The mainproblem is eye-diseases,and some dogs have problems with their knee-lap.

Persistent Pupillary Membrane(PPM)

This manifests as a `cobweb` over the eyes,it is a remnant of the bloodvessels that fed the pup`s eyes in the womb.This membrane har usually dissappeared by the time the puppu is 6-10 weeks old.Sometimes small pieces of membrane remain visible (not to the open eye),and theese are often called `tags`.PPM`s should not cause any problems to a puppy bought as a pet,and it will normally not change as the years go by.

Primary Lens Luxation(PLL)

This disease means that the lens has become dehatced within the eye,either in front or the back of the eye.The colour will change to bluish/grey.This needs immediate treatment,-any delay will resault in a blind eye.At worst Glaucoma will set in and the dog may lose the eye.This disease occurs usually when the dog is 6-10 years old.

Collie eye anomaly(CEA)

CEA is an heritable disease the dog is born with.The disease occurs within the puppy is 12 weeks of age.This disease is a fault in the eye`s structure,behind the eye.The mildest degree of this disease are very small defects with no sight-problems,while the worst case leads to bad sight or even blindness.Basically,CEA is a condition where the blood-vessels don`t connect at the back of the eye,leaving a `grey` area.The disease doesn`t get any worse or any better.

Theese degrees can be splitted up in 4 groups:

1.CRD - Chorioretinal displasy

2.Colobom

3.Retinalluxation

4.Intraoccular bleeding

Patella Luxation

This condition leads to a loose knee-lap,where the knee-lap jumps out of its place.This occurs usually before the dog reach the age of 6 months.There are mainly 2 degrees of this condition,where the easiest is to just place the knee-lap in its right place,while the worst cases need surgery.

All breeders should have their breeding stock eyetested annually or BEFORE mating,and the eyecertificate should not be older than 1 year in order to be able to register offspring from the sire and dam!