Ledhälsostatus hos Shetland Sheepdog : en enkätstudie

Sammanfattning: The Shetland Sheepdog is a popular breed of dogs in Sweden. The breed is mostly used as a companion dog and is also popular within certain dog sports such as agility. The Shetland Sheepdog is not included in any breeding programs regarding joint health. The animal insurance company, Agria had recently informed the Swedish Shetland Sheepdog Club (SSSK) that they had noted an increasing number of arthritis in the elbow joints, therefore they wanted to exclude elbow joints from the insurance until SSSK started a breeding program against elbow dysplasia. After the start of this study Agria withdrew their demand, but the study went on as planned. Aims of this study The aims of this study was to investigate if there is any data that may show if there is a larger or smaller reason than before to suspect that the breed has a problem with elbow dysplasia and therefore would benefit from a breeding program regarding this. To be able to see if it can be recognized as a problem, the results from this study was meant to be compared to the database at the insurance company Agria. The study would investigate the more general joint health as well and also see if there were any connections between level of activity, body condition and the development of arthritis. The results of the study will be the basis for SSSK`s revision of the breeding goals. Materials and Methods To achieve a better understanding about all lameness, even the ones that never visited a veterinarian, the study was based on a dog-owners survey. There was 3145 letters that went out to owners of Shetland Sheepdog of different ages, the survey had to be answered on-line and the results were compiled by a survey generator. Results There were a number of 1207 surveys that were answered, that represents 38,4 % of the letters that went out and means that 40,2 % of the people who got the letter answered the survey. The answering frequency was low and there cannot be any generalizations made of the breed. There were 30,8 % (n=356) of the dogs in the study that sometime in their life had shown signs of lameness, 25,6 % (n=91) of these dogs could no longer perform as before the lameness started. This means that 7,5 % (n=90) of all the dogs in the study had chronic problems with lameness. There were 0,9 % (n=8) of all the dogs in the study that had shown fore-limb lameness before one years of age but not visited a veterinarian. This number was so low that no further studies regarding these 8 dogs were made. Conclusions There was no increase in forelimb lameness before one years of age between the dogs that were born in the year 1999 and the dogs born in the year 2006. The body condition of the dog may contribute to the development of lameness, but the level of activity does not seem to affect the development of lameness. As described in literature, the Shetland Sheepdog seems to have a few joint related diseases within the breed. Chronic lameness was a problem that was noticed in this study.