The position of Breed Health Co-Ordinator is vacant, below is an article produced by Liz Ballentine.
NEW March 2021: Hip and Eyes Information sheets, (produced by Liz) please check out the download page.
The Kennel Club require all Assured breeders to score their dogs under the BVA hip dysplasia scheme and also recommend eye testing as well, but there are not that many Samoyed breeders within the scheme. The Code of Ethics for the breed makes the following statement:
Breeders should not knowingly breed from any stock which has hereditary diseases. It is advised that all breeding stock be X rayed for Hip Dysplasia by a qualified veterinary surgeon and that all the plates should be submitted to the BVA for hipscoring under the KC/BVA scheme, even if the hips are poor so that a picture of hip displasia in the breed can be asses.
In short health matters.
With the increased use of social media, health within the breed is also more transparent. The Cause of Death/Illness survey continues to be very relevant although input into this survey remains low currently. It is my plan to make sure that this becomes more prominent in an effort to increase uptake by all Samoyed owners. What is also important is that it is not just viewed as a Cause of Death survey but for the breed to be aware of health issues arising during a dogs lifespan, for example, I already know from our own experience and by discussion with veterinary eye specialists, that indolent ulcers are more common in samoyeds than a lot of other breeds and especially as when they are over 7 years old.
The breed is also aware of the ongoing issue of diabetes within samoyeds and is supporting research to identify the relevant markers which show a predisposition to this disease. Hopefully in the future it will lead to a test.
With the Samoyed community becoming more international with overseas dogs here, and also dogs exported from the UK health and health testing becomes more central to ensuring that not only UK samoyeds remain healthy but that we don’t import or export any health issues. We can only do this by being very open about issues we come across in the breed in our own dogs.
Part of this role is to complete an annual health survey which is submitted to the Kennel Club. To make this relevant, I need input from all owners on health issues arising as well as cause of death. I believe that each health survey should be published (at least in summary form) so that we can all see how our beautiful breed is doing.
We are very lucky in our breed as it is a Category 1 as far as the Kennel Club is concerned, i.e. with no big issues but to keep it that way, we need to work at it.
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Online Health Survey Form
This will be open to all owners of Samoyeds in the UK
Please give details of any Health Issues you may have encountered with your Samoyeds.
Information on ‘regular’ or ‘irregular’ whelping could also be included.
The details you enter are submitted anonymously.
Please give as much information as possible.
We would urge all owners to complete this form which can be also downloaded from the downloads page .
Cause of Death
We are also keen to understand the cause of deaths in Samoyeds, please complete this form. or download the pdf form below. http://samoyedbreedcouncil.co.uk/online-cause-of-death-form/
Cause of Death Form – SBC Cause of Death form 2020
For other related Health matters please visit the Downloads page.