2011 Deerhound Health Survey Results Part 1

Transcription

1 211 Deerhound Health Survey Reult Part 1 The SDCA conducted a urvey of Deerhound owner and breeder in 211. Survey form could be completed via the internet or provided a a hard copy by mail. A with our lat health urvey in 1995, it ha taken a good deal of time to ort out the repone, clean them up to remove duplicate entrie, and organize and code the repone o they could be analyzed. Becaue thi urvey could be completed electronically, we received repone from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Autralia a well a the United State and Canada. A expected, the majority of repondent were from North America. Nowaday, Deerhound in different part of the world can and are bred to each other. Depite thi, the Deerhound population in North America, Europe, and Autralia are till fairly ditinct genetically, and the environment in which the dog live definitely differ. For thi reaon, I decided to analyze the data eparately for each region. In thi month column, I will begin haring the reult for Deerhound in North America. I ll continue haring reult in ubequent column. Becaue the word dog can be confuing, I will avoid it. Intead, I will ue the term male and bitch when deignating dog of a particular ex, and the term hound or Deerhound when referring to dog of either or both exe. How Big Wa the North American Repone? A total of 147 people in North America provided information on 588 Deerhound 274 male and 314 bitche. Where a birth date wa reported, the birth date range from 1983 to 21 for male and 198 to 211 for bitche; thu, the reult cover hound born over an approximate 3-year period. All but four people ubmitted information via the internet, although everal folk who completed the urvey electronically alo followed up with a hard copy to clarify or add information. Size of North American Deerhound Repondent provided information on mature height for 519 dog, and the reult are ummarized in the table below. Table 1. Height (inche) of North American Deerhound Bitche Male Baed on thi many hound Average Mean Median Range Shortet Tallet Repondent provided information on mature weight for 568 dog, and the reult are ummarized in the table below. Table 2. Weight (pound) of North American Deerhound Bitche Male Baed on thi many dog Average Mean Median Range Minimum Maximum

2 Baed on thee reult, the average North American Deerhound male tand approximately 32 inche tall at the wither and weigh 15 pound, while the average North American bitch tand approximately 3 inche tall and weigh 85 pound. Thi ex difference i very imilar to the reult of the previou health urvey in One can compare thee reult with our breed tandard, which ay the following: For male: Height from 3 to 32 inche, or even more if there be ymmetry without coarene, which i rare. Weight from 85 to 11 pound. For bitche: Height from 28 inche upward. Weight from 75 to 95 pound. Apparently North American male over the pat 3 year have tended to be omewhat large, relative to the tandard, while bitche have tended to fall in the middle of the range that the tandard ugget. Life Span and Life Expectancy of North American Deerhound For each hound, the urvey aked owner to provide birth and death date in one place and the dog age at death in another place. Occaionally repondent provided date but not the age at death. I calculated the age at death baed on the date and compared it to the reported age at death. In the vat majority of intance, the two number agreed. In the rare cae where there wa a dicrepancy, thi wa orted out by communicating with the peron who completed the urvey. In one form or another, repondent provided life pan data on 311 dog 14 male and 171 bitche. Thee data are ummarized in the table below. Table 3. Range of Life Span (year) for North American Deerhound Bitche Mal e Number of dog Average life pan Shortet life.8.3 Longet life In our 1995 urvey, the average life pan for all dog that died wa 7.4 year for bitche and 7.2 year for male. Thu, it eem like the average life pan ha improved ubtantially for bitche but ha not changed for male. However, a I pointed out in 1995, the average life pan of thee 311 dog i not the true average life pan of North American Deerhound. In order to get the true average life pan, one ha to define the population a a group of dog born during a certain time period intead of a a group of dog that died during a certain time period. That i becaue one cannot calculate a population true average life pan until every ingle member of the population ha died. If one get impatient and trie to calculate the average life pan while ome member of the population are till alive, then one end up omitting ome of the longet-lived member of the group from the calculation. The reult i an artificially hort etimate of average life pan. For the 211 urvey, the appropriate population to ue in calculating life pan are bitche born before January 1, 1999 and male born before July 2, 2, becaue all of them have died. Thi population conit of 118 bitche and 93 male. At leat ome of the dog born after thee date are till alive. The average life pan for thi population of North American Deerhound i 9.8 year for bitche and 8.3 year for male. In the 1995 urvey, thee number were for 8.9 year for bitche and 8.4 year for male. Thu, even when we look at true life pan, it eem that life pan ha increaed by a year for bitche but ha not changed for male.

