Kai Ken Health, Transparency, and Breeding
To put it simply, Kai Ken are not what I would describe as a ‘healthy’ breed. There are a lot of issues in the breed that unfortunately we don’t fully understand or can't find the root of because of lack of testing. It is a hard topic to navigate, but hopefully I can shed some light onto this issue for those interested in Kai Ken.
Issues like Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia, Luxating Patellas, Seizures, Cardiac issues, etc, are polygenetic. This means there is more than one (1) gene that causes these issues, as well as some environmental factors. The genes that causes these issues are not yet known (there is no DNA test for them). Here at Hayaikaze we have our dog’s hips and elbows evaluated by 3 certified Orthopedic Veterinarians (OFA - Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) to make sure that the parent dogs do not have these issues. Unfortunately, this is not always enough. In many breeds like German Shepherds, Labradors, etc, that have many dedicated and responsible breeders, their pedigrees are full of health testing, some going back to the 1960’s! This generational information just does not exist in Kai Ken, which is why it is a risk to import dogs as you do not know their health or the health of their ‘lines’.
Issues like Hip Dysplasia, Elbow Dysplasia, Luxating Patellas, Seizures, Cardiac issues, etc, are polygenetic. This means there is more than one (1) gene that causes these issues, as well as some environmental factors. The genes that causes these issues are not yet known (there is no DNA test for them). Here at Hayaikaze we have our dog’s hips and elbows evaluated by 3 certified Orthopedic Veterinarians (OFA - Orthopedic Foundation for Animals) to make sure that the parent dogs do not have these issues. Unfortunately, this is not always enough. In many breeds like German Shepherds, Labradors, etc, that have many dedicated and responsible breeders, their pedigrees are full of health testing, some going back to the 1960’s! This generational information just does not exist in Kai Ken, which is why it is a risk to import dogs as you do not know their health or the health of their ‘lines’.
In my opinion, while health testing can be quite expensive, it is my duty as a breeder to stack all the odds in my favor when breeding my dogs to ensure I produce healthy puppies. I will never breed a non-health tested dog. My heart would break for my puppies and puppy owners if they inherited something completely avoidable via testing. At the same time it is a very real possibility that something unknown (that I can't test for), or that I don't even know exists, can affect puppies I produce which is extremely unfortunate and is why being a breeder is tough. My responsibilities as a breeder consists of tracking many Kai Ken's health issues, ones that are unrelated to mine or that I don't even know and can be an ocean away, to try and be as educated as I possibly can about the breed so that I make good breeding decisions.
Our goal is NOT to breed puppies. That is why there is such a long time between litters (2016, 2018, 2020, etc). My #1 priority is the physical and mental well being of my dogs. They are more than a uterus and puppy machine.
Our goal IS to meaningfully add genetic diversity to the Kai Ken population, via health tested and temperament proven dogs. Puppies are a by-product of this. While we occasionally have puppies available for pet homes, the majority of our puppies are placed in preservation homes that are interested in keeping their dogs intact and that wish to showcase the breed in venues ( shows, sports, meet the breeds education booths, etc).
As stated prior, ideally generational information would be available for our breeding dogs. Unfortunately this isn’t the case as many breeders do not health test in the United States, so it is impossible for me to obtain health testing on Tavi’s sire & dam, for example.
Now to the hard stuff..
In May 2020, I had Kurisu’s preliminary health tests done and her hips were evaluated as ‘mildly dysplasic’. I was shocked and upset when I first received the evaluation, as I had posted them publicly to Orthopedic groups on Facebook, etc, and was told we would pass no problem. Though the reality is that even though both of her parents passed the test, it doesn’t guarantee that she would pass the test, and this goes for any of the tests I listed. They can all skip generations, etc. I have had friends and breeders alike comfort me that preliminary tests aren’t final grades and that they tend to be graded harshly, that it is quite common for dogs to score 2 grades better on final evaluations than prelims.
It is also important to remember that this is a rare breed. Kurisu (so far) is perfect in every other way, perfect temperament, perfect structure, and she is just such a joy. Her preliminary rating does affect my future plans with her. However, her being bred was never a requirement or condition for me. Of course it is something I would like, but if ultimately she would be better off not being bred then I can accept that and move on. She doesn’t have to have puppies, she can still be an amazing breed ambassador and companion. That's what she is 365 days of the year already!
BUT, we also have not given up. Something to keep in mind-- in many FCI European countries, to be a registered breeder and register your puppies you have to health test. There are 38 Kai Ken health tested in the Finnish database (KoiraNet) right now over the past 10 years, with 40% of them scoring C hips (borderline-mild) or lower (you can read on the Kennelliitto website about their hip ratings, here is OFA's international chart). So I would say that her results aren’t uncommon in the breed. There is a higher than 1 in 3 chance of Kai Ken having C or lower graded hips. A dog not testing 'good' is not a death sentence for their potential-- it is something we do so we can ensure we stack all odds in our favor. I will be more critical of the males I breed Kurisu to, their hip scores, and their current progeny's hip scores.
