Pups growing in front of my eyes ! DNA test results & Belle update !

      Millie's Cavapoo Pups
                   two days old !

        Millie's Cavapoo Pups
                   three days old !

Millie's Cavapoo pups are now three days old & at this stage they are growing at such a rate it is almost visable every hour I look at them. I have counted to seven so many times in the past couple days on checking them, as they are like book ends all looking so alike, I am now counting to seven in my sleep.
Millie as usual is just a brilliant mum being very relaxed about it all which was noticed in the vets, as they commented on how chilled she was about everything but I did say "although she is so chilled if she smelt the scent of a rabbit or a deer she could be ten fields away in a wink of an eye."
As you will see from the photo's it s a wonder they all fitted inside her & with three days growing they would not now fit.

Belle with her dressing now removed

Belle is doing well after her surgery & has had the dressing removed today. What she has had done is very interesting to reactivate the growth plate in her radius. The growth plate one side of her radius where the chip occured back at Christmas has closed over prematurely which means as the ulna keeps growing it will push up at the elbow causing a gap & thus causing Belle to have a dislocating elbow & also as the plate has stopped on one side of the radius this bone now will curve more, so to reactivate this growth plate a piece of bone has been removed from the surface of the radius & fat from her flank has been put into the gap where the piece of bone has been removed. Fat you might ask like I asked the vet "Why fat ?". The answer is fat does not calcify. If the bone was just removed it would quickly heal over again but the fat stops this & a future operation may have to be done to remove the fat if it does to good a job & then a bone graph on the radius bone to heal back where the bone was removed once the radius has grown enough. I think we are in for a long haul & Belle is probably going to have a slight limp all her life but not from pain but the fact that this leg maybe just fractionally shorter than the other. Belle is being very brave & on picking her up on Tuesday after her operation has got her own fan club in the vets who all fell in love with her. I know I am biased but she is such a sweet little girl being very pretty & very gentle.
The DNA results for the Cavaliers arrived on Tuesday evening on my computer with just Jessica's to still come. None of the Cavaliers carry the gene's for curly coat dry eye but the test for Episodic Falling in Cavaliers we have one carrier which is Smudge, as her mum is Millie who is clear this gene must be from her father.
She only carry's one copy of the gene & if mated with a  Cavalier tested normal would produce normal & carriers & would not produce affected animals only normal or carriers on around a 50/50 split.
Smudge is in pups to Reggie our Miniature Poodle & as this condition is specific to Cavaliers any pups will not be affected animals just normal or carriers. If one of her pups where to be kept to breed from then it would need to be tested to see if a carrier & was breed to another Cavapoo or Cavalier would mean a chance of doubling up of Cavalier genes for this condition.
A dog that is a carrier does not nessesary withdraw it from being used for breeding but strict testing must be adhered to. Which is using a mate tested normal for the condition or using a breed the gene is not seen in & then any offspring being kept back for breeding being DNA tested & then only keeping back a clear pup from the litter. DNA testing can be done as easily at 6 weeks or earlier.
On the whole though I am very pleased with the results as I was expecting maybe a carrier for curly coat & dry eye as this condition is seen more often in Cavaliers than Episodic Falling. As I went down through the 14 emails checking each dogs results my heart did quicken a little.
I spoke to the Animal Health Trust who agreed with what I said above "Smudge is okay to breed to a Cavalier tested normal or dog breed without this gene problem." They are very helpful & doing great work for the health of dogs.