Health
Tollers are generally hardy. However, like almost all dog breeds, certain genetic disorders are known to occur in the breed. This is sometimes blamed on a relatively small gene pool. The Finnish breed club states the largest health problems in the breed to be immunity related. They can be affected by eye problems and hip dysplasia and are predisposed to immune-mediated rheumatic disease and steroid-responsive meningitis–arteritis.
Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) affects about 7% of Tollers with an estimated 40% being carriers. The type of PRA associated with the breed is known as progressive rod-cone degeneration. The disease causes cells in the retina to degenerate and die, causing night blindness at first and complete blindness eventually. Collie eye anomaly is estimated to have a carrier rate of 5% and an affected rate of 0.5%. It generally only cause mildly impared vision but in more severe cases can lead to retinal hemorrhaging and detachments resulting in blindness.
Thyroid problems have been identified by American breeders as a priority issue, together with epilepsy and hip dysplasia. As many as 1 in 6 Tollers may have autoimmune thyroiditis. Symptoms of thyroid problems includes weight gain, skin and hair problems including hair loss, weakness, cold intolerance or infertility.
Addison’s disease affected 1% of Tollers in a health survey, an incidence rate 10 times more than the general dog population. Carrier rate is estimated at 18%. This disease is also considered an important issue in the breed. Signs can include lethargy, decreased appetite, vomiting, weakness, diarrhea, increased drinking and urinations, and shivering.
Health tests are available for both eye diseases and autoimmune thyroiditis. A test for Addison's disease is available but it is only for one form of the disease and there are other forms which also affects the breed.
A survey conducted in 2002 by the Canadian breed club to discover which diseases and conditions occur in the Toller population, involving owners of 1180 dogs worldwide, showed 73% reported in excellent health and a total of 7.5% reporting poor or bad health. 141 dogs (12%) were reported as deceased with the average age at death being 6.4 years. The most common cause of death was cancer, reported in 25% of deaths, with old age being the next most common at 9%.
Read more about this topic: Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever
Famous quotes containing the word health:
“Taste is the fundamental quality which sums up all the other qualities. It is the nec plus ultra of the intelligence. Through this alone is genius the supreme health and balance of all the faculties.”
—Isidore Ducasse, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870)
“I am astonished at the singular pertinacity and endurance of our lives. The miracle is, that what is is, when it is so difficult, if not impossible, for anything else to be; that we walk on in our particular paths so far, before we fall on death and fate, merely because we must walk in some path; that every man can get a living, and so few can do anything more. So much only can I accomplish ere health and strength are gone, and yet this suffices.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...I am who I am because I’m a black female.... When I was health director in Arkansas ... I could talk about teen-age pregnancy, about poverty, ignorance and enslavement and how the white power structure had imposed it—only because I was a black female. I mean, black people would have eaten up a white male who said what I did.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)