Hi, my friend owns a KC reg Dalmation bitch with one blue eye & one brown eye. she has had all the health checks & the vet has said she would be fine to breed from in future, but should my friend really be thinking about breeding from a Dal with different colour eyes?
Also she is only seven months old at the moment. & we just wondered when her spots will finish developing? (she does'nt have very many at the mo).
Thanks X,
& does anyone know why my computer will not let me register on this site? I have heard it might be something to do with aol??
Thanks again x.

Vets unlsee a specialist in the breed involved are not generally qualified to gie an opinon on whether a dog is suitable to be bred from, and frankly even an expert would be hard put to say for sure with a pup of 7 months who has a lot of developing to do. 

At this age they are two young to have been hip scored.

All the vet can say is that the pup is in general good health.

Blue eyes in a dlamatian are a complete no no for breeding, I believe because it carries even higher risks of deeaf puppies.

I'm sorry, but a blue eye in a dalmatian immediately rules breeding from it out of the question. I'm sure your friend was told by the breeder (if the breeder was reputable) that the bitch's pedigree was endorsed to ban the registration of any puppies she might have.

The problem with blue eyes is that they're strongly linked to hereditary deafness, which is the breed's major problem. The fact that she's lightly spotted (if she gets any more spotting through they'll only be small undesirable 'flecks', not true spots) adds to the liklihood that she's at least deaf on the side of the blue eye - I hope the pup was BAER tested before she left the breeder?

Sorry if this isn't what your friend wants to know, but her dalmatian, although I'm sure delightful, is purely 'pet' quality and should never be bred from. Sorry.

Surely the vet wouldv'e noticed this? I'm amazed that they said she was ok to breed from!

Alot of vets dont have a clue.
I know someone who took their Jack russel x chiauau to the vets to check it was ok as it missed when he first mated it with his brother corgi x ? and he passed it and said it would be ok next time. Which it was and they went on to have a litter.
(Might have got the crosses the wrong way round as its been a while since the guy told me)
Reason for litter,
no1 to pay for the bitch to be spayed
no2 to SEE WHAT The pups looked like!!!!!!

The majority of vets haven't a clue when it comes to canine hereditary problems and the various breeds, I'm afraid. :( One vet assured me that my liver-spotted puppy's spots would turn black as she got older, saying that "They all start like this!" :rolleyes: Having set him straight, I changed vets ...

Added to what the others have said no reputable stud dog owner would allow their dog to mate with the bitch. 

An old vet I used said 9 months was fine to breed from!

I quite agree with you JG I am so very very lucky that our vet is really on the ball with genetically inherited problems & he has always been like this He is a one off though & very very popular with breeders who use the practice He even asked me if he could call when one of my GSDs had a litter as he had only ever seen problem whelpings & he had only just qualified at the time. He took two days off work(GSDs are notoriously slow whelpers)& my bitch adored him presenting each puppy to him as it was born & leaving me with the yukky bits & other puppies LOL he did try to visit when my 1st Beardie litter was born but by the time he got to me she was having the 7th & last puppy an hour after she started !

He always checks with the current health tests needed if anyone asks him about breeding their bitch or dog & has never told anyone that it is good for the bitch  ! He is a very special vet

Sounds like one of the few, MM. The vet I used for my last couple of litters acknowledged that I knew more about normal whelpings than he did, though he was the expert when it came to problem ones! Sadly he's pretty much retired now, and I'm still training the new partners! ;) :D

If you think about it vets rarely get involved with normal whelpings unless you find one who breeds as well.  Mine was brilliant with all Tigs problems. athough she did say that my pup didnt have megaoesophagus because it was mainly gsds who got them until I told her of 4 people with dallies who had them.

He is JG When I rang & told him about my Lou's father having SHM & having him MRI'd to see if he had it he was really interested & knew all about ALL of the symptoms & had even organized a local seminar with a specializt for all the local vets so that they too knew what to look for & so that it was not misdiagnosed as a back or skin problem

Good job he is still relatively young so will be with us as a vet for a good while yet & he never asks me if I am having my dogs neutered nor why I do not vaccinate until after titre tests are back

>>The fact that she's lightly spotted (if she gets any more spotting through they'll only be small undesirable 'flecks', not true spots) adds to the liklihood that she's at least deaf on the side of the blue eye ->>

Unfortunately, the amount of spotting has no influence on liklihood of deafness but patching does.  When the spots form, sometime after birth, the ear mechanism has passed the critical stage of development and if there is no pigment present in the inner ear, deafness will result in that ear.  Patches are present at birth so do increase chances of normal hearing. 

Another breed that is born white (except for patches) is the Australian Cattle Dog.  Even though they develop dense spotting/flecking all over the body, the breed still suffers colour related deafness.

Blue eye is linked to deafness in that if there is no pigment in the eye there is less likely to be pigment in the ear.  Statistics show that patched Dalmatians with brown eyes are the least likely to be deaf, unpatched with blue eyes are the most likely.

Julie

When dalmatian pups are born (and still wet) the spotting is clearly visible on the skin. When they're dry the white coat makes the spots invisible till the hair changes colour.

One of the vets who specialises in hearing tests has found that very light spotting does indeed seem to be linked with deafness.
:)

Spotting on the skin though doesn't help in hearing as it's pigment in the hair that's crucial in the inner ear.  I was under the impression that skin spots don't often coincide in position with hair spots in Dals, would be interested to hear more on this.

And if there are stats linking light spotting with increased deafness, that would be very new data, very interesting.  Do you have any more on this?

Julie

The skin spots mark the position of the hair spots. In the 'old days' the breeder would examine each wet newly-born whelp to study the spot pattern and density, and put food dye on the tail of over- or under-spotted ones. Then, if the bitch had a very large litter these would be the ones to be culled. Sometimes there are skin spots where the hair growing from them remains white, but I've never come across true 'hair spots' growing from unpigmented skin.
:)