Vet says that Cancer can be hereditary in Rotties

[Eliza]

He also said more and more rotti's were being diagnosed cancer due to hereditary conditions. I'd never heard that before, he's not our regular Vet.

[Lady B]

Eliza: I have a two sided theory about this condition; in fact it may end up being three or four sided when I get finished.

Rotti's immune systems aren't the strongest when compared to other breeds. Couple this with unethical or bad breeding practices and you have a recipe for a genetic predisposition to cancer and other conditions.

In the event the breeding program is above reproach you can take the immune system and compromise it with poor nutrition and THAT is a complete topic unto itself.

Vaccinations compromise anyone's immune system, over-vaccination will surely cause a disease to ultimately rear it's ugly head.

Lastly, we live on an abused planet whose environmental systems are severely compromised by resource rape and pollution. The connections for all living species are being severed. It appears logical that the ones with the weakest immune system will only reflect what is happening globally.

After that dismal look at the various possibilities for cancer occurrence I am going to walk my babies in the sun after a rain storm. I am going to savor these moments and find joy in the little things because that is all any of us have -- moments or maybe just minutes. For me, when life can be so very precarious, I want my moments to count with love.

[Nancy Estes]

Just a thought, but vets are just as prone to passing along unsubstantiated information as anyone else - not all of them but they are human too. (Even though your dog might not think so http://www.rottweiler.net/rottie/smile.gif) So-and-so vet says *I've seen an awful lot of cancer in Rotts in the last few years.* - but this isn't statistical information. How many other animals did he see with cancer, cats, dogs, whatever? How many different breeds? Anyway, the point being that without good survey results a lot of this information is word of mouth. Also, diagnostic methods have improved tremendously. Your average small-town vet, for example, is going to know a lot more about cancer than his predecessor of even 10 years ago. All that aside, I do believe there probably is more cancer in general - there are also more dogs and, as already mentioned, more pollution and other environmental factors. And any increase in popularity of any breed brings to light all weaknesses because of indiscriminate breeding. I'm not saying what the vet said is or isn't true - I just don't think there is enough factual information out there at this point to know whether this is true or not. Anecdotal information is useful but it doesn't tell the whole story.

Nancy

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von Dorow Rottweilers
doggo1@apex2000.net

[abelmanalo]

both Lady B and Nancy Esters have good points. It now depends upon what your vet really means or how much he really knows about the whole picture. Cancer predisposition can be genetically linked, but that fact does not apply solely to Rottweilers. Environmental factors such as carcinogens in food, drugs or natural things as the sun play big roles.
As Nancy pointed out, he may not be looking at the whole scenario, but by his own personal experience, which may or may not matter much.


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Abel Manalo
College of Veterinary Medicine
University of the Philippines