Halo heads in for health tests

Things are starting to get real around here!  Halo turned two back in August and today was her first round of health testing.  The is a big step towards Halo becoming a Mommy, so we are anxious to get her results back.  Our veterinarian thought both her hips and elbows looked good today, so we are hopeful!

Today we had both her hips and elbows x-rayed for Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) certification.  We also had her blood drawn for the OFA Thyroid test.  If you don’t know what the OFA does, they are a huge database of health tests to help improve the genetics of breeding — http://www.offa.org/purpose.html.  We are hoping for an OFA certificate stating that Halo has “Good” or “Excellent” Hips and “Normal” Elbows & Thyroid.  If all those things come back as we hope, we will then set up her OFA Eye test and hope for a “Normal” result there too.

If you are wondering why we selected these tests, we’ll fill you in!  There is another group called the Canine Health Information Center (CHIC.)  CHIC works with parent clubs to identify health issues and serves to help build out a valid database.  For Vizslas, the parent club (Vizsla Club of America) has asked for Hips, Thyroid, and Eyes.  (We included elbows as a bonus!)  http://www.caninehealthinfo.org/brdreqs.html?breed=VZ

We also believe it is important to certify through the OFA — which are VALIDATED testing methods.  We both come from heavy scientific backgrounds (obviously Marc because he is a physician, but Jenny’s undergrad is in genetics and her career deals with scientific trials and study design daily) and feel strongly that studies are only as good as the data.  In other words, put junk in, get junk out.  Data also needs to have parity…if your subjects aren’t all tested the same way, it’s hard to come to conclusion — kinda like comparing apples and oranges.  So that’s why Halo will have all of her breed suggested testing and receive her CHIC number before being bred — not only to ensure she is healthy, but to improve research for our breed in the future.

Cross your fingers for us and we promise to keep everyone posted!