This is why I think it is important for everyone interested in Kai Ken to know. Yes, it's embarrassing that one of my own puppies produced didn’t pass her health testing. And yes, it feels extremely ‘weird’ in my mind to still think about possibly breeding her in the future. BUT I want to be completely transparent about my beliefs, experiences, and most importantly my dog’s health.
I will be redoing Kurisu’s testing once she is 2 years old. In addition to doing final OFAs on her, I will also be doing Pennhip on her and Tavi. Pennhip is another hip scoring system, it measures the passive hip laxity (what they call DI or Distraction Index). Pennhip ratings are based on three (3) x-rays to measure hip laxity and check for the presence of osteoarthritis. There currently aren’t any Kai Ken in the Pennhip database so we are also pretty excited to be the first to do this and set another standard for Kai Ken (which is why I’m doing Tavi’s as well, even though she has passed her hip testing, the more information the better!).
We will also be health testing Kurisu’s littermates (you can see this cool chart I added to the bottom of our Litters page to publicly track the health of puppies we've produced). As I mentioned, hips are polygenetic and having generational information is extremely important. If Kurisu is the only one of the litter that has mild dysplasia, I feel a lot more comfortable breeding her knowing that she is an outlier.
Another thing I want to point out-- there are different ‘types’ of hip dysplasia. On this paper you can see they only rated her right hip (unilateral pathology) dysplasic and it is because of subluxation. Subluxation is joint laxity. Kurisu was sedated for her hip testing, meaning all the muscles in her hips were chemically relaxed. When the muscles are relaxed her right hip came out of the socket a bit since her muscles aren’t holding it in for her. Her acetabula (hip sockets) aren’t shallow, there's no osteoarthritis or degenerative joint disease, no remodeling of the bones, etc. Considering all of this, I believe she has a very good prognosis, coupled with the fact that she doesn’t have any clinical signs. I have not made any hard decisions yet, and she won’t be bred until she is at least 3 years old, so we have plenty of time to decide what our plans are moving forward.
Even if her hips come back with a passing grade when we redo them, I will be keeping her preliminary results posted to our website as OFA ‘rewrites’ prelims with the final grade. I want our puppy owners and potential puppy owners to be fully aware that there is complete transparency on our end about our dog’s health. Our #1 priority is the health of our dogs and the puppies we produce. Hiding health testing results (or not doing health testing) does not help or advance the breed. Please double check that your breeder is doing appropriate and adequate testing and request proof. You can search for health testing on the OFA website by using their Advanced Search feature, which allows you to sort health testing by breed. Find your breeder's dog's name and click it to see what health tests they have completed. Links to our dog’s OFA tests are on their pages so you can see their results, as well as x-rays and certificates being posted in their respective photo sections. Thank you for reading!
Even if her hips come back with a passing grade when we redo them, I will be keeping her preliminary results posted to our website as OFA ‘rewrites’ prelims with the final grade. I want our puppy owners and potential puppy owners to be fully aware that there is complete transparency on our end about our dog’s health. Our #1 priority is the health of our dogs and the puppies we produce. Hiding health testing results (or not doing health testing) does not help or advance the breed. Please double check that your breeder is doing appropriate and adequate testing and request proof. You can search for health testing on the OFA website by using their Advanced Search feature, which allows you to sort health testing by breed. Find your breeder's dog's name and click it to see what health tests they have completed. Links to our dog’s OFA tests are on their pages so you can see their results, as well as x-rays and certificates being posted in their respective photo sections. Thank you for reading!
UPDATE 10/26/2020
Hello friends! I have some good news. On 9/15/2020 we took Kurisu in to have Pennhip and also OFA hips done again. I just received her certificate and she passed with her hips rating Good! There is both relief, and a bit of confusion on my end as I try to navigate how I will continue my breeding plans. As it was explained to me, hips change over time. A friend of mine showed how their dog's hips looked relatively normal at 12 months old, but at 24 months old there was remodeling and osteroarthritis present. This is one of the reasons preliminary hips tend to be graded more harsh, as they're not certain which way the pendulum will swing. But as I did more reading on the research Pennhip has done regarding hip dysplasia onset, it became apparent to me that even though Kurisu has passed now-- it doesn't mean her hips will still be good in 4 years (this goes for all dogs, not just Kurisu). So for the continued health of the breed, my dogs, and puppies I produce, I'm going to continue testing my dogs multiple times throughout their lives. It is moments like these that I'm grateful for breeding Tavi to older males that had their hips done later in life-- as now I'm not sure I'd trust the ratings that were done on a young dog that is now old. OFA doesn't recommend that hips be done yearly (and I agree, yearly is a bit overkill for hips, but is recommended for heart & eyes), I do think they should be done every 3-5 years, though, and that is our plan.
