 Barked: Sun Mar 11, '07 12:45am PST |
 | |  | | Unfortunately, Schnauzers do tend to have a lot of health issues. Some of the most common that I have seen are diabetes, cushings disease and frequent bouts of pancreatitis. They often have elevated ALKPh and cholesterol. A lot of schnauzers are overweight, which exacerbates these problems.
Bowser had a lot of lipomas, which aren't life threatening or anything, but sometimes they can become a nuisance if they are between muscle layers. Bowser had one that was between the muscle layerrs on his rear leg, and it grew very large and caused him to have some difficulty walking.
Another common problem is bladder or kidney stones. I have seen numerous schnauzers that needed surgery for these. Renal dysplasia is also common.
Bowser had diabetes insipidus (not to be confused with diabetes mellitus), which sort of mimicked the symptoms of cushings disease (also common in schnauzers). Diabetes insipidus isn't that common of a diagnosis, but it does occur. He went through tons of tests to figure this out. He couldn't concentrate his urine and was constantly drinking water. Also in his list of problems was the skin issue where he would form black heads and also get sebaceous cysts that would rupture. The blackheads weren't as bad when he was bathed regularyl with pyoben or other medicated shampoo, but the sebaceous cysts there wasn't much to be done about them.
The schnauzer I'm trying to rescue has hypothyroidism, which is also common in schnauzers. He also has elevated liver enzymes and cholestrol.
Here's a link to a site which lists dog breeds and their potential hereditary diseases. You'll notice that schnauzers have quite an extensive list  . http://www.nzymes.com/Articles/hereditary_congenital_diseases_in_dog s.htm#Section1
Don't let this deter you from one of the best breeds out there! It just helps to be informed of the potential problems. |  |  | |  |
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My Dakota is not overweight I always make her lots of exercise and I have controll on her diet.... But Dakota has a problem on her knee (the doctor said is displaxia but she have it in a very low level and told me is not good for her to be breed)...
