I have American Cockers, and although i know of the KC exams they can have i am looking for some more info, can anyone help?

Hi, what sort of help are you looking for?  Will help if I can.

Not sure what kind of 'more' info you are looking for, but wiki says this:

''American Cocker Spaniels are susceptible to a variety of maladies, particularly infections affecting their ears and, in some cases, their eyes. As a result, they may require more medical attention than some other breeds. Common eye problems in Cockers include progressive retinal atrophy (PRA), glaucoma, and cataracts. ''

If you check out the Optigen web site, it tells you which DNA tests are available for American Cocker Spaniels http://www.optigen.com/opt9_test.html

Just to clarify the points posted,  American Cockers are known to be affected by several diferent types of Cataract, which has lead to some problems in finding the genes, and therefore making a DNA test possible for HC.  Ongoing research with the AHT is making slow progress, but we are hopefully gradulaly getting towards it.  The main problem with the research is lack of suitable samples submitted.  The ideal family groupings of 1 or more affected dogs plus extended famliy inc. parents, siblings etc were not submitted for the initial sampling, apart form 1 or 2 breeders.  WE therefore had a pretty random group of loosley related dogs, which made research slow to almost impossible.  Over the years since the first samples were taken there has also been a very low rate of new info. being submitted to the AHT of the tested dogs updated eye test status.  However, an appeal last year to breeders in the USA and Canada for samples, now that cheek swabs rather than blood samples were able to be used, has produced the required family groups, and the research is making full use of these new dog's info.

In the meantime, we can only do the required yearly eye testing, and be vigilant about eye status of parents, siblings, etc.  Eye testing for the ABS is required for HC and gonioscopy (for Glaucoma, a one off test).  Optigen's PRA DNA test is recomended but not required.  Both Glaucoma and PRA (whilst much more serious than HC becasue of the pain issues) are a much, much lower incidence in the breed than cataract.  Because of the difficulty of pinpointing the type of cataract, Vets doing eye testing record any incidence of Cataract as a fail for HC, even if the liklehood is that it is trauma related, this has also cause a problem or 2 with the research, but the better safe than sorry approach seems appropriate.

Off the top of my head, I think the breed clubs only mention that eye testing must be done, not sure any of them specify which of the 3 conditions.