Tavi had her first set of hip x-rays done 4/19/2016 and just had them redone on 9/15/2020. While I didn't send them in to OFA, we did send them in to Pennhip who also checks for OA (osteoarthritis) and she came back clear! As well as hip scores of 0.36/0.39, which puts her hips at better than 55% of dogs (mean for 55% of dogs is 0.48, lower is better). There are not enough Kai Ken in the database for them to be scored among themselves, but to put it into perspective she also scored better than 75% of Akita tested (75% mean is 0.44) and 75% of Shiba tested (75% mean is 0.41). Kurisu's hips did come back with a slightly higher number at 0.42/0.40, still better than 75% of Akita and pretty darn close to 75% for Shiba. Overall I'm really happy and can't wait to test Bakugo!
You can read more about how they compare and the pros/cons of OFA & Pennhip on this informative post by exposing.bad.breeders on Instagram.
Tavi had her first set of hip x-rays done 4/19/2016 and just had them redone on 9/15/2020. While I didn't send them in to OFA, we did send them in to Pennhip who also checks for OA (osteoarthritis) and she came back clear! As well as hip scores of 0.36/0.39, which puts her hips at better than 55% of dogs (mean for 55% of dogs is 0.48, lower is better). There are not enough Kai Ken in the database for them to be scored among themselves, but to put it into perspective she also scored better than 75% of Akita tested (75% mean is 0.44) and 75% of Shiba tested (75% mean is 0.41). Kurisu's hips did come back with a slightly higher number at 0.42/0.40, still better than 75% of Akita and pretty darn close to 75% for Shiba. Overall I'm really happy and can't wait to test Bakugo!
You can read more about how they compare and the pros/cons of OFA & Pennhip on this informative post by exposing.bad.breeders on Instagram.
So what does this mean going forward? We are still planning to test Kurisu's & Bakugo's littermates to get a complete picture and as much vertical and horizontal pedigree information as we can! I also plan to retest Tavi's hips again in 3-4 years (she just turned 7 now), and most likely Kurisu's hips prior to being bred in 2022. I'm still continuing to do as much research as I can. At the moment between all of the studies I have read, I do not believe that environment causes hip dysplasia, but the environment does play a role in dogs that are genetically susceptible (i.e. outside of injury, a dog must be genetically prone to develop hip dysplaysia and onset can be delayed through management).
"Although increased body weight does not cause canine hip dysplasia, it plays an instrumental role in the manifestation of the disease phenotype in dogs having genetic susceptibility for the disease. In a life span study following 48 Labrador Retrievers, it was reported that heavier dogs developed radiographic osteoarthritis on average 6 years earlier than their thinner littermates." (Smith, GK, Paster, ER, Powers, MY, et al.: Lifelong diet restriction and radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis of the hip joint in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 229, 2006, 690.)
"Although increased body weight does not cause canine hip dysplasia, it plays an instrumental role in the manifestation of the disease phenotype in dogs having genetic susceptibility for the disease. In a life span study following 48 Labrador Retrievers, it was reported that heavier dogs developed radiographic osteoarthritis on average 6 years earlier than their thinner littermates." (Smith, GK, Paster, ER, Powers, MY, et al.: Lifelong diet restriction and radiographic evidence of osteoarthritis of the hip joint in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 229, 2006, 690.)
We can also use this image to see the age of OA onset. Notice how very few dogs from the study were diagnosed with OA at 2 & 3 years old? And there is an increase at 6 & 8+ years old ? This is one of the reasons I believe hips need to continuously be tested throughout their lives. This isn't to say a breeder is terrible to have bred a dog that passed at 3 but failed at 8-- they likely had no way of knowing and unfortunately it becomes quite risky to breed bitches over 7 years old. But at least they did retest and could share that new information with puppy owners so the puppy owners can be sure to be diligent and not let their pups get overweight and start hip supplements early to try and preserve the cartilage of the joints. This is also another reason why we should breed to older stud dogs if we can, as time is the greatest health test of all. Tavi's sire was 3 when she was born-- and while I'm very grateful to have her, it is also scary that he died when he was 7 (half the proclaimed life expectancy of the breed) and she is now 7 as well. Shes always been very healthy but it is still a big worry of mine as a breeder of what might be passed on, even things we don't quite know or understand. We are committed to the ongoing health of our dogs, puppies, and the breed. To do so we will always be transparent about the health of all Kai Ken.