Apex Boxers, New Zealand
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    LATEST NEWS!!! I've purchased a 24 hour heart holter monitor!!
    I lost my first boxer to cardiomyopathy before she turned 5 years old. This disease is hereditary and not uncommon in Australasia. 24 hour heart testing is the ONLY way to test for cardiomyopathy. Further information on heart problems and tests on my HEART TESTING PAGE.

    WANT TO TEST YOUR DOG'S HEART?
    I purchased a heart monitor mainly so that I can make this test available cheaply to other dog owners/breeders so will do my best to help you. I travel around in both New Zealand and Australia so may be able to meet up with you and help strap the monitor to your dog - you then go away and lead a normal 24 hours with your dog & come back and return the monitor the next day. I'm happy to help anyone interested in buying their own monitor - I have lots of useful information about options. SEE MY HEART TESTING PAGE FOR FURTHER DETAILS, or contact me:
    PHONE: Australia 0404640903 | EMAIL: Apex Boxers email address

    Potential health problems in the breed

    You can learn about some health issues of the Boxer breed on the following sites:

  • The American Boxer Club's Site. The Genetic Diseases section is a nice summary of the conditions that breeders need to be particularly careful of.
  • Another summary of health issues - From Boxerworld.
  • Information on heart problems and testing for them.
  • NZ Veterinary Association information about Hip Dysplasia.
  • Information on puppy heart murmurs (developed by the UK Boxer Breed Council).
  • Various articles on Boxer health in the Boxer Underground Magazine (not all suitable for novices).


    • In my opinion, Boxer health is no worse than any other purebred dog. And certainly better than a mixed-breed where you don't know what problems may lurk in the background. As I say elsewhere on this site, all dogs, like people, could potentially suffer from health problems - the fact that breeders should check for a small number of conditions does not mean the whole boxer breed is going to be susceptable to them. The very good thing about Boxers is that some of the most worrying health conditions are able to be tested for in adults and therefore the risks dramatically reduced before breeding. Unfortunately, health testing isn't done by all breeders (again, that's not unique to Boxers).

    Don't all breeders check their dogs' health?

    Sadly many breeders don't appear to place a high priority on breeding healthy long-lived Boxers. Many don't carry out any proper health tests. Some only test when their dogs are already displaying symptioms of serious problems. The dodgy breeders tend to put forward a raft of excuses about why they don't need to be screening for health problems - I wrote an article about some of them.

    I have been concerned to learn of some breeders claiming to health test, when all they do is get general vet checks done on their dogs and/or puppies. Most of the serious genetic problems facing the breed can not be detected through routine vet exams (read the material on the links above), and are also not able to be assessed until a dog is fully grown. That's why the breeding stock need to be screened BEFORE breeding - you can't rely on checking the pups before or after they go to their new homes.

    There are also some breeders who exaggerate the nature of the tests they have carried out. For example I know of breeders who claim to have their dogs’ hearts thoroughly checked or state in advertisements that their dogs are 'free of heart disease'. In fact most have their dogs checked ONLY for Aortic Stenosis and proper checks for Boxer Cardiomyopathy have NOT been done (this page explains why that's a problem). If you are concerned about the health of your future Boxer, be very specific with your enquiries. It can be tricky asking a breeder questions about health but if you can find a way to frame them tactfully, there are questions you might want answers to. NB: I am not suggesting that every dog bred from must have had all possible tests – I haven’t been able to find a stud dog yet who has!! The overall health of a line is more important, but the point here is that if a breeder CLAIMS to carry out tests, then it’s appropriate to check on those claims and what the test results mean. Here are some possible questions to ask:

    HEALTH TEST QUESTIONS

    • Are your dogs’ hips assessed under a recognised hip scoring scheme? What scores did the sire and dam get? (The lower the score, the better, <15 certainly)
    • Are your dogs’ hearts checked for murmurs by a cardiologist (ie not just their local vet)? What grade of murmur do the sire and dam have? (Grades 0-1 are good. Grade 2 can be OK if blood flow rate <2.0-2.4 on Doppler)
    • Are your dogs’ hearts checked for Boxer Cardiomyopathy with a 24 hour heart monitor? How many VPCs did the sire and dam have? (<50 is good, 50-100 is OK)
    • Are your dogs checked for thryoid problems via blood tests? (Normal ranges: TT4 20-66, TSH 0.015-0.6ng/ml)
    • In some European countries they also test for spondylosis (a type of calcification of the spine) and knee problems. These tests are not common elsewhere in the world yet.
    While we can't do screening tests for cancer, collitis, allergies, or eye ulcers. These are also things you may like to ask about as some lines are more prone to them than others.

    But my vet said....

    Unfortunately many vets don't know much about Boxer health issues and I've heard many disturbing stories of people who have been given extraordinarily bad advice by their vets. This is not a criticism of vets – my own father is a vet so I know all too well that while they know a lot, they don’t know it all.

    A local vet is not as familiar with Boxer health conditions as the specialists who have researched them. Most vets are the equivalent of a human GP, except they’re expected to treat not only several different species of animal, but also hundreds of different breeds within each species. How on earth could they be experts on all those breeds? Staying up to date with all the research would be impossible.

    Fortunately we can get access to information from the specialists who research our breed specifically. If you're academically inclined you can find and read articles in research journals online. If you need information in layperson's terms, then the pre-digested information on the internet (like the links I give above) are more likely to be up-to-date than your local vet. In the USA in particular a lot of money is being put into researching Boxer health and the The American Boxer Club is often able to report on the latest findings.




    		 
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