The OFA Tracheal Hypoplasia Study
Jennifer of Adamant Bulldogs left this in the comments, but I feel it deserves a post of its own. This is exciting news for French Bulldog owners, and for all owners of Brachycephalic breeds. Combined with the great news about the DNA test to identify carriers of Juvenile Cataracts (initially available only for Boston Terriers, but now open to French Bulldogs, as well), we’re on our way to having the tools we need to develop a new generation of healthy, sound, genetic disease free dogs.
A quick note to any frenchie or english bulldog breeders or owners out there. The OFA tracheal hypoplasia study is well underway. If you submit a film to OFA, you will receive a result, of either normal, equivocal or hypoplastic. We need more submissions to give OFA the data they need. Hopefully this will evolve to a registry and give the breeders of short faced breeds a valuable tool to utilize to breed healthy, active dogs and weed out those with issues from future breeding programs.
So far, results have been encouraging. While it is true that many breeders have been submitting, so have a lot of pet owners and performance dog owners.
It requires only one film, NO sedation, and in a few weeks you will have valuable information on your dog. Completely confidential as this is a study phase. Dogs can be CKC or AKC registered and need only be 5 months old at the time the film is taken.
If anyone wants to take part in starting something that may be invaluable to our breeds someday, just go to http://www.offa.org/trachhypoappbw.pdf
Any vet with an x-ray can do it.