Dog Breeds (C)

Good and blessed day may have all of you, colleagues and friends!

Don't think I have forgotten about our dear friends the dogs.

So for the next weeks, we are going to talk about rare yet awesome dog breeds. That's right we will talk about several dog breeds and their behavior, their physical characteristics, and of course as we all love medicine, their most common diseases.

let's start by saying that we will begin with dogs that begin with letter 'C', such as....

Cairn Terrier

This dog is originally from Scotland, is from the Terriers Group, his expected life is between 12-15 years. Is the oldest of the Terrier breeds, it is recognized as one of Scotland's earliest working dogs. Usually these dogs were (and still are) used for hunting and burrowing prey among the cairns.

The Cairn terrier has a coat that is shaggy on the outer coat and a soft inner coat. The color of the Cairn terrier ranges from in colors of blackish, red, brindle, sand and a variety of grays. When a Cairn terrier is a puppy it is hard to say what the color of the adult dog will be because the color of the Cairn terrier changes for several years.

This dog is generally small, males can be between 10-13 inches tall, and females can be between 9-12 inches tall. and its around 14 inches long, however their bone structure is very strong, their shortness gives them the ability to run fast, however not such long distances. They are very energetic dogs!

They are bold, alert, intelligent, and independent. They can be self-willed and stubborn, but they also love attention and will do almost anything to get it. They are friendly and hard workers. They also have a huge tendency to dig a lot, so most veterinarians recommendations are to train these dogs, especially if the house where the dog is has a backyard with a loan. Cairn terriers are fine with children and other pets, although males should be monitored at first meeting. They also bark a lot...

Some of the most common diseases or health problems that Cairn Terriers can have are:
-allergies (itchy skin, bacterial skin infections, irritation of the skin, etc)
-luxating patela (loose knees)
-catarax (which eventually could lead to blindness)
-lens luxation (which if is not well treated could also lead to glaucoma or even to retinal atrophy)
-ocular melanosis (pigmentary glaucoma), you could say that this is practically a pathognomonic disease of Cairn Terriers.
-lysosomage storage disease (globoid cell leukodystrophy)
-pulmonary fibrosis
-epilepsy
-heart disease (mitral valve disease)
-kidney disease (polycystic kidneys)
-liver shunt (low flow inside of the liver)
-hypothyroidism (low activity of thyroid gland, therefore, low metabolism)
-hernias

Not all of theese diseases can occur, however there is a huge chance of this breed to carry at least one or two, most commonly the allergies and the eye diseases.

Now If you preffer big dogs, we can also bring in a rare, yet awesome breed of dogs called...

Cane Corso

This is an Italian breed of dog, for years valued highly in Italy as a companion, guardian and hunter. It is a large Italian Molosser. This dog's life expectancy is around 10-11 years. For years this dog had been valued highly in Italy as a companion, guardian an hunter.It's name derives from cane da corso, an old term for those catch dogs used in rural activities (for cattle and swine; boar hunting, and bear fighting) as distinct from cane da camera, which indicats the catch dog kept as a bodyguard. The Cane Corso is a catch dog also used by night watchmen, keepers, and, in the past, by carters as a drover.

The Cane Corso is well muscled and looks more athletic than most other mastiffs, tending less toward sheer bulk like the Neapolitan Mastiff and more towards definition like the original Old English Bulldog.
The Corsos appear in two basic coat colors: black and fawn. However genetic pigment modifications have led to other color samples such as: tigrato, black brindle, blue brindle, blue, formentino, and even beige.
Theese dogs are easy to obedience train, have a willingness to please, and form a close attachment with their primary owner. Any owner understands that the difficult part is controlling and molding the Corso's strong protective instinct. A Cane Corso is highly suspicious of strangers, and for this reason aggression should never be encouraged. They tend to be a quiet breed, though they will bark at anything about which they are unsure. So basically they love staying next to their owner all the time.

