Skin Survey Preliminary report

Bit of a read - full report still to come out

SBT Breed Council of GB&NI, and SBTC Skin Survey.

Preliminary Report.

This report is a brief overview of the skin survey conducted by the SBTBC of GB&NI and SBTC during March and April 2013. The objective was to assess the prevalence of skin conditions affecting Staffords and if there was any relationship with coat colour. There was also the need to obtain basic data for comparison with other breeds and to allow monitoring of future trends. A full analysis will be reported in due course.

The survey was conducted by questionnaire posted via an on-line link on the Facebook pages of several SBT breed clubs and a SBT Debates and Topics Group, or by paper version distributed at the SBT Discover Dogs stall at Crufts 2013. Owners were asked specifically for information on whether their dogs had, at some stage, demodectic mange, atopy (allergy), hair loss, or other skin condition, in addition to current age, age at onset, if applicable, and coat colour. A separate question asked if the dog ever had any skin lumps and their nature.

Responses on 556 dogs were received; 396 were via the Facebook link, 152 were by the paper questionnaire while a further eight were by email or telephone conversation.

Facebook Responses

Of the 396 reports received on-line, 356 were from Kennel Club (all official KCs) registered dogs; of these 54.0% were black or black brindle, 13.0% brindle, 17% red or fawn, 6.5% blue, 7.5% pied (brindle or red), and 3.0% white. No reports were received from livers or black and tans.

Overall, 9.6% of the 356 were reported as having demodectic mange as some stage but mostly when young, and 10.7% with allergies to various causes. Baldness or hair loss was reported in 10.3% but many of those also had demodex or allergies so the hair loss may be secondary in such cases. Because of the low numbers of reports received on blue, white and pied dogs, compared with black brindles for example, demonstrating any significant differences by coat colour is impossible. For example reports were received on only twelve white dogs so to confirm or refute suggestions that dogs of this colour may have a greater incidence of skin conditions a much larger number would have to be reported on. A slightly higher percentage of both blue and white dogs were reported as having demodex or an allergy but as stated, no conclusion is possible because of the numbers involved. Although further in-depth analysis has yet to be done, it would appear that the incidence of skin conditions is similar for all colours.

Of the blues reported, only one had colour dilution alopecia (CDA) which is associated specifically with this colour. Unfortunately this dog is very severely affected, requiring considerable long term medication.

The causes of the allergies reported in 10.7% of dogs were diverse. House mites, dust mites, storage mites, flea and insect bites, pollen, grass seed, E numbers in one case, household chemicals, even changes in diet by brand of food, were all cited

Of dogs reported on-line, 10.2% had cysts, 3.5% warts and 1.5% skin cancers or mast cell tumours. Apart from white dogs being possibly more susceptible to cysts, there was no

significant variation by colour for all skin lumps but numbers are small making meaningful comparison difficult.

Discover Dogs Responses

Of 152 dogs from which responses were received to the questionnaire distributed at Discover Dogs, 59% were from dogs that were not KC registered; 28% were black or black brindle, 26% brindle, 20% red or fawn, blue 12%, pied 6%, white 8.0% and one was black and tan. Stating whether as dog is black brindle or brindle, may depend on how knowlegable an owner is, but it is interesting to note that the combined ‘brindle’ numbers for dogs reported via discover dogs is 54% whereas that from the on-line Facebook link is 67%. However the percentage of blues and whites in these dogs were greater than in the KC registered dogs reported on-line; blues were 12% as opposed to 6.5% and whites 8.0% against 3.0%. Whether this is significant or not remains to be seen.

Many of this group were ‘rescue’ dogs and owners often reported that they were in poor skin condition when picked up from the rescue kennels. The incidence of demodex was lower than in the KC registered dogs reported above, but that of allergies was higher. With both these conditions, affected dogs responded well when in their new surroundings suggesting that stress could be a contributory factor. A higher incidence of cancerous skin lumps was also reported.

A single case of CDA was found in a blue fawn dog that was not KC registered in this group. This only came to light when the owner was contacted for clarification of another point as the dog’s condition was not considered to be sufficiently serious. This will be discussed fully in the final report.

This preliminary report has concentrated mainly on the KC registered dogs submitted via the Facebook link, as it was considered they would comprise the best sample group of the breed to provide the basic data with which other sub-groups may be compared, It is also essential that information on skin conditions in other breeds and dogs in general is obtained before discussing the relevance of the incidence of demodectic mange and allergies in Staffords. However these conditions in the dogs reported here, were apparently well managed and usually not persistent. A full report will be presented in due course.

This is very interesting Dave - thank you.

Yeah interesting  

 interesting

The only thing that is still out to the jury is blues and associated problems as the % polled was quite low

Maybe it will encourage further studies though?

Sazzle wrote:Maybe it will encourage further studies though?

W can only hope so , joined a staffy health site today which is the source of my info and the final report is pending

Will look forward to that then. I was interested to read about the demodex, a high percentage and very interestingly said it was higher in kc registered than rescues, would never have expected that!

Interesting.

Do they say how people were told about the survey? Considering the number of blues currently around, I'm surprised that so few participated - maybe they knew that the results could be damning?

Really don't know Caryll just picked the info from a SBT Health page I joined today and thought it was interesting

It's definitely interesting. The final report should be worth a read. What's this health forum?

check you posts

if it was something that was well advertised i may well have taken part as i would say to a slight degree memphis had colour dilution alopecia (CDA)
as he has very thin hair (no bald patches ) on his chest and does get grass aleries which can give him hives in the summer .
and had problems with wet dermise mange spot on his head when a pup (which funnily only fully disappeared when started feeding raw)

This is really interesting!