So I was noodling around on the Interwebs and came across this video.
Cute, huh? Well, not so much. Did you look at the dog’s eyes, especially at the beginning of the video? This dog suffers from severe entropion, which is the lower eyelid rolling inward and sagging. This is a very uncomfortable and painful condition for the dog since the eyelashes constantly rub against the cornea and irritate it. One of the symptoms of entropion is excessive tearing or weeping around the eyes. The Vizsla Club of America considers entropion a serious genetic disease and condemns the breeding of dogs affected with the condition. Yay Vizsla Club!!
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And don’t even get me started on the extreme facial wrinkling. How would you like it if every time you turned your head down to look at something, a mountain of skin fell over your eyes?
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This is what the working Bloodhounds of today look like. I like the older picture of the dogs even more, way less wrinkles. They still look like a Bloodhound, only with a fraction of the problems.
Genetic diseases common to Bloodhounds are; Gastric dilitation-volvulus (bloat), Hip dysplasia, Elbow dysplasia, Keratoconjunctivitis sicca, Prolapsed gland of the third eyelid, Ectropion, Entropion, Exposure keratopathy syndrome and Fold dermatitis.
The UK Kennel Club conducted a health survey of Bloodhounds in 2004. The median age of a Bloodhound was 6.9 years with the number one cause of death being bloat and the number two cause of death being cancer. The only breeds of dogs that had a lower median age than the Bloodhound was the Great Dane with median age of 6.6 years and the Dougue de Bordeaux with a median age of 3.10 years.
Wow. How sad is that? I don’t get why anyone would breed a dog with these issues for show unless it was all about their ego. We need to make decisions like these “uncool” not “cool”. Thankfully, you are helping to do that.
I wonder if entropion can be corrected by cosmetic surgery?
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I’m still baffled by why these breed clubs get away with creating dogs that are unsound and so far from what their original purpose was. Where are the people who love the breed and know what it’s supposed to be? If I saw this happening with Greyhounds, I would be at the very top of my soapbox shouting about it.
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I have trouble even looking at a show Bloodhound without my eyes tearing up in sympathy. I know the wrinkles help the dog capture the scent, but I see no reason to exaggerate the characteristic since they have followed scents for centuries without the problems today’s dogs have.
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His eyes do look pretty bad… We did a surgery to repair a Great Dane’s eye problem, I think she also had entropion. For whatever reason, the dog crashed during surgery… she was still under a year old. I think the dog’s owners were talking about getting into it legally with her breeders.
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The Bordeaux’s median age is frightening. A product of breeding as well? It seems hardly out of puppyhood, how can that be. I hope Georgia doesn’t have too much Dane gene in her
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It seems people are also breeding them much larger than they used to be. I recently attended a local dog event in town and there were two bloodhounds I saw that were at least as tall as Great Danes. I don’t remember them being that large. The one was almost as tall as his female handler’s shoulder. That can’t be good for the breed either since size usually has a shortening effect on lifespan.
These poor dogs…
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So sad. I hope someone can put a stop to this soon and outlaw the breeding of these kind of dogs!