Background:

The English Cocker Spaniel Club of America requested a general health survey for English Cocker Spaniels.  The purpose was to find possible emerging breed-related health problems, so that concerns and breed problems can be addressed.  Previous surveys were used as a basis for the current survey.

Methods:

The survey was mailed to all members of the English Cocker Spaniel Club of America between December 31, 2001 and January 10, 2002 requesting responses by February 14, 2002.  It was noted that if a member did not want to participate or no longer had an English Cocker, then they should return the blank survey.  Postcard reminders were sent out in June and October 2002.  Another copy of the survey was sent out in October 2003.  New addresses on the mailing list required an additional postcard reminder in March 2004.

Answers from the surveys were compiled into excel spreadsheets under each survey identification number. Then data was sorted into tables for easier analysis.  In most cases, variables (i.e. age, color, and sex) were specifically noted in the tables.  It should be made clear that ages are in years, except when noted.

Results:

There were 487 English Cocker Spaniel owners and members of the club who responded; 287 of these were breeders.  Originally, 812 members were sent surveys; however, 67 of these no longer had dogs, had died, were not members, or had bad addresses.  Sixteen blank forms were returned, and there were 487 responses, therefore we had a 65% response rate.  Possible reasons as to why the rest did not reply cannot be certain.  Reasons could include: 1) too time consuming; 2) too many dogs to include; 3) too many health problems; 4) very few or no health problems; 5) have not recently owned English Cocker Spaniels; 6) some other unknown reason.  The higher the response rate, then the more accurate and conclusive the data.  The survey did include a total of 3,537 English Cocker Spaniels.  The top problems in the dogs were: bite problems (7.63%), skin allergies (4.16%), shyness (3.53%), cataracts (3.31%), deafness (2.86%), aggression towards other dogs (2.8%), and benign tumors (2.52%).

The majority of the dogs in the survey were parti-colored.  Fifty-nine percent of the respondents were breeders who bred an average of one litter per year, with an average of four puppies per litter.  The most common reproductive problems in female dogs were irregular heat cycles and difficulty whelping, this accounted for 46% of the female reproductive problems.  In male dogs cryptorchidism was the most common, accounting for 60% of the male reproductive problems.  Leading causes of death in the dogs were old age and cancer. 

Blood disorders were extremely rare.  No dogs surveyed had been diagnosed with hemophilia.  Bone and joint problems were extremely rare.  Hip dysplasia occurred in less than 2% of the dogs and only 1% of the dogs had any type of disk problems.  Eighty-three dogs had some form of cancer and eighty-nine dogs had benign tumors.  Together this accounts for only 5% of the dogs.  Cardiovascular diseases were low, with less than 2% of the dogs having heart murmurs.  Allergies affected approximately 4% of the dogs (147 cases), with 15 cases being affected by Demodex. 

Forty-three percent of the dogs have been BAER tested.  Almost 3% of the dogs had deafness in either one or both ears.  From the dogs that produced deaf puppies, 44 puppies had incomplete masks and 12 had blue eyes.  Approximately 8% of the dogs surveyed had chronic ear infections.  Hypothyroidism was the most common endocrine disease, but only affecting just over 1% of the dogs.

Cataracts occurred in 3% of the dogs; and slightly less than 1% of the dogs had blue eyes.  Gastrointestinal problems only affected approximately 2% of the dogs.  Sixty-eight dogs (2%) suffered from seizures, while only thirteen were maintained on anticonvulsants.  Eight percent of the dogs had bite problems, with half of these having an undershot mouth.  Six percent had lip fold infections. 

One percent of the dogs were aggressive to people, while two percent were aggressive to other dogs.  Shyness affected 4% of the dogs.  Urinary and kidney problems affected 3% of the dogs; one percent had bladder crystals. 

Nineteen percent of owners with dogs had experienced vaccine reactions.  Pica was a problem that 37% of owners had encountered.  The OptiGen DNA marker test for prcd had been used by 95% of dog owners.  Eighty-six percent of owners felt that it is important for the ECSCA to maintain a special account for health research, with almost 60% of the respondents already have or plan to contribute to the account.  Eighty-two percent felt that health concerns were very important.

For complete survey results, download the MS Word document, The 2002 English Cocker Spaniel Health Survey Report.

If you have any questions about downloading the document, contact Denise Gormish, ecsca@ecsca.org . If you have any questions about health concerns or survey results, contact Addi Pittman, addi@sbcglobal.net .