Let'sjump into Cane Corso's most common diseases...
-Canine Hip Dysplasia
-Panrosteitis (when the large bones are growing to fast it provokes a pain in the extremities of the large bones)
-Gastric torsion (also known as bloat, when the dog is too big, the muscles and ligaments that hold the stomach are not strong enough, so when the dog rolls over, or jumps a lot, the stomach may twist and torse)
-Entropion (inversion of the eye lid inside, so the lashes rub against the cornea of the eye of the dog)
-Ectoprion (inversion of the eye lid outside, so the mucuse is exposed)
-Canine Nictitans Gland Prolapse (also known as cherry eye, the gland of the third eye lid prolapses, and it's exposed)
-Canine Demodicosis (the dog's immune system is unable to keep the mies under control so it causes a skin rash due to mites)
-Epilepsy (unprovoked seizures, this is genetic basically)

Now let's see another short but simpathetic dog:

Cardigan Welsh Corgi (better known as 'Corgi')

Originated in Wales, from the group of the herding kind, their life expectancy is between 12 and 14 years. In Celtic, corgi means 'dog'. There are other theories that the name came from the words cor (dwarf), and gi (dog); or possibly from simply the word cur, which means 'to watch over'.
The Cardigan is long and very low to the ground. This breed is about 36 inches to 43 inches long from the nose to the tip of its tail. Their coat has two different types of coat. The first coat is a harsh medium lenght outer coat with a soft dense inner coat. The color of the coat is like bindle, blue merle, black, black and tan, black and brindle, sable, and red, often with markings. 
This breed is known to have white on the chest, neck, legs, muzzle, underneath their body, and sometimes on the tip of the tail.
These dogs are active, obedient, intelligent and alert. They make good watch dogs, as well as good guard dogs. They can be possesive, and can be scrappy with other dogs, however with their friends and family they are very playful and affectionate and loving. They are fun, loving, easygoing, and sprightly.The Cardigan needs to be socialized with other pets, especially cats, but does well with theirown kind as well.
They need a lot of grooming since they shed a lot of hair.

Now medically speaking, these are the most comon health problems for the cardigan welsh corgi:
-Hip Dysplasia 
-Intervertebral disc disease
-Progressive retinal athrophy (PRA)
-Catarax
-Lens luxation
-Epilepsy
-Luxatng patella
-Skin allergies
-Blood clotting disease (Von willebrand's disease)
-Immunoglobulin deficiency

And of course, I was going to put this one, which is very loving and caring dog...

Carolina Dog

Yes ladies and gentlemen, there is a dog called Carolina Dog, in case you didn't know, is a type of pariah dog discovered in the late 1970's. They were located living in isolated stretchs of longleaf pines and cypress swamps in southeastern united states.
The Carolina Dog is one of the very few breeds existing today that is truly a primitive dog, a result of natural selection for survival in nature, and not of selective breeding. Wild specimens are still known, so this means that carolina dog is not a completely domesticated canine.
This dog that has survived as a free living animal in the swamps, savannahs, and forests of South Carolina and Georgia for thousands of years, has also proven to be highly adaptable and amenable to domestication, and an excellent pet.
Carolina dogs weight very from 30 to 44 lbs aproximately, their life expectancy is 12-14 years , so as you can see, this is a medium sized dog, and doesn't have a very high excersise requirement. 
The usual coat color for Carolina dog is deep red ginger, hoever pale buff markings may be present on the sides of the muzzle and over the shoulders.

Now on the medical side, any genetic defects would have been quicly eliminated by the demands for survival, how ever this dog still has a very narrow gene pool for diseases. The most common diseases for Carolina dog are:
-Hip dysplasia
-Elbow dysplasia
-Patellar luxation
-Progressive retinal atrophy (PRA)
-Catarax
-Demodex/demodicosis
-Cancer

So there, 4 breeds that start with letter C, on our nexts post we will continue with other breeds, you can also make suggestions on which letter or even which breed.
Hope ya'll have enjoyed it!


MVZ Carolina Pruneda