HEALTH

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The Löwchen Club of America Health and Personality Survey was completed December 2002. It was a revised health survey to update a survey completed 10 years ago. And from the compilation, which was done by Michelle Marini at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, the news was good and not so good. The good news is that no singular disease, such as cancer, epilepsy, heart, jumped out at us. The bad news is that even though we received an excellent response to our survey, most of the responses were from pet owners so we still need data from our major breeders. We have data on 257 Löwchen - 207 from the United States and 50 from Canada. For a first survey, that's an impressive response! We know that in the U.S. 48% of respondents do NOT keep their dogs in lion trim, 35% do and 17% didn't answer the question. We know that in the US, the average height of our Löwchen is 12.24 inches and 15 pounds and we know that gender preference is strongly for the males! In the US, most people feed their dogs a combination of dry, canned and home prepared foods. As for vaccinations, 79% vaccinated against distemper, parvo and rabies and 72% give their dogs heartworm medication. Health problems which surfaced were cataracts, PRA and patella luxation. We were not able to determine an average age and cause of death although there are many Löwchens who have lived to 16 - 17 years Our survey gives us a great insight to a wonderful and endlessly fascinating breed. PRA, by DR Alice Crook DVM Progressive Retinal Atrophy and the Löwchen, by Jayne LaPointe