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Originally Posted by corgimom
I am interested in knowing more about this.
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Linda, I'm not sure how much you do know. Briefly, von Willebrand's Disease (vWD) is a bleeding disorder (similar to hemophilia in humans) which can occur in Pembrokes. There are different forms or levels of it, Doberman's have a more severe version of it than is found in Pems. The older method of blood testing for it was found to be unreliable. There is a DNA marker for it now, but there is some question about the accuracy of it being raised now. The blood tests done now are are much better than earlier versions as I understand it.
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Cody's parents and grandparentswere both tested for this. He is getting neutered next month. Should my
vet perform a blood test on him to see if he has this? If I were to breed him
(which I am not), he would have to be tested, so I guess I am wondering if
that is the case, why wouldn't I do it before neutering.
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Since both Cody's parents and grandparents have been tested - a couple of things here. Whether he would need to be tested likely would depend on the status of his parents & grandparents, whether they were carriers or not. And since his breeder did test them; asking his/her advice on this would be a good idea. He/she, more than likely, could probably do a better job of explaining this than I am, and might be able to give a definitive yes or no on whether testing him would be necessary or not. He could be cleared by parentage (which means his grandparents and parents were clear and did not carry a gene for vWD). IF not and one of them was a know carrier, then testing him before breeding would be important because you would not want him bred to another carrier which could produce vWD affected puppies. Should not be a factor in having him neutered though.
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How is this passed on the puppies? and what is the chances that could happen?
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It is genetic, originally thought to be an autosomal dominant gene. That means only one parent would need to carry a gene for it in order for the trait to manifest. Another example of such a trait is the merle gene in Cardigans, only one parent needs to carry it in order to produce blue merle puppies. With vWD, two copies of it would more than likely be lethal and a puppy would likely die in utero. Thinking today is it is an autosomal recessive, which means both parents would need to carry a gene for vWD in order to produce a vWD affected puppy. Now a slight complication in this is that it may not be restricted to just one gene or loci and other ones are tied into it. With this theory, one would have vWD affected - bleeders; carriers - would carry the gene for vWD, but not be bleeders; and clears - possessing the von Willebrand factor for clotting. There does not seem to be complete penetration, so there are reports of affected corgis never having a bleeding problem, while carriers might have bleeding troubles.
Even with my own corgis and all the rescues and fosters I have had come through, I've not had a vWD one yet, or at least not that I have been aware of and I've had no problem bleeders. I'd recommend checking in with Cody's breeder and get their input.
Debbie
