Serious question for the GSD people - Page 1

Have a friend who just called me to ask me what I would do and would like to get a consensous from several people. He has a 3 year old female that is absolutely gorgeous. I do not know about her lines but he says they are impeccable and of German origion. She got her confirmation championship at 10 months of age and since then he has worked with her in S&R and is a member of the state S&R Team here. he wants to breed her now but has a problem. She ofa'd hips excellent and her elbows are also good. He has had the heart, thyroid and patellas done as well and she passed all those. The problem is she has a very small cateract in one eye. He has had her tested every year for the past three years and if anything its smaller now then it was. When she was 11 months old she ate the xmas tree lights and a piece of glass got lodged under the eye with the caterat and a cyst the size of a plub developed and took quite a while to mend. He thinks that is what caused the problem in that one eye. The Vet says he can not say definately that it was not caused by that or that its hereditary but since its only in the one eye he is leaning to environmental instead of heredity. But becuase its there he can not give her a passing mark on the cerf. I would like to know honestly what you would do if this were your dog. My person thought would be to breed her and then let the puppies owners know why the cerf did not pass. I would be perfectly honest about it and tell them if something did come up later I would replace the puppy. Please be frank in your opinions. thanks

 So the eye problem wasn't discovered until after she had the problem from the Christmas light glass in the eye? Sure would make sense to me that it was an injury, especially if it's improved over the past 3 years. 

Most working line breeders don't CERF anyway, not sure about showline. If she was PHENOMENAL, I would breed her once and wait and see how the pups are, if they're fairly certain it was an injury. Just make people aware of the outside chance it's hereditary and offer compensation to make them more comfortable. If I have a dog that wouldn't pass whatever cert for any reason not related to heredity, that's what I'd do just to make the buyers feel more secure about it. 

JMO, and that all goes out the window if you find out other dogs in her lines have eye problems. 

Jenni, basically you would do the same thing I said then. As far as I know and from what he has told me there nothmg i her breeding that would indicate an eye probem. And yes she ate the lights before she was cerfed. I think she had her first cerf about 5 months after the incident.

Why not breed to a Cerf Eye's normal dog then ??

Kimmlot, The male he wants to breed to has passed everything including eyes. I do not know if he is going to breed or not. Its a hard decision to make for him as it would be me if I was in the same situation. Like he said all indicators are pointing to this being cause by glass and not heredity but you still have to explain it to the buyers. Also if it were both eyes then there would be no question and I would definately tell him not to breed her.

have your friend check the pedigree and if the dog goes back to eiko kirschental, please p.m. me.
pjp

is there a DNA test for this yet?

Sounds like a traumatic cataract;  does happen if animal is injured or certain environmental traumas.  And it is not in both eyes;  if the other eye came up with a cataract later then I would say it is the inheritible type cataracts;  othewise I might try a test breeding and have a commitment made by all puppy buyers to cerf the eyes every year;  and at 8 weeks old check the whole litter before they are sold.  That could answer your question.  Best of luck  Nan

I would definitely say this is traumatic cataract.  The injury to the eye caused the cataract.  However, there is always a small chance that it is genetic.  No one can say for sure. 
Would I breed her?  Probably yes.