Announcement from the Swedish FCR pages:

As many of you know by now several cases of PRA has been diagnosed in dogs with one and the same owner in the Netherlands. It could be as many as 5-6 cases during appr.8 years, most of them during the last 5 years.

Some questions have come to mind regarding this:

• Could it be an acquired form of PRA?
• Why only males?
• Why such a concentration of cases with one owner?
• Why only imported dogs (Switzerland and Sweden)?
• Why no cases in littermates/parents (so far)?
• Why not in combinations which are very much the same as the PRA cases or are similar?

These questions have caused us to consider that these dogs do not suffer from the “classic inherited” form of PRA as so far no littermates, progeny or parents have been diagnosed. Neither has this happened in lines with similar pedigrees or combinations of lines from those diagnosed. Far from all are examined but so far none of the littermates have got the diagnosis PRA.

We are considering inheritance, environment, parasites, toxicity or any other plausible cause.

A great number of experts in Sweden as well as abroad are involved in this and are very helpful regarding these thoughts.

Over a year ago Alfie had something special for lunch.

A sock and couple of staples.

The sock was already on it’s way out the natural way but the vet was a bit concerned about the staples.

It was 31/12 and not the best time for surgery. So she suggested that I would give Alfie asparagus because it will wrap the sharp objects and normally take them quite safely out.

This really helped! As you can see from the photo copy of the x-ray the other stable is open but this is now happened over a year ago and had happy ending.

I think that asparagus should belong to flatcoated first aid kit.

Eddie has a nasty eye infection and Alfie has been “shaking” his head for awhile (ears) so I book an appointment for them. They both have now trops for next 1½ weeks; Alfie for his ear infection and Eddie for his eye infection.

There is also a scale in that place and I was a bit surprised how my “tiny & little” boys were heavy. Alfie was 39 kg’s and Eddie 34.8 kg’s.  Both of them in trim condition so they are not overweight but they are not small (in size) either. I wish the boys were a bit smaller (in size) than what they are but the most important thing is that they are healthy and happy dogs.

I also booked them hip & elbow e-ray + knee examination for 27/3.

Sari