Overall, dachshunds are a healthy breed. They should be exercised regularly and kept trim and in good musculature which will help their hearts, backs and overall health.
Additionally, there are a few known inherited disorders that can affect the breed. Luckily, some of these disorders can be checked genetically to see if the animals are free from the disease causing mutations, are carriers or are affected. In all cases, these identified diseases are recessive, meaning that each parent must carry at least 1 copy in order for this to affect the offspring.
![Lafora disease has an autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance.[16] EPM2A gene found on chromosome 6q24 and NHLRC1 gene found on chromosome 6p22.3.[17]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Autorecessive.svg/440px-Autorecessive.svg.png)
The diseases that we tested Stella for included:
Osteogenesis imperfecta “Brittle Bone Disease” a disease where there is an issue in the collagen leading to extremely fragile bones, breaks and tooth problems.
cord1-& crd-PRA (Progressive Retinal Atrophy) is an inherited eye disease that causes loss of function in the cones found in the eyes. This is a progressive disease that ultimately results in day blindness of the dog.
We are happy to report that she is N/N for all 3 diseases tested where “N” indicates normal, non-mutated copies of the genes which means Stella will only pass on “normal” copies to her future puppies. As all the diseases tested are recessive and need 2 copies of the mutant gene for the dog to be affected, this means none of Stella’s puppies should be affected by these 3 diseases.
There are of course other diseases/conditions that cannot be tested genetically, such as cataracts, which is why it is important that we additionally do practical eye exams every 3 years per recommendation of the Swedish dachshund club. Stella was tested in late December 2020 and was found to have healty, clear eyes.
Lastly (for fun) we tested color and furnishings. Stella was as expected Ay/Aw meaning she has 1 red allele and 1 wildboar allele so her puppies can be either of these colors (although red is dominant to wildboar), but she does not carry alleles for brown or black and tan.
Furnishings in wirehaired dachshunds indicates the eye brows and beard that give the breed their distinct appearance. Stella is F/F meaning she carries 2 alleles for funishings and all her puppies should have beard and eyebrows.
