Jewels Cockers -Inbreeding

 Some of the Cocker Spaniels serious health problems include:

• Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA)
• Cataracts
• patellar luxation
• Glaucoma

Diseases listed below can occasionally affect the breed:

• elbow dysplasi
• gastric torsion
• epilepsy  

Other minor health problems  include:

•  cardiomyopathy
•  ectropion
• Urinary stones
• otitis externa
• canine hip dysplasia (CHD)
• ypothyroidism
• seborrhea
• phosphofructokinase deficiency
• entropion
• cherry eye
• liver disease
• allergies
• congestive heart failure. 

In order to identify these conditions early, a veterinarian may recommend hip, knee, thyroid, or eye exams during routine checkups; 

DNA tests may be used to diagnose a phosphofructokinase deficiency, which may lead to anemia in the dog. 

 Inbreeding results in an increased likelihood of undesirable traits being inherited into the subsequent offspring, and heightens the chances of recessive mutations occurring. 

 Several hereditary conditions and illnesses which can be inherited by dogs only occur if the pups inherit the recessive gene from both their sire and dam, and the likelihood of them having two parents with the recessive gene which then causes the potential problem in the pup is of course much higher if the two parents are closely related in the first place. 

Conditions such as hip dysplasia and patella luxation are just two of the many potential congenital defects and hereditary conditions that can occur from inbreeding, which leads to all of the pedigree dogs of a given breed being genetically relatively closely related