3 One ha to be careful to ditinguih life pan from life expectancy. Life expectancy increae with age. To calculate life expectancy at a given age, one need to exclude from the population any dog that died before reaching that age and then calculate the average life pan of the remaining dog. I have done thi in Table 4. Life expectancy clearly differ between exe. The difference i greatet at birth and gradually hrink with age, but it never diappear. Although I did not analyze the data tatitically, the large ample ize and the ditribution of life pan make me think that the difference in life expectancy between exe i real and not due to chance. Another meage to take from Table 4 i that we have ome repectably longlived Deerhound. For example, 123 dog (4 male and 83 bitche) lived at leat 9 year, and 87 dog (22 male and 65 bitche) lived to be at leat 1 year old. Although I don t how the data in the table, we had 11 male that lived at leat 11 year, and we had 22 bitche that made it beyond their 12 th birthday. Caue of Death for North American Deerhound The urvey aked for information about the caue of death, and thi information wa entered for more than 3 dog. For 33 of thoe dog, the caue of death wa entered a unknown or undetermined. The caue of death for the remaining 273 dog are ummarized in Table 5 and 6. A in the 1995 urvey, the two mot frequent caue of death were cancer (overwhelmingly oteoarcoma) and heart failure, including udden death due to arrhythmia and gradual death due to congetive heart failure. It i afe to aume that the large majority of heart failure (udden and gradual) were a conequence of cardiomyopathy. Alo a in 1995, there wa a ex difference in thee two caue of death. Male were more likely to die of cardiomyopathy, while bitche were more likely to die of oteoarcoma. It i impoible to exaggerate the impact of thee two dieae for our breed. If we aume that the majority of death due to heart failure are a conequence of cardiomyopathy, then the picture i pretty tark: Of the male for which a caue of death wa identified, almot one in four died of cardiomyopathy, and more than one in ix died of oteoarcoma! Of the female for which a caue of death wa identified, almot one in four died of oteoarcoma, and almot one in ix died of cardiomyopathy! On the brighter ide, the third mot frequent caue of death for dog of either ex could be ummed up a old age. (A you would expect, mot of thee death were by elective euthanaia.) In addition, the average age at which a dog died of old age wa more than 1 year, regardle of the underlying health problem that lead to death. Thi i omething to celebrate for any breed, but epecially for a giant breed like our. Table 4. Average Life Expectancy (year) for North American Deerhound Age (in year) = Female Life expectancy Birt h Number dog

4 Male Life expectancy Number of dog Sex Difference Female v. male Table 5. Reported Caue of Death for North American Deerhound Bitche Numb er Repor ted Relative Frequen cy a Avera ge Age (year) Young et Olde t Baed on thi many dog 171 Caue of death pecified % No caue of death determined 2 12% Cancer 51 34% Oteoarcoma 37 22% Lymphoma/lymphocytic leukemia Metatatic or ite-unpecified cancer Hemangioarcoma Lower urinary tract tumor Rare tumor (ingle report for each) b Heart-related 24 14% Heart failure due to cardiomyopathy 14 8% Heart failure, caue unknown 9 5% Heart arrhythmia Age-related 27 16% Old age, with weak rear/trouble riing 9 5% Old age, no rear end trouble mentioned 1 6% Spondyliti/pondyloi 5 3% Degenerative myelopathy Torion 11 6% Stomach torion/bloat 1 6% Splenic torion Anetheia- or urgeryrelated 11 6% Bleeding after urgery 5 3% DIC after urgery Other caue, not bleeding

5 Table 5. Reported Caue of Death for North American Deerhound Bitche Numb er Repor ted Relative Frequen cy a Avera ge Age (year) Young et Olde t Pneumonia 5 3% Accident or injury 9 5% Rare (reported in one or two dog) a = Relative frequency i calculated a a percentage of all death, including thoe for which the caue wa undetermined. b = Rare tumor were chondroarcoma, ynovial cell arcoma, choroid plexu papilloma, and liver tumor (type not pecified).

6 Table 6. Reported Caue of Death for North American Deerhound Male Numb er Repor ted Relative Frequen cy a Avera ge Age (year) Young et Olde t Baed on thi many dog 135 Caue of death pecified 122 9% No caue of death determined 13 1% Cancer 36 28% Oteoarcoma 22 16% Lymphoma/lymphocytic leukemia Metatatic or ite-unpecified cancer Hemangioarcoma Rare tumor (ingle report for each) b Heart-related 29 22% Heart failure due to cardiomyopathy 2 15% Heart failure, caue unknown 5 4% Heart arrhythmia 4 3% Age-related 13 1% Old age, with weak rear/trouble riing 8 6% Old age, no rear end trouble mentioned Spondyliti/pondyloi Degenerative myelopathy Torion 4 3% Stomach torion/bloat Splenic torion Pneumonia 6 4% Liver hunt 6 4% Seizure Aneurym Enlarged protate gland Rare (reported in one or two dog) a = Relative frequency i calculated a a percentage of all death, including thoe for which the caue wa undetermined. b = Rare tumor were ubcutaneou fibroarcoma, intetinal tumor (type not pecified), pinal heath tumor (type not pecified), oral melanoma, pancreatic cancer, and a benign plenic tumor (likely hemangioarcoma).

7 Next month I ll hare the information on the variou health problem reported for North American Deerhound, and how the reult in 211 compare to thoe in the 1995 Health Survey. Dr. John E. Dillberger, P.O. Box 2118, Nahville, IN (812) John@Greymorn.com