Breed Specific Wellness for Pugs

Breed Specific Wellness for Pugs

The is the first of comprehensive breed specific wellness preventative programs based in part on the work of Dr Nan Boss & Shannon Pigott (see below). My intent is to apply breed by breed cutting edge genetic information with nutritional & preventative wellness steps to allow pugs to live as healthy a life as possible!

I have chosen pugs for three reasons. First, I love the breed! (One of my boyhood pets was an English Bull Dog, named Chloe, so have always had a fondness for the “smushy faced” breeds!) Secondly, we see a lot of them at our practice in Madison, Wisconsin and finally I need to speak to pug owners at the Milwaukee Pug Fest in May (over 1100 pugs in one place can you imagine?) and want to give them the very latest information specific to their breed so yeh pug wellness, here we go!

Credit where credit is due is to Dr. Nan Boss who is medical director of a fantastic practice (Best Friends Veterinary Center in Grafton, Wisconsin) and has been practicing breed specific wellness for many years in her practice. Dr Boss has partnered with Ms Shannon Pigott, a well known veterinary consultant to provide a soon to be released book and other tools to veterinarians to help enhance the staff training & delivery of these details. With over 200 recognized breeds you can imagine how much work has gone into this project! Thanks Nan & Shannon for your efforts on behalf of all breeds!

All veterinarians practice some degree of breed specific wellness depending upon the most common breeds they see and their special medical interest areas (in our practice Ideal Weight, pain management, dentistry, use of the fish oils EPA/DHA are daily discussions with clients.

So, by organ system we know pugs have these increased health risks/conditions and these are the steps we can take to detect them early and hopefully prevent as many as possible:

DENTAL

The combination of a brachycephalic(shortened) jaw and very little bone around teeth (compared to larger dogs) makes the pug very prone to Periodontitis and premature tooth loss because of bacterial destruction of the bone surrounding the teeth.

In addition, the premolars just behind the lower canines are often un-erupted and embedded in the jaw (much like wisdom teeth in people) which can cause dentigerous cysts if not removed.

The lower & upper canines can be partially erupted which can cause osteitis (infection in the maxillary or mandibular bone). Finally in puppies the upper and lower deciduous (temporary) canine teeth can be retained and interfere with the development of normal jaw occlusion/alignment.

What can be done for early prevention/detection?

1) Follow a professional 10 step dental program starting at time of spay/neuter
(usually between 4 & 8 months based on tooth eruption)
2) Full mouth radiographs (x-rays) while under anesthesia
3) Selective removal of teeth (un-erupted or overcrowded or deciduous)
4) Aggressive home care starting at 6 months
5) Use of periodontal vaccine

CARDIAC

Sick Sinus syndrome - a condition that causes a slowing of the heart rate due to excessive vagus nerve or a pacemaker problem.

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Annual physical to include pulse, auscultation with stethoscope and ECG as needed

DERMATOLOGIC

Something in a pugs genetic makeup causes alopecia (hair loss), atopy (inhalant allergy), demodex (skin mites), to be more common and their excessive skin folds (which make them so darn cute!) also makes skin-fold dermatitis more common.

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Have suspicious lesions diagnosed for mites
2) Consider daily anti-inflammatory doses of EPA fish oils
3) Consider use of preventative gels & wipes in skin folds
4) Inhalant Allergy testing (blood test)
5) Maintain Ideal Weight

ENDOCRINE/METABOLIC

Heat stroke is more common in pugs and needs to be avoided

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Maintain ideal weight
2) Follow safe exercise guidelines
3) Consider palate resection (if severely affected)

MUSCULOSKELETAL

Legg-Calve-Perthes disease; patellar luxation are both more common in pugs

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) X rays of hips & knees to establish a baseline
2) Consider evidence based joint supplements & daily anti-inflammatory levels of EPA (fish oil)
3) Maintain Ideal Weight

NEOPLASTIC (Cancer)

Mast cell tumors (MCT), oral melanoma are both more common in pugs than most breeds

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Have all masses aspirated and aggressively removed as indicated by aspiration
2) Consider anti-inflammatory doses of EPA as possible partial protection (No solid evidence yet but EPA has been shown to be anti-cancer with other types of cancer)
3) Vaccination is now available now to treat Grade 3 MCT

NEUROLOGIC

Hemi-vertebrae (fused vertebrae) is rare but does occur

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) X-ray spine w/ spay/neuter
2) Maintain Ideal Weight

OPTHALMIC

What endears us to a breed also sometimes causes them to be “high maintenance” in terms of health/medical. Thus it is with the beautiful big eyes of a pug! They are what we call a bupthalmic breed (eyes protrude) which is related to the previously mentioned brachycephalic or shortened jaw. The following are common eye problems in pugs Cataracts, corneal ulcers, distichiasis (abnormal eyelid lashes); Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca (KCS or dry eye) proptosis (eyes out of socket) are all issues we need to contend with.

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Fundic (internal eye) exam & Tear function test as part of wellness exams
2) Anti-inflammatory levels of EPA (has been shown helpful to treat KCS in people)
3) Use harness and gentle restraint at all times
4) Referral to board certified veterinary ophthalmologist as needed

RESPIRATORY

Respiratory dysplasia (elongated soft palate)

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Maintain Ideal Weight
2) Consider palate resection at time of spay or neuter

UROGENITAL

Dystocia (difficult births)

What can be done for early detection/prevention?

1) Maintain Ideal Weight

Again far from trying to scare anyone about all that is “out there” that can affect all the dear pugs, (or any breed) just knowing what can happen, what to look for and taking preventative steps is key.

From my perspective/count by maintaining ideal weight we can help prevent or mitigate to some degree more than half of the listed conditions. If pugs follow the studies done in Labradors they will live an average of 15% longer just by keeping them their ideal weight.

Our Ideal Weight Facebook Group has lots of fun ways to help and great links & resources too!

It will be interesting to see as we move on to the most common breeds we see how many of their health conditions can be similarly controlled by weight management.
If there are over 200 recognized breeds then this is one down 199 to go (anyone see the movie Julie & Julia? (-: ...

Not going to happen (esp in a calendar year from me I can tell you that, but maybe Dr Nan & others may want to address that (-;

The basic preventative concepts overlap greatly form breed to breed especially with regards to ideal weight & supplements so stay tuned on that theme here!

Look forward to seeing you perhaps at Pugfest!

Dr Ken