When I bought my oldest bitch as a puppy, her breeder had her Mum, Great Aunt, Grandma, Great Grandma, Grandad and Uncle there. My bitch is now almost three. Her Mum died before our girl was one, before we bred from her, of cancer. Our vet said it wasn't hereditary and wasn't a reason not to breed from our girl.

Anyway, in the last year first of all her Great Grandma died, aged 14, which is a good age for the breed. Then her great Aunt died aged 8 after complications following surgery for pyometra. Now her grandad has died aged 8 after a stroke. (well, he had to be PTS sadly)

My girls litter sister has also had cancer, but it has been treated.

As well as our older bitch, we also have her 7 month old pup her aswell, who hopefully I will show and possibly plan on breeding from in the future, dependant on her showing career. I am however, slightly worried about breedign further from either Mum or daughter, due to the ages of the close relatvies when they died.

Do you think I am worrying without need and the breeder was just unlucky? I feel dreadfully sorry for her. I think she was coping fairly well until she lost her last boy. :-(

As one who is a great believer in longevity in a line and using older stud dogs, yes, it would concern me.

Whats the breed??? As a great dane living to 14 would be great and VERY unusual!!( I believe)  but an am cocker spaniel living to that age should be the norm :)
Lea :)

Not sure if I can say the breed, but 12-14 would be the expected age for the breed to reach.

As long as you are not advertising or deemed as advertisubg you can sat the breed :)
Lea :)

I am NOT a breeder, but personally I would not worry overly, as they are all unconnected. IF all had died of cabcer then I would be very worried, but all the deaths are unconnected (as far as I know!!) and completely different reasons, so I would say the breeder was just un lucky.
Lea :)

i would not be concerned as one was 14, another was pyo (always very serious) and another a stroke so completely unrelated and just awful luck, if your girls are healthy and of good quality then i would go ahead if that is what i wanted to do

Sad to say all the dogs deaths are different health areas in away. For me 14 is a good age but  in some breeds like Labradors on a good run you can see a dog living upto 16 or even 17 years. With your dog nearly 3 Have you thought about having your girls speyed. They say having your dog done before 3 can help to reduce the mammery gland cancer ceils down( not so sure about this). I would consider having your dog speyed though.

> I would consider having your dog speyed though

Well that would solve the problem as to whether to breed or not! ;) ;) ;)

Seriously, I would be concerned - but not overly so. as has been pointed out, although very sad to lose so many members of one family in such a short time, the deaths were from different causes. If all had died from cancer, or had bad hearts, for example, then I would be very concerned. But as it is I think it may just be down to rotten bad luck.

depends on the breed but in my breed no i wouildnt be worried

I think that you are very sensible to be aware of this, but since the deaths are from different things I would still breed from the bitches BUT I would make even more of an effort to use an older stud dog with a family history of longevity.  I think there's a lot to be said for using an older dog anyway.

Cancer, Pyo and a stroke are all unrelated but........

Were Grandad and Great Aunt from the same litter?  Or was the Grandad brought in from a different line? That is really strange that both died aged 8. And of course the mum of cancer.

I don't know how things run in dogs but cancer and strokes in human families are always asked to be put down on medical history.

To be honest with a run of bad luck like that, I would need to know how other siblings from the Grandparents were doing too, Cancers and strokes in quite young dogs, I must be honest I don't think I would breed from the line, but I would look into it much further, have any of the other relatives been used as show dogs that you can trace to see whether still alive?

I wouldn't rest too easy with this, it would worry me I'm afraid.

You can state what breed as you are not advertising.

I had all those generations.  The great, great grandma died 4 years ago after becoming blind and deaf at the age of 12 she just couldn't cope with losing both senses at the same time and used to just throw herself on the floor.  Her daughter is still with me at 14.  Her daughter is 8 and hasn't had any real illness, well actually she's only had a couple and that's in her new home where she's living now one was cystitis and the other a broken toe, bless her!  Though with her second litter only one out of 4 is still alive at 5 years of age, though two died after complications (injury to mother whilst pregnant) unknowingly they had problems later in life due to this and the other one was killed in a car accident.  Her other pups from first and last pregnancy are all very well.

As they are all unrelated illnesses I wouldn't be too worried, if they'd been the same illness then I would have.

I was actually only thinking the other day that isn't it a shame that we can't send a form to the KC when our dogs die with how they died.  Could be very helpful.

>>I was actually only thinking the other day that isn't it a shame that we can't send a form to the KC when our dogs die with how they died.  Could be very helpful.>>

The breeder I got my rats from keeps records of the age and reason for death of all her rats, she sends a survey to the owners every 6 months to update her records