Cancer In Legs And Joints And Length Of Racing Career

[Guest amn70]

This may be tough for people to want to answer but just was curious to what degree a greys career length might have played a role in he or she developing osteo or for that matter never developing it during his or her lifetime? Laddie had a career of less than a year and is only 2.5 years old now. Was trying to get a feel for the odds he might develop osteo as he gets older.

[levriere]

My boy Big (Big Surge) never raced and developed osteo in his hip at age 11. He went to the bridge two years ago and my heart is still broken.

 

[ElizabethGPAPS]

Both of mine are 12, adopted at 2, very short careers and no cancer so far. I personally think it's more genetic than environmental, though.

[RobinM]

Beau stopped racing at 2 years. 9 races.

Chloe stopped racing at 2 years. 4 races.

Teddy stopped racing at 2.5 years. 19 races

Polli raced until? Brood momma on farm till 8.5.

 

I agree, like humans, it's genetic and bad luck.

Edited December 22, 2007 by RobinM

[Guest jcsperson]

You might want to change the parameters of your poll. There are no dogs who had careers of five or six years. The all-time "iron dog" is Hey Deputy Howie whose record 388 starts spanned from April 26, 2002 to February 16, 2007, a career of four years and ten months.

 

Maybe 1 year or less, 1 to 3 years, and 3 years and up might be a way to divide them.

 

I'm very interested in the results of the poll because we've had two cases of osteo in our first five dogs. I'm not sure the data will be accurate, however, unless everyone can enter all their dogs.

Edited December 22, 2007 by jcsperson

[iluvgreys]

I'm very interested in the results of the poll because we've had two cases of osteo in our first five dogs. I'm not sure the data will be accurate, however, unless everyone can enter all their dogs.

Agreed. I entered data for one dog, but have lost three to OS.. all within the same parameters... adopted at less than 3 yrs. old, less than 1 year racing, and 9-11 yrs. old when OS hit.

Edited December 22, 2007 by iluvgreys

[Guest KennelMom]

Our Bridge Kids:

 

Kali: Age when died: 9 - NO Osteo (but it was another kind cancer). 89 races listed.

Star: Age when died: 14 - NO Osteo - 2 races listed, we adopted her at 14 after she bounced.

Annie: Age when died: 14 - NO Osteo - no races listed, but I know she did race for a while. We adopted her when she was 13 and a bounce.

Casino: Age when died: 13 - Osteo in her front shoulder - 4 races listed. Adopted her at 12 after she was a brood and then years of donating blood at a clinic.

Erin: Age when died: 14 - NO Osteo - 14 races listed. Adopted her at 12 after she was a brood and spent years just living on the farm.

Caesar: Age when died: 13 - NO Osteo - no races listed. DH adopted him at 6 after he bounced twice.

 

[GreytNut]

Argus only ran 8 races and developed osteo when he was 7. To the best of my knowledge he never had any serious joint or bone injuries in that leg. However, he was a big-boned guy and I'm told that large-boned dogs (of any breed) tend to be more prone to it. His daddy Gable Dodge died from osteo in the shoulder, IIRC, at age 12. I think it had much more to do with his build and his genetic makeup than any racing injuries or trauma.

[Guest hushpuppi]

Teddy is still racing @ the age of 4 1/2 years old still going strong & still winning 74 races

he is a dog that just loves it , if he's not racing he's whinging and whining if you take out the leads & racing collars he goes into a whirling dervish, he's not going to love retirement, .... contary to some beliefs some greys absolutely love the race ... Benny is another speed nut .. and will even try to con me into a race with him out in the yard and straight track ..... zooming past doing fly buys etc just to get me to run maybe these guys are just nutters but they do live to run ....

 

Jenni & the gang

 

[Guest LindsaySF]

I personally think it's more genetic than environmental, though.

Me too.

[Guest longdogs]

Nugget was fit, strong, robustly healthy and had never raced. Cancer got her at 8. My guess is smaller dogs might be less prone than heavier ones - at least for osteosarcoma - as heavier breeds in general are more likely to get this problem. I don't think that their racing career affects their chances of cancer although it might have some bearing on arthritis due to joint injury.

[Guest hushpuppi]

I think early feeding as pups may play a bigger part .... some kennels over here in Oz feed basically crap to young growing pups to keep the costs down ......

seems stupid to me !!!!!!!!! if you can't start them off right with the right food what chance do they have ...........

 

Cheers

Jenni & the gang

[turbotaina]

I believe that Dr. Couto has looked into this - at least OSA in racing greyhounds versus OSA in non-racing greyhounds - and so far, there seems to be no correlation.

[winnie]

I personally think it's more genetic than environmental, though.

Me too.

 

Me three... so I didn't vote.

[Guest crazy4greys]

Autumn never raced, but had Maiden races. I adopted her when she was 23 months old. She developed Osteo when she was 11.5 and we sent her to the bridge the same day it was diagnosed, 8/22/07, due to unsteadiness in her hind end, so she wouldn't have been able to handle amputation.

 

I still miss her

[Trudy]

There are people that adopted greys as puppies and have lost them to cancer.

 

Osteo seems to be more genetically related than environmental.

[Guest TBSFlame]

The poll doesn't work if you have more than one dog with cancer. Our first raced till he was 5 and he developed osteo at age 9.5. Beecher raced till he was 4.5 and now has it at age 11.5.

[Guest amn70]

I was not really expecting the poll to be completely accurate. Also I wasn't sure exactly how to piece the poll together. Was just trying to get a feel as to what I might expect in Lads later years so maybe I can be better prepared if it does occur. The Greytalk medical forum threads make it seem like a lot of grey owners are having to deal with cancer at some point in their dogs lives. I guess there is just no way to determine the odds. Thanks everyone for responding anyway. And my prayers go out to those who's greys are having to dealing with it and I will keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't occur for those of us who's greys have not had it and are healthy including my own.

[Guest LynnM]

Sorry Martin it is possible .... my Old Man raced until he was nearly 6 and then ran field trials until he was almost 10. All told, a bit more than 6 years of competitive running. He's 12 1/2 now, slowed down a bit, but still healthy and cantankerous. He also never sustained any orthopedic injuries involving the bones. He has torn muscles and rehabbed from a bowed tendon (you'd never know which leg the bow was in now).

 

Fractures are one of the major predisposing factors to osteosarcoma.

[Guest jcsperson]

Sorry Martin it is possible .... my Old Man raced until he was nearly 6 and then ran field trials until he was almost 10.

I remember your posts about him. I was referring to track careers where 5-year careers are unheard of.

 

[Guest snowberry]

Fractures are one of the major predisposing factors to osteosarcoma.

 

Given this, I'm not sure career length is important - it's more the reason for retirement that's important. Not sure how you'd get that information though. In the UK, it seems to be the case that bigger dogs are more prone to injury, because the bends on the tracks can be very tight, and therefore the bigger greys would also be more likely to develop osteo.

 

Sudden thought - on Greyhound Data, the race info sometimes has comments like "Finished lame" or "Did not finish" (often due to injury), so it might be possible to track if osteo dogs had track injuries.

 

[Guest Bodie]

Bodie raced one race and developed cancer at age 7. Rainy raced over 40 races and is cancer-free at age 8. I also agree it is more to do with genetics. Bodie has over 5 of the dogs listed as high in their cancer line in his lineage - one a grandparent. Rainy has only one very distant dog with the cancer line in her lineage. Does that make it genetic? No, but I do think genetics play a role somehow.

[Guest LindsaySF]

How do you find out this "high in the cancer line" thing?

[Guest Bodie]

How do you find out this "high in the cancer line" thing?

 

There was a considerable discussion about this on Circle of Grey several months ago. There were about 5 dogs listed that their lines seem to produce cancer - this is based only on observation, no scientific research has been done. I will have to go back and look at Bodie's lineage to remember all the dogs who were given. I do remember two of the names: Whizzer and the Oshkosh line. Bodie has a lot of Oshkosh in him from various Oshkosh greys, in both lines. Give me some time to look that up and I'll list the other names.

 

How do you find out this "high in the cancer line" thing?

 

I found the information easier than I thought as I remembered I posted it on this site at the time. Here is a paragraph of that post listing the names:

 

There is a fascinating discussion going on now on Circle of Grey about bloodlines and the possibility that certain bloodlines seem to have more incidences of cancer than others. Some names that have been mentioned are Oshkosh Racey (in fact the whole Oshkosh line), Unruly, Downing, K's Flak, Onie Jones, Westy Whizzer, and Big Whizzer. I looked up Bodie's lineage and I was astonished to see that he was related, sometimes on both sides, to the first five on this list. Oshkosh Racey being his "grandfather", so to speak. Bodie, of course, has osteo. Then I looked up Rainy's lineage. Rainy is never sick (knock on wood!) She only has a tiny bit of Downing in her. Very unscientific research on my part, but interesting.

[Guest LindsaySF]

Thanks!