All clear!

This week we completed a task we set ourselves last year - to test all our dogs for patella luxation and for eye problems. All our dogs have tested clear on both counts.

We are doing the tests at the Lisbon Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The director of the clinic is a specialist veterinary orthopaedist and tests the dogs for patella problems. The eye tests are carried out by the clinic's resident ophthalmologist, who carries out a detailed and complete examination.

We are not able in Portugal to have eye tests carried out by a member of the European College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists, for the simple reason that the nearest member is in Barcelona, more than 1000 km away. The membership requirements for the college are extremely strict, and require experience with equipment which does not exist in this country. However, we are assured that the equipment in question is not relevant to identifying the conditions which are normally tested for in dogs.

So we are now committed to annual eye tests for all our breeding stock, which will help us in our resolve to breed sound and healthy terriers.

In the picture, Abby (Aurgwen Abracadabra) just short of her seventh birthday. Abby has progeny in several countries and was top PRT in Portugal in 2006.