Hi guys,

I have a friend who is an Australian Shepherd breeder from overseas and I have been telling her about Koolies but she asked me which heath checks get done on the dogs. Do the koolies get their eyes and hips checked at all or any other tests like MDR1? I didn't know the answer to this and I couldn't find anything on the net about it at all so I thought I would ask you guys. I would love to get feed back on this if any one on here knows at all.

Thanks,

Kym

Hi Kym
There are a couple of points to make here, firstly Koolies are generally a very healthy population. Aside from the issue of blindness and deafness caused by double factor Merle when the puppies inherit a merle gene from each parent when breeding merle to merle (this happens in Aussies as well although Koolies don't seem to have as many) which can be avoided by the breeder consciously deciding to breed merle to solid, koolies don't have a lot of health issues to deal with. Hip displasia hasn't been an issue (don't know if I have heard of a koolie suffering from it even)and the same with CEA, if koolies are direct descendants of collies you think it would be something we would see fairly regulary but I have never heard of any sufferers.
MDR1 test is available but the Koolie Club Submitted samples to the original study that created the MDR1 test and all were found clear. The test is available from our DNA lab now and none have been found.

Just quietly the Americans love to test for anything, but why test for something that really doesn't seem to be an issue? Certainly now we have breeders and owners in constant discussion anything that starts to appear regularly can be followed up as a group and if possible tested where appropriate, but in general Koolies are a very healthy breed which probably equates to what Aussies were 40 or 50 years ago. Our challenge is to learn by what breeds like them have gone through and not get to that point. That is why DNA is so important and the genetic diversity we have that we need to maintain as much as possible stopping problems like these taking hold. Aussie breeders are very envious of our position.

Thanks for replying I thought that it might have been the case that they don't test as there is no need to. Is it something that breeders are going to keep an eye on in the future?

Yes it certainly is, any condition that is diagnosed with appropriate testing that starts to crop up will be followed and discussed openly with members, we will seek advice on the best way to proceed by people that have the scientific background to point us in the right direction. If the consensus is that a regular test should be undertaken then it will be implemented in an appropriate manor.
The one thing we have been firm on since the club started that what we do should be for the good of the breed before the good of the breeders. This is one reason we have embraced DNA testing long before many 'recognized breed' clubs would even talk about it.

This doesn't mean Koolies are foolproof, they do suffer general population problems such as congenital defects, cancer, non merle related deafness etc so some nasty things can still happen.