I recently saw this article on the subject of osteosarcoma in greyhounds. I have been involved with greyhounds/galgos for 20+ years and have not come across it as a common problem. Have any of you readers experience of it?
Save the Galgo – Stop the suffering
I recently saw this article on the subject of osteosarcoma in greyhounds. I have been involved with greyhounds/galgos for 20+ years and have not come across it as a common problem. Have any of you readers experience of it?
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10 responses to “Osteosarcoma in greyhounds – is it a common problem?”
I have heard that greyhounds used for racing have a much larger chance of coming down with this.that greyhounds used for showing in conformation classes
Presumably the stress put on the bones in training and racing can cause it? But then, one would expect to find it in racing galgos in the Medina area, and the galgos which are ‘trained’ regularly behind moving vehicles. Wonder why we don’t hear more of it in galgos?
From Cheryl Pashby. My eleven year old male greyhound from confirmation/show breeding gained his angel wings from bone cancer. Involvement was his right leg and primarily the shoulder.
Bone cancer and Lymphoma are top cancers that affect many breeds/mixed and sighthounds.
Loved my Rio – bone cancer and my Masai (saluki) – lower G.I. tract lymphoma.
Frank Brown also writes that he lost 3 greyhounds to Osteosarcoma.
Does anyone have knowledge of it in galgos?
I have had 3 Greyhounds. Two I lot due to Osteosarcoma. The 3rd is still with me.
When my last Greyhound was diagnosed, I did a lot of research as he was a candidate for amputation. Many people who replied to me had multiple cases of Osteo in their Greyhounds, which led me to believe that it was very common.
Thank you all for your comments, it is sadly a severe problem for greyhounds…but no one with knowledge of it in galgos?
Here in America, osteosarcoma is a big problem in big dogs, including the Greyhound, with a qualification. While this cancer commonly takes the limbs and lives of retired racing dogs, and non-racers from those bloodlines, it is quite UNcommon in AKC pedigreed show Greyhounds. However, the latter often suffer gastric torsion/volvulus, while this is extremely rare in racing bloodlines.
When I first learned about this dichotomy, my immediate conclusion was that
until the last 20-30 years, few racing hounds got to have a retirement, most being killed by age 4. OS is an old dog’s disease. Even those ex-racers kept for breeding were usually killed before they were old enough to develop it. Consequently, a
genetic tendency toward OS went undiscovered. Whether or not breeders would have stopped breeding lines prone to cancer is unknown, though unlikely.
If a racing Greyhound bloated, it would almost always be put down because of the cost of surgery. So dogs with a tendency to GT/V didn’t live long enough to reproduce. On the other hand, most breeders of show dogs are fans of their breed as pets, and truly love their dogs. They are much more likely to opt for surgical treatment to save the life of their dog, which might go on to breed many litters of likewise bloat-prone pups. It takes a long time as a breeder to recognize, and come to terms with, a genetic weakness in the bloodlines with which one is working (I say this from experience as a former breeder/exhibitor, for 30 years, of Siamese cats).
Even when it becomes apparent that such a problem exists, some breeders may decide to keep going, in hopes that outcrossing can limit/eliminate it.
Arguably THE authority on cancer in American Greyhounds, with OS in particular, is veterinarian Guillermo Couto. When Ohio State University, where he taught, stopped funding his Greyhound Health Project, he left and now is supported by the subsequently-formed Greyhound Health Initiative. You can find this group on Facebook. I’d also point you to http://greythealth.com/, the website of a Greyhound adoption volunteer who has also been a racing track veterinarian.
Cheers, Erica Mueller, Billerica, Massachusetts
Comment from Greygarious further to the above. I assume this is a matter of luck, good or bad, combined with the “popular sire effect”. If he carries a genetic weakness unknown at the time he is used for breeding, this can be dispersed throughout the breeding population generations before the defect/illness becomes a recognized problem, regardless of species/breed. A dominant gene makes itself apparent in the individual bearing that gene, but a recessive gene can hide for generations. OS appears late in the life of large dog breeds. If there is a genetic component, the dog has completed its breeding years before the disease hits, and up to 3 generations of its descendants have been born by then. Mongrels are generally healthier than purebreds, because the gene pool is wider, meaning it is less likely that both parents carry a harmful recessive gene which will affect the offspring which inherits it from both parents. To the degree that galgos are a mix of sighthound breeds, and sometimes the result of random matings, they benefit, healthwise, in the genetic